Pull Apart Basin

A pull apart basin or strike-slip basin or rhombochasm is type of structural basin which is developed between two offset segments or at a flexure in a strike-slip fault or a transform fault. A pull-apart develops where the sense of offset leads to extension, either at a right-stepping offset on a dextral sense fault or a left-stepping offset on a sinistral fault. This geometry means that fault displacement will literally pull a section of crust apart and cause the extension. The Dead Sea and the Salton Sea depressions are pull apart basins. The Cayman Trough in the northern Caribbean is an example of an elongated pull apart basin which has developed a spreading ridge in the center.

The Gulf of Paria, in the Caribbean is also an example of a pull apart basin. This is due to the movement of the faults named El Pilar to the west and Central Ridge Fault to the east.