Resumo
Reconstructing the kinematic evolution, and understanding the mechanical processes of orogeniccurvature are two long standing questions within the structural geology and tectonics community.At the roots of these questions are when and how orogens acquire curvature relative to their protracteddeformation histories. A complete kinematic model for orogenic systems is described by thetemporal evolution of its three-dimensional displacement field, comprised of bulk translation, horizontal-and vertical-axis rotations, and internal strain. The best way to quantify vertical-axis rotation isthrough paleomagnetic analysis done at appropriate scales. Paleomagnetic studies provide a key datasetfor testing kinematic models that predict different spatial and temporal distributions of rotations relatedto orogenic curvature. For a model to be valid, however, it must agree with strain and structuraldata, and when integrated can illuminate the mechanisms responsible for orogenic curvature and critical-wedge dynamics. To highlight this point, a case study from the Wyoming salient in the Sevier foldthrustbelt is presented. This study incorporates paleomagnetic, anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility,strain and mesoscopic structure data to develop models for orogenic evolution.
