THE ORIGIN OF SEDIMENTARY BASINS - A STATUS-REPORT FROM THE TASK-FORCE OF THE INTERNATIONAL LITHOSPHERE PROGRAM

Better insights into the mechanisms of basin formation have a direct bearing on the predictive power of forward models for basin fill. Models that link flexure, normal faulting and thrusting on a subbasin scale provide important constraints on the tectonic control of the sedimentary record, enabling a quantitative comparsion with eustatic contributions to the basin architecture. Thus of special importance is the need to link processes with different spatial and temporal scales involved in the evolution of extensional and compressional basins by numerical modelling. A new generation of basin modelling concepts and techniques is one of the main objectives of the Task Force Origin of Sedimentary Basins of the International Lithosphere Program. The focus of this work is on the quantification of the effects of the thermomechanical structure of the lithosphere and its interplay with regional and local stress changes. Other important developments include the step towards three-dimensional modelling and the full integration of rapidly expanding fission track and other data sets to constrain vertical motions in basins. As natural laboratories for the interactive testing and development of new basin modelling techniques, a number of basins with high quality data from industry, government and academia have been selected on the basis of specific testable problems.