Pull-apart basin

A tectonic depression formed where strike-slip faults move apart, commonly at a releasing bend or step-over. Its subsiding floor may accumulate thick sediment.

Strike-slip fault: A fault on which the blocks on either side move mainly horizontally past one another. Pull-apart basins form along strike-slip systems when their geometry creates local extension.
Strike-slip tectonics: Tectonic deformation dominated by horizontal displacement along near-vertical faults. Pull-apart basins are localized features within strike-slip tectonic systems.
Dead Sea Transform: A major left-lateral strike-slip fault system between the Arabian and African plates. Its releasing segments host a chain of prominent pull-apart depressions.
Earthquake: A sudden release of energy caused by slip on a fault, producing seismic waves. Active faults around pull-apart basins can generate damaging earthquakes.
Releasing bend: A curved segment of a strike-slip fault that produces extension as the fault slips. A releasing bend can create the space that subsides into a basin.
Half-graben: An elongated basin bounded chiefly by a major normal fault on one side. Its asymmetric fault control differs from the paired strike-slip offsets that commonly bound pull-apart basins.
Dead Sea basin: A deep tectonic depression along the Dead Sea Transform, occupied by the Dead Sea and surrounding lowlands. It is a well-studied example of a pull-apart basin along a continental transform.
Seismic reflection: A geophysical method that images underground structures from reflected seismic waves. Reflection profiles reveal basin depth, fault geometry, and buried sediment layers.
Step-over: A lateral offset between neighboring fault segments. A releasing step-over separates fault segments while allowing extension between them.
Basin and range topography: Alternating mountain ranges and sediment-filled basins produced by crustal extension. Both involve subsidence, but regional normal faulting rather than strike-slip step-overs forms this landscape.

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Forearc basinCompared with: Its fault geometry, rather than a trench–arc position, defines the basin.