SPECIAL SECTION: M e d i t e r r a n e a n r e g i o n

Structural analogy between the “piano key faults” of deep-water

Lebanon and the extensional faults of the Canyonlands grabens,
Utah, United States
WALTER KOSI and GABOR TARI, OMV, Vienna
FADI H. NADER, Lebanon Ministry of Energy and Water
CECILIE SKIPLE, PGS
BRUCE TRUDGILL, Colorado School of Mines
DANA LAZAR, PETROM

T he Levant Basin is a deep-water basin in the eastern

Mediterranean region. A large part of the basin contains
a characteristic set of closely spaced normal faults, informally
called the “piano key faults.” These normal faults trending
NW-SE have a fairly high-frequency map-view spacing of
approximately 3–4 km on average and tens to hundreds of
meters of interpreted throw. A large part of the pre-Messinian
sedimentary strata is faulted, including the entire Miocene-
to-Oligocene sequence. At depth, all the faults consistently
die out at the same intra-Eocene detachment level. This
stratigraphic level is interpreted to have a regionally developed
shale sequence acting as the basal detachment surface for the
piano key faults. The amount of throw on the individual faults
appears to decrease toward the basin margin and the faults
do not extend into the adjacent basins of the broader eastern
Mediterranean area.
Recently acquired nonexclusive 2D and 3D seismic reflec-
tion data sets provide a detailed structural picture of the piano
key faults. The mapping of the faults at several key stratigraph-
ic horizons reveals complex patterns of normal fault segment
growth and linkage across the entire area. One natural labora-
tory for the observed complex normal fault lateral displace-
ment variations and lateral tip geometries can be found in Figure 1. (a) Bathymetry of the broader study area and location map
for the Levant Basin. The 3D surveys offshore Lebanon acquired by
the Canyonlands grabens area of Utah, in the western United PGS are highlighted in yellow. The “piano key faults”, which are
States. The structural analogy seen between the normal fault shown in this overview map only schematically, have a consistent
patterns in offshore Lebanon and onshore Utah can be used NW-SE strike and are concentrated in the basin center, mostly in
to better understand the structural complexity of the fault sys- Lebanese waters. Note that only the perimeter of the deep-water
tems when interpreting regional 2D versus 3D seismic data. basin is covered by 3D seismic data to date. (b) Seismic cross section
through the Levant Basin from the Levant Margin in the south to
the Latakia Ridge to the north (Skiple et al., 2011). The piano key
Stratigraphy in the Lebanese Levant Basin and the faults are striking features as a set of normal faults offsetting the pre-
Canyonlands of Utah Messinian strata down to an intra-Eocene level.
The deepest part of the Levant passive margin is in offshore
Lebanon where the total sediment thickness may exceed 12 age of the rifted sequence below the Cretaceous is assumed to
km (Nader, 2011). The strata in this deep-water basin (Figure be Triassic-to-Jurassic with the dominance of carbonates.
1a) have not yet been drilled and therefore the stratigraphy of In the structurally analogous area in Utah, the stratigraphy
the basin is poorly constrained to date. However, correlation of consists of a brittle upper layer, thickness of 500 m, of sand-
key regional seismic markers across the broader Levant Basin stones and limestones of Pennsylvanian-to-Early Permian age.
based on the 2D seismic data (Figure 1b) offers a framework The approximately 500-m thick faulted succession overlies a
for the main stratigraphic units in the deep-water basin (Skiple Late Carboniferous evaporite sequence (Paradox Formation)
et al., 2011). Beneath a thick (1–3 km) Messinian evaporite serving as the ultimate detachment surface for all the faults at
sequence, the post-Senonian-to-Cenozoic basin fill is assumed depth (Huntoon, 1982).
to consist of deep-water clastics, with the predominance of pe- As to the timing of piano key fault activity, the deposition
lagic shales. Of particular importance of the stratigraphy is an of the Messinian evaporite sequence appears to largely postdate
intra-Eocene unconformity surface (Figure 1b), which forms a the activity of these faults. There are some cases where the faults
basin-scale shale detachment level for the piano key faults. The appear to affect the lowermost part of the Messinian evaporate

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Figure 2. (a) The piano key faults displayed on a NS line through
a 3D seismic survey acquired by PGS. The faults cut through the
pre-Messinian, post-Eocene succession. Eocene shales may provide
the detachment for the faults (Nader, 2011). (b) Model of graben
formation at a smaller scale by gravity gliding above the Paradox salt
(after Huntoon, 1982).
sequence, but this is more the exception rather than the rule. We
could not observe growth along the piano key faults anywhere
in the sense that it would imply syn-sedimentary activity. The
faulting is therefore interpreted to have occurred rather abrupt-
ly in a short time period, close to, or right at the beginning of
the Messinian Salinity Crisis. In contrast, the age of faulting is
Quaternary-to-Recent in the Canyonlands (e.g., Trudgill and
Cartwright, 1994; Cartwright et al., 1995).
The data sets constraining the structural patterns of the Le-
vant Basin and the Canyonlands are obviously very different.
Offshore Lebanon is covered by multiple sets of high-quality
2D and 3D seismic surveys (Skiple et al., 2011). The Canyon-
lands area of Utah is well understood based on detailed geologi-
cal field work (e.g., Trudgill, 2002). However, despite the con-
Figure 3. Two-way traveltime map of the Base Messinian seismic
horizon (a) compared to an arbitrary area in the Canyonlands of
Utah (b). The spacing between the faults within the 3D seismic
area ranges from a few hundred meters at the fault linkages to 8 km
between major fault segments. The length of the segments ranges from
1 to 10 km. Note the similarity of the fault pattern, although at a
smaller scale, in the Canyonlands grabens, Utah. Note that the bing/
DigitalGlobe satellite image (b) has been rotated clockwise to be more
comparable to the map in (a).
trasting data sources, the first-order structural patterns of these
two areas can be easily compared.
Fault patterns in the Levant Basin versus the Canyonlands
The piano key faults that trend NW-SE, if mapped only on
regional 2D seismic data, appear to have a map-view spacing
of approximately 2–4 km on average with tens to hundreds of
meters of throw (Figures 1b and 2a). In the areas where there
is 3D coverage of these faults, the map-view expression of the
same faults becomes much more complex with an en-échelon
pattern (Figure 3a). However, whereas individual faults appear
to be much more segmented along strike, there are first-order
fault zones with soft and hard links which could be followed
through the seismic cube.
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Figure 4. Extensional faults imaged in the northernmost 3D

acquired by PGS offshore Lebanon (a) compared to an bing/
DigitalGlobe image of the Canyonland grabens (b).

The analog graben-bounding faults in the Canyonlands

range from approximately 100 m to over 6500 m in length,
and maximum surface throws along the these faults vary be-
tween 1 and 150 m (e.g., Trudgill, 2002). Across much of the
area, the center-to-center spacing of the grabens is consistently
750–1000 m (Figures 3b and 4b). Graben widths vary from less
than 100 m to over 400 m (commonly 200–300 m). All the
major graben-bounding faults consist of two or more overlap-
ping elements, composed of fault segments. These segments may Figure 5. (a) Array of fault linkages from central 3D seismic survey
be hard, or soft-linked in map view (Figure 5). As no subsurface of PGS (see Figure 1) compared to fault linkages in the Canyonlands
data are available in this area, the 3D geometry of the faults at of Utah (b). Photo courtesy of bing/DigitalGlobe.
depth cannot be directly compared to those of the piano key
faults offshore Lebanon. The nature of the detachment at depth
(i.e., shale in Lebanon versus salt in Utah) cannot be distin- faults may influence the way a relay ramp breaches. Trudgill and
guished based only on the map-view fault patterns observed in Cartwright (1994) propose that different scales of segmentation
these areas. in the Canyonlands were related to different forms of mechani-
In both areas the overlapping fault segments define relay cal anisotropy, including the influence of basement structure at
ramps (Figure 6). These soft fault-linkage elements eventually depth, brittle layer thickness, and joint length and spacing. The
break down by breaching creating hard fault linkages as the 3D seismic data offshore Lebanon may imply the preferential
fault growth continues (Trudgill and Cartwright, 1994). The reactivation of a pre-existing fault system in the relay ramp.
structural analogy between the two areas, given the geometry
and dimensions of the relay ramps, is especially pronounced in Mapping of the piano key faults offshore Lebanon based on
this regard (Figures 6 and 7). 2D versus 3D seismic data: possible pitfalls
Another interesting structural analogy is seen in the presence The seismic mapping of the piano key faults is relatively straight-
of orthogonal fault sets in both areas (Figure 8). Pre-existing forward if 3D seismic data are available (Figure 9a). However,
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Figure 6. (a) Two-way traveltime map of the Base Messinian seismic surface showing soft fault linkage by the formation of a relay ramp.
The bottom photo (c), of Cow Canyon area in the Canyonlands, shows an analog structure with almost the same vertical and horizontal
scale. In addition to the soft-linkage example, the seismic-derived map also reveals a hanging wall-breached relay ramp on the other side of
the graben (b).

picking a fault becomes quite challenging if regional 2D seismic Discussion

are available (Figure 9b). Given the average spacing of approxi-
mately 5 km between 2D seismic lines offshore Lebanon, the
different-scale segmentation of any fault zone (Trudgill and
Cartwright) becomes unresolvable (Mansfield and Cartwright,
1996). Soft or hard linkages along faults may become unde-
tected using only 2D seismic data for fault correlation. As an
example, Figure 9b illustrates the case when a single fault is cor-
related using only 2D seismic data. Based on the displacement
pattern, the interpreted single fault is most probably a composite
of two separate faults (segments I and II). This interpretation
pitfall may become critical if, for example, the faults are sealing
and therefore compartmentalizing a structural trap.
The extensional fault blocks in the Canyonlands area are driven
by gravity sliding toward the nearby Colorado River on top of
the salt detachment (Huntoon, 1982). The driving mechanism
for the piano key faults in the Levant Basin could be also driven
by gravity toward the basin center.
Still, a more likely an alternative explanation for the exis-
tence of these extensional features could be the products of a
regional compressional stress field oriented NW-SE between the
Levant Margin (Arabian plate) and the Cyprus Arc (Eurasian
plate, Figure 1b).
We speculate that the Messinian Salinity Crisis has some-
how triggered the formation of the piano key faults. As these

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Figure 8. A detail of the relay ramp mapped on 3D seismic data (b)

compared to a Canyonlands analog (a). Note the presence of brittle
faults with a trend highly oblique to the trend of the relay ramp itself.
The seismic image (amplitudes extracted in a ±10-ms window on
an intra-Miocene seismic horizon) suggests the reactivation of a pre-
existing fracture set.

faults are mostly located in the deep-water area (Figure 1a), the
sudden pressure drop within the Cenozoic strata associated with
the removal of the 1500–2000 m water column from above
should have been an important factor in the genesis of these
faults.

Figure 7. A relay ramp in the Canyonlands grabens (a) compared to
a relay ramp from the central 3D seismic survey offshore Lebanon (b).
A seismic dip line across the ramp shows the bounding faults (c). The
soft-linked nature of the ramp is shown by a strike line (d).
Conclusions
The regionally developed, NW-SE trending, normal faults
of the deep-water Levant Basin, informally called the “pia-
no key faults”, are detached on an Eocene shale decollement
level. These normal faults, with tens to hundreds of meters of
vertical throw, are largely postdated by the Messinian evaporite
sequence. The amount of throw on the individual faults appears
to generally decrease toward the basin margin and the faults do
not extend into the adjacent basins of the broader eastern Medi-
terranean area.
Recently acquired nonexclusive 2D and 3D seismic reflec-
tion data sets provide a detailed structural picture of the piano
key faults. The mapping of the faults on several key stratigraphic
horizons reveals complex patterns of normal fault segment
growth and linkage across the entire area. Comparing fault dis-
placement derived from 2D versus 3D data also highlights the
potential pitfalls associated with fault correlation using only 2D
seismic data sets.
As a powerful structural analogy for the observed complex
normal fault lateral displacement variations, including soft/hard
linkages and other features, the well-studied Canyonlands gra-
bens area of Utah could be used. The many-fold similarity seen
between the normal fault patterns offshore Lebanon and onshore

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Figure 9. 3D versus 2D seismic fault displacement maps. (a) Fault displacement map along a single fault plane from the central 3D survey
acquired by PGS (see Figure 1 for approximate location). The slip of the observed fault was measured on different stratigraphic horizons at every
500 m (assuming faults are pure dip slip). The slips close to top of the fault at the Base Messinian surface are close to zero. Similarly, the offset
is rather smallish at depth, close to the intra-Eocene detachment surface. The maximum displacement occurs in the center of the fault, typically
within the Miocene sequence. Bull’s-eyes are gridding artifacts due to the sparse sampling. Two dip lines across the fault, A-A’ and B-B’, are
shown in Figure 10. (b) Fault displacement map for an apparent single-fault segment mapped on 2D seismic data. The abrupt change of fault
displacement indicates a separation of the apparent single fault into at least two separate faults designated as segments I and II. The nature of the
fault linkage (hard versus soft) cannot be established using only sparse 2D seismic data.

Figure 10. 3D seismic cross sections across the fault shown in Figure Figure 11. 2D seismic cross sections across the fault shown in Figure
9a. (a) A line from the center of the fault with large displacements. 9b. The large offset in segment II (b) is at the level of the Base Middle
(b) A line at the end of the fault with diminishing displacements Miocene. As there is no gradual transition along strike to segment I
along the fault plane. (a), the fault displacement map indicates two separate faults.

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Utah is spectacular and it may have some exploration implications Acknowledgments: We are grateful to the Lebanese Ministry of Energy
for the broader Levant Basin. and Water and PGS for permission to publish the seismic data examples
shown in this paper.
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