The Hanklit Gaciotectonic Thrust Fault Complex, Mors, Denmark

Abstract

The Hanklit cliff section is a classical glaciotectonic locality where an excellent cross-section through a thrust fault complex is exposed. The thrust imbrications were thrust from north to the south during a Late Weichselian glacier advance. Three thrust sheets with thickness of more than 50 m are involved in the thrust fault complex. The deposits exposed in the cliff-section comprise ca. 39 m diatomite with ash layers of Paleocene-Eocene age (the Fur Formation), overlain by up to 27 m of Quaternary glacigenic sediments. Common structural features related to compressional thrust fault helts, are recognizable in the glaciotectonic complex, which shows a lateral shortening of more than 40%. Structures created by soft sedimentary deformation due to high water pressure occur in relation to the thrust fault zones. The structural framework is described with the terminology of thin-skinned tectonics and flats, ramps and hanging-wall anticlines are identified in the cliff-section. A balanced cross section has been constructed. Based on this construction the structural model is verified and the glaciotectonic development is interpreted. A geoelectrical investigation has been made to support the construction of the 3-dimensional framework of the thrust complex. This demonstrates that the impressive Hanklit thrust sheet extends for more than 1 km along the strike and is displaced more than 200 m to the south. Superimposed extentional structures, situated above the sole of the Hanklit Thrust Sheet, are interpreted to be related to Tertiary subsidence tectonics.