The extensional wedges that overlie low-angle basal detachment faults are characterized by a tapered cross section similar to that exhibited by a fold-and-thrust belt, but with an opposite sense of shear on the basal fault. Such wedges are common in zones of crustal extension, such as the Basin and Range province of the North American Cordillera, the North Sea, and the U.S. Gulf Coast. This paper examines the mechanics of these upper crustal extensional wedges, using a modification of the compressional Coulomb critical taper model developed for fold-and-thrust belts and accretionary wedges. If a compressional wedge is mechanically analogous to a wedge of soil being pushed up an incline by a moving bulldozer, then an extensional wedge is analogous to the same wedge with the bulldozer moving in reverse gear down the incline. A critically tapered extensional wedge is one that is on the verge of Coulomb failure everywhere. A wedge whose taper is narrower may be slid stably down the same incline without internal deformation; a wedge whose taper is greater will fail by normal faulting and reduce its taper until it is critical. After testing the quantitative predictions of this extensional critical taper theory in a series of laboratory experiments on dry sand wedges, we apply the theory to a pair of active extensional wedges in the Brazos area, offshore Texas.

Both wedges are underlain by well-imaged basal detachment faults dipping at 17¿ down to depths of 10 km; one wedge exhibits relatively little internal deformation, whereas the other is pervasively faulted along a series of moderately dipping synthetic normal faults. Direct and indirect estimates of the pore fluid pressure distribution within the two wedges suggest that the undeformed wedge is stable whereas the pervasively faulted wedge is unstable but nearly critical. Regional values for the coefficients of basal and internal friction in excess of 0.3 together with vertical cohesion gradients in excess of 1 kPa/m are consistent with the observed pore pressures and the geometry of the wedges, as well as with in situ stress data acquired during drilling and the dips of active synthetic normal faults. Such values are comparable to values inferred from mechanical and thermal models of compressional wedges, and they are consistent with laboratory rock mechanics data. ¿1991 American Geophysical Union