Basins:

Sedimentary basins are regions of the earth of long-term subsidence creating accommodation
space for infilling by sediments. The subsidence results from the thinning of underlying crust,
sedimentary, volcanic, and tectonic loading, and changes in the thickness or density of adjacent
lithosphere. Subsidence is the motion of the Earth's surface as it shifts downward relative to a
datum such as sea-level.

Basin Classification:
We may divide sedimentary basins into three main types, depending on their plate tectonic
setting. Rift-type basins form at extensional plate boundaries, for example, at continental
margins. Foreland-type basins form at compressional plate boundaries in front of migrating fold
and thrust belts. The third type of basin forms in strike-slip fault settings.

- Rift-type Basins:
1. Continental Rift Basin: The down-dropped basin formed during rifting because of
stretching and thinning of the continental crust. Rifting is the process by which the
continental lithosphere stretches. A Continental rift is the belt or zone of the continental
lithosphere where the extensional deformation (rifting) is occurring. These zones have
important consequences and geological features, and if the rifting is successful, lead to
the formation of new ocean basins.

Characteristics of Continental Rift Basins:

Horst: A horst is the raised fault block bounded by normal faults or graben. A horst is a
raised block of the Earth's crust that has lifted, or has remained stationary, while the land
on either side has subsided.
Graben: a graben is a block that has dropped due to the faulting.
Faults are usually listric faults, i.e.; curved bounding normal faults. Depositions are
mainly of Clastic sediments and carbonates. Such basins are good potential sites for
petroleum.

2. Passive continental margin Basin: When rifting is successful, the new ocean

basin gets wider and wider. New ocean floor is generated at the diverging boundary, and
the edges of the now-split continents get farther apart. The now fully-developed mid
ocean ridge is the site of hot new ocean floor, and so it floats high on the aesthenosphere
beneath. But the continents get cooler as they move away from the mid ocean ridge, and
they subside. The ocean rises over the edges of the continent, creating the passive
margins. They are called passive because they are not near a plate boundary, and there is
very little geologic activity there - no volcanoes, no earthquakes. Because the passive
margin is not near active mountain building with a lot of active erosion, a thick
accumulation of sediments is obtained.
Subsidence: Initial subsidence is caused by thinning and stretching of the continental
crust. As rifting progresses continents move far away from the hot mid oceanic ridge and
cool down. Then further subsidence due to gravity takes place on the transitional crust
due to the weight of the overlying sediments.

Foreland Basin: A foreland basin is a structural basin that develops adjacent and
parallel to a mountain belt. Foreland basins form because the immense mass created by crustal
thickening associated with the evolution of a mountain belt causes the lithosphere to bend, by a
process known as lithospheric flexure.
Origin of subsidence: as the mountain belt grows, it exerts a significant mass on the Earths
crust, which causes it to bend, or flex, downwards. This occurs so that the weight of the
mountain belt can be compensated by isostasy at the upflex of the forebulge. The temperature
underneath the orogen is much higher and weakens the lithosphere. Thus, the thrust belt is
mobile and the foreland basin system becomes deformed over time.

Characteristics of foreland Basin: The width and depth of the foreland basin is
determined by the flexural rigidity of the underlying lithosphere, and the characteristics of the
mountain belt. The foreland basin receives sediment that is eroded off the adjacent mountain
belt, filling with thick sedimentary successions that thin away from the mountain belt. Foreland
basins represent an endmember basin type, the other being rift basins. Space for sediments,

accommodation space, is provided by loading and downflexure to form foreland basins, in

contrast to rift basins, where accommodation space is generated by lithospheric extension.
Sediments are Clastic and carbonates. Such basins often include traps like anticline folds and
faults. High HC potential.

Pull Apart Basins: Pull-apart basins have short-lived subsidence that forms from
transtensional strike-slip faults. Moderate strike-slip faults create extensional releasing bends and
opposing walls pull apart from each other. Normal faults occur, inducing small scale subsidence
in the area, which ceases once the fault stops propagating. Cooling occurs after the fault fails to
propagate further following the crustal thinning via normal faulting.

Intracratonic Basins( or sag basins):

In the modern world, most of the ocean water is in the ocean basins. There are very few places
where sea water sits on continental material. In the past, virtually the entire North American
continent has been underwater. Sometimes these vast continental seas have been very shallow,
resulting in beach-like deposits over huge areas. When there were extensive regions of the
continent above water, the erosion of these areas shed clastic sediments into the continental sea,
resulting in large sheets of sandstones and shales. When there was less continent above water to
erode, the deposits in these shallow seas were carbonates. In general, intracratonic deposits are
much like those of passive margins - sometimes detrital, sometimes carbonate - but they don't
include the deep water facies of the passive margin.

Types of Sedimentary Basins:

Principally, tectonic movements and sedimentary processes can interact in two different ways.
These are used to distinguish between different types of sedimentary basins.

Post-depositional basins: The deposition of sediments largely predates tectonic

movements forming a basin structure. Hence, there is no or little relationship between the
transport, distribution, and facies of these sediments and the later evolved basin structure.

Syn-depositional basins: Sediment accumulation is affected by syndepositional

tectonic movements, e.g., differential subsidence. If the sedimentation rate is always high enough
to compensate for subsidence, the direction of transport and the sedimentary facies remain
unchanged, but the thickness of the sediment in certain time slices varies. If the sediment
thickness increases toward the center of the basin, the basin structure is syndepositional.

Features of Sedimentary basins:

Depocenter:
The site of maximum deposition within a sedimentary basin, where the thickest development of
the sedimentary sequence will be found.

Basin Axis:
An imaginary line representing lowest point on the basement surface of the basin.

Topographic axis:
An imaginary line representing the lowest point on the depositional surface of the basin.