Since the Roberts Mountains allochthon was emplaced along major thrust faults during regional compression, the possibility of imbricate thrusts and ramp anticlines similar to those in the Rocky Mountain foreland fold and thrust belt must be assessed. The emplacement of the Roberts Mountains allochthon appears to be the result of obduction of a pre-assembled accretionary sheet. This mechanism is substantially different than thin-skinned Mesozoic deformation associated with the foreland fold and thrust belt of the Rocky Mountains, and has predictably resulted in a very different structural style.

In assessing this potential trap type, the geometry of the basal thrust surface must be examined. This surface places Lower Paleozoic Western Siliceous and Volcanic Assemblage rocks over autochthonous Lower Paleozoic Transitional and Eastern Carbonate Assemblage units. In general, the thrust surface slowly climbs section from Cambrian and Ordovician rocks in the west, to dominantly Devonian and locally Mississippian sediments in the east. The Devonian Devils Gate and equivalent Wenban Limestones underlie the thrust from the Roberts Mountains to the Toiyabe Range, a substantial portion of the total exposure. The thrust is essentially a simple and confined surface with deformation mainly displayed as brecciation and silicification. This deformation rapidly attenuates and disappears in the autochthon, commonly within 100 feet beneath the thrust.

These observations suggest that the deformational effect of the thrust was essentially lateral transport and internal small-scale folding and shearing of the allochthon. Their is no evidence that the thrust has torn away and incorporated pieces of the underlying autochthon, or that it has formed large-scale thrust ramps with associated ramp-type folds. There appears to be no possibility for Antler thrust traps.