Kinematic analysis of a left step over along the dextral Kallar Kahar Fault, Salt Range, Pakistan.

The Kallar Kahar area falls in the sub-Himalayas. The structural geometry of the area has been assessed using geological mapping and structural analysis. At the surface the study area comprises of the rock units ranging in age from Precambrian to Pliocene with several major unconformities. The Precambrian Salt Range Formation is exposed in the form of diapiric intrusions. The strike slip Kallar Kahar Fault (KKF) controls the structural fabric of the area. It is a NW-SE trending structure characterized by an overall transpressional tectonics with a right lateral strike slip component. An en echelon pattern of NW-SE trending folds, a back thrust and a couple of fore thrusts occurs in the immediate south of the Kallar Kahar Lake. These thrusts are out of sequence thrusts cutting up section the thrust sheet of the Salt Range Thrust (SRT). The fore-thrusts represents a relatively younger phase of deformation than the back thrust as the former cross cut the later one. These folds and faults formed as a result of transpression associated with a left step over along the KKF. The rigorous compressional structures in the southeastern portion of the mapped area, and a clear discontinuity on the Landsat images are in line with the presence of a left step over along the KKF. The restraining along this stepover during ramping along the SRT, resulted in salt diapirism in the area. The KKF is believed to have formed to accommodate the variable stresses generated during the differential propagation of the SRT’s thrust sheet.