William Chandonia, a Ph.D. candidate, and member of “The Structure and Geomechanics Task Force”, has become our resident expert for The Move_® suite. The Move_® suite is one of the most powerful and complete software packages for analysis and modeling of complex geologic structures. The ten different software toolkits that comprise the Move_® suite allow for 2D and 3D kinematic modeling of geologic structures, including Geomechanical Modelling, Fracture Modelling, Stress Analysis, Fault Analysis, and Fault Response Modelling. In addition, communication packages that allow Move_® to work with Petrel, Open works, and Link GST are also being provided and may be used in course work in Petroleum Geology.

William recently submitted for review “The Kanarra fold-thrust system: The leading edge of the Sevier fold-and-thrust belt, south western Utah” to the Geology of the Intermountain West a peer-reviewed journal that provides a venue for publication of large plates such as geologic maps and geologic cross-sections. This manuscript details the results of our investigation of the evolution of leading-edge structures in fold and thrust belts. William made extensive use of Move® to construct professional quality geologic maps and several complicated structural cross sections. The area of Williams research is well-known to many alumni from their adventures at “field camp” in Cedar City, Utah, and includes the infamous march up the “Red Rock Trail” near Kanarraville, Utah, as well as the iconic “Red Hill” adjacent to Cedar City. Included below are selected figures from his manuscript. William examines the role of fold accommodation faults in the development of the leading-edge fold and thrust belt. Flank thrusts are a class of under-recognized fold accommodation faults that are important in fold growth and form hydrocarbon traps. William presented his findings from forward modeling and detailed cross sections constructed in Move® at GSA meetings in (Chandonia et al., 2019). His work indicates that where flank thrusts are present, they are integral components in leading edge processes such as "fold breakthrough", ramp formation, and the initiation of triangle zones. Understanding the role of flank thrusts in these processes is necessary for accurately predicting the location and geometry of thrust fault-related hydrocarbon traps. The algorithms and cross section construction capabilities the Move® software provides were essential for this work.

Figure 3. Geologic map of the Kanarra fold-thrust system (1:15000-scale) based on across- and along-strike field mapping between Camp Creek and Murie Creek, from the Hurricane fault scarp to the Carmel formation along the Markagunt Plateau. See Figure 12 for field stop locations highlighted in this study. Contacts mapped in the field are further constrained using a combination of Google Earth, LIDAR data, previous mapping, and Rick Allmendinger's GMDE program (Averitt 1962; Averitt, 1967; Biek and Hayden, 2016; Allmendinger, 2020). Structure abbreviations: SCT—Spring Creek thrust; KCT—Kanarra Creek thrust; HCT—Hicks Creek thrust; TCT—Taylor Creek thrust; RRTT—Red Rock Trail thrust. Contacts on the plateau, north of Murie creek, and beyond Wayne Canyon are after Averitt (1962) and Biek and Hayden (2016). Orientation measurements referenced from previous mappers are labelled in white. Landscape feature labels, boundaries, and streams are from the USGS National Map vector GIS datasets for Iron and Washington counties. The DEM visualization is generated from LIDAR elevation data for southern Utah collected by the Utah Geospatial Resource Center and Utah Division of Emergency Management in 2020.

Figure 33. Enlargement of the cross section of the Kanarra fold-thrust system at Kanarra Creek. Early formed thrusts (fold accommodation faults) which were overturned at later stages of Kanarra fold development are colored in red. Here, the late-forming thrusts have formed a dextral shear zone across the fold limb, dissecting earlier flank thrusts. Folding along the Taylor Creek thrust was inferred by extra area in the leading syncline. Displacement along the Red Rock Trail thrust is estimated here to be approximately 250 meters. Sinistral flexural slip within the syncline core which may be responsible for the structural relationships at Kanarra Creek (figure 30B) is represented by the dashed, queried detachment beneath the Navajo. All abbreviations on figure 10.

Figure 36. A) Google Earth 3D terrain view with Landsat/Copernicus imagery looking northeast onto the east limb of the Kanarra fold-thrust system at the Red Hill adjacent Cedar City. Early fold accommodation faults which were later folded and cut along the CCTS are colored in red. This view is approximately along-strike to the late, northwest-vergent set of Coal Creek thrusts, showing their gentle-moderate dips (e.g., right midground). Contacts from unpublished field and GMDE mapping by the authors, and Knudsen (2014a). B) Partial large-scale blowup of the cross section drawn in Move™ of the Kanarra fold-thrust system at the Red Hill. The chosen section line position is the same as Knudsen (2014a).