Introduction -
Interactions between upper lithosphere deformation, as manifested in the structure and evolution
of sedimentary basins, and lower lithospheric deformation presumably reflect large-scale regional
or global tectonic events. We review the current state of knowledge regarding these interactions
and suggest areas of research which may lead to an improvement in this knowledge. Understanding
the development of sedimentary basisn requires insight into the processes responsible both for
basin subsidence and also for distribution and preservation of sediment within the basins. Whilst
some classes of basins are better understood than others there remain significant gaps both in our
ability to account for available data and also in the data available to test current models and
develop new ones. Subsidence in some classes of basins can be related to lithospheric scale processes
occurring as paert of the overall plate tectonic paradigm. For example, it is widely accepted that
passive margin basins subside as a result of lithospheric extension (McKenzie 1978) and that
foreland basins are flexural consequences of collission between a continent and outboard terranes
(Beaumont 1981). On the other hand, models for the origin of intracratonic, fore-arc and transtentional
basins are essentially still at cartoon level involving processes that are difficult to quantify and
evaluate. In the following we review a number of fundamental questions of vital interest for
understanding the relationship between deeper lithospheric processes and near-surface tectonics.
Tectonophysics 226, 217-225,
1993.