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Mesoscale Fractures as Palaeostress Indicators: A Case Study from Cauvery Basin
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This paper presents the results of field studies, and palaeostress analyses of the mesoscale fractures and veins in Cauvery basin. It shows that different sedimentary sequences (119-64 Ma) are cut by tensile structures that belong to two successive phases of post-Palaeocene brittle tectonics (I) an early phase during which bedding parallel fractures and veins were developed due to horizontally directed maximum compression and vertical extension, and (II) a late phase of hydraulic fracturing in a tectonic regime of vertically directed maximum compression. Dynamic analyses imply triaxial and axial compression deviatoric states of palaeostress during first and second phases of fracturing, respectively. Very high pore-fluid pressure and low differential stress, during the second phase of fracturing, resulted into hydraulic brecciation as a consequence of simultaneous extension in different orientations. We suggest that the development of the mesoscale extensional (mode I) fractures in Cauvery basin is due to reactivation of large-Scale normal faults in the basement rocks.
Keywords
Extensional Fracturing, Hydraulic Fracturing, Pore-Fluid Pressure, Cauvery Basin, Tamil Nadu.
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