Paleostress stratigraphy: a new technique for analyzing tectonic control on sedimentary-basin subsidence

Focuses on the orientation of minor structures, particularly striated fault surfaces, in the strata of sedimentary basins. These structures are interpreted to be the response to local or regional stress fields controlling subsidence of tectonically active basins. A method is used that allows multiple stress tensors to be extracted from a fault population. Examines the relatively undeformed Paleogene Central Basin of Spitsbergen and its underlying Cretaceous strata. Defines five major paleostress tensors coeval with the earliest stages of the opening of the Norwegian-Greenland Sea. -from Authors