Derek Neuharth , Sascha Brune, Anne C Glerum , Chris K Morley, XIAOPING YUAN , Jean Braun 

Strike-slip faults are classically associated with pull-apart basins where continental crust is thinned between two laterally offset fault segments. Here we propose a subsidence mechanism to explain the formation of a new type of basin where no substantial segment offset or syn-strike-slip thinning is observed. Such “flexural strike-slip basins” form due to a sediment load creating accommodation space by bending the lithosphere. We use a two-way coupling between the geodynamic code ASPECT and surface processes code FastScape to show that flexural strike-slip basins emerge if sediment is deposited on thin lithosphere close to a strike-slip fault. These conditions were met at the Andaman Basin Central Fault, where seismic reflection data provide evidence of a laterally extensive flexural basin with a depocenter located parallel to the strike-slip fault trace.