Reconstruction of Thrust-Wedge Taper in the Wyoming-Utah Sevier Thrust Belt

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9316700 DeCelles Critical-wedge models provide useful generalization of the gross geometry of fold-thrust belts and accretionary wedges, as well as specific predictions for their internal kinematic development and rheologic behavior. However, comparison of critical-wedge models to geologic examples has been limited to static analysis of modern accretionary wedges and fold-thrust belts and with only partial success in ancient foreland fold-thrust belts. Present models remain largely untested in four area: wedge shape through time, internal wedge structure, effect of erosion and foreland basin subsidence, and link between material properties and the discrete internal structures such as foreland-younging fold-thrusts. This project will address these issues by focusing on quantitative incremental retrodeformation of wedge shape and internal thrust geometry for a 36 million year period of hinterland basement uplift and foreland thin-skinned thrust slip in the well-known Wyoming-Utah Sevier Thrust Belt. Results are expected to test several important correlaries of the critical-wedge theory, as well as help resolve regional questions concerning the geometric and kinematic relationships between faults in this thrust belt.