Ramp initiation in a thrust wedge.

Collisional mountain belts are characterized by fold and thrust belts that grow through sequential stacking of thrust sheets from the interior (hinterland) to the exterior (foreland) of the mountain belt. Each of these sheets rides on a fault that cuts up through the stratigraphic section on inclined ramps that join a flat basal fault at depth. Although this stair-step or ramp-flat geometry is well known, there is no consensus on why a particular ramp forms where it does.