Strain-partitioned dextral transpression in the Great Boundary Fault Zone around Chittaurgarh, NW Indian Shield

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-15
Author(s):  
Deepak C. Srivastava ◽  
Ajanta Goswami ◽  
Amit Sahay

Abstract Delimiting the Aravalli mountain range in the east, the Great Boundary Fault (GBF) occurs as a crustal-scale tectonic lineament in the NW Indian Shield. The structural and tectonic characteristics of the GBF are, as yet, not well-understood. We attempt to fill this gap by using a combination of satellite image processing, high-resolution outcrop mapping and structural analysis around Chittaurgarh. The study area exposes the core and damage zone of the GBF. Three successive phases of folding, F1, F2 and F3, are associated with deformation in the GBF. The large-scale structural characteristics of the GBF core are: (i) a non-coaxial refolding of F1 folds by F2 folds; and (ii) the parallelism between the GBF and F2 axial traces. In addition, numerous metre-scale ductile shear zones cut through the rocks in the GBF core. The damage zone is characterized by the large-scale F1 folds and the mesoscopic-scale strike-slip faults, thrusts and brittle-ductile shear zones. Several lines of evidence, such as the inconsistent overprinting relationship between the strike-slip faults and thrusts, the occurrence of en échelon folds and the palaeostress directions suggest that the GBF is a dextral transpression fault zone. Structural geometry and kinematic indicators imply a wrench- and contraction-dominated deformation in the core and damage zone, respectively. We infer that the GBF is a strain-partitioned dextral transpression zone.

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 1081-1095 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. T. Bursnall ◽  
A. D. Leclair ◽  
D. E. Moser ◽  
J. A. Percival

Comparison of progressive deformation and metamorphic history within and between the tectonic domains of the Kapuskasing uplift indicates significant variation in age and style of deformation across this large segment of the central Superior Province; multiple stages of tonalite and granitoid intrusion, melt generation, polyphase diachronous deformation, and likely rapid deep burial of supracrustal rocks collectively produced the complex character of this example of Archean mid to deep crust. At least four Archean deformation phases are recognized, although not all are of regional extent. Dated structural chronology suggests that the locus of the earliest recorded deformations migrated to deeper crustal levels with time. Pre-2680 Ma deformation (local D1–D2) within high-level tonalites is correlated with deformation in the Michipicoten supracrustal belt. The apparent earliest deformational fabrics at deeper crustal levels in the granulite terrane of the Kapuskasing structural zone occurred between 2660 and 2640 Ma. Archean third and fourth phase deformation phases (~ 2667 to ~ 2629 Ma) are present at mid-crustal and deeper levels and deform post-2667 Ma metaconglomerate; these resulted in large-scale folding and subhorizontal ductile shear zones, which seem to represent an important transitional zone that separated a passive upper crust from continued ductile strain at deeper levels.Subsequent uplift of the high-grade rocks was accomplished in multiple stages, initiated prior to 2.45 Ga and likely culminated around 1.9 Ga, although continued movement occurred as late as 1.14 Ga. The Ivanhoe Lake fault zone, along which much of the uplift must have occurred, exhibits some evidence of ductile deep-thrust-related fabrics, but most of the observed structures are brittle to brittle–ductile and steeply inclined. A broad zone of pervasive cataclasis and brittle–ductile shear zones is a characteristic feature of the fault zone throughout its length, and both dextral and sinistral offset are locally present. Clear ground evidence for major transcurrent or thrust displacements, however, has not been recognized.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michael Ofman ◽  
Steven Smith

<p>The southern Glade Fault Zone is a crustal-scale, subvertical dextral strike-slip fault zone on the eastern margin of Fiordland, New Zealand. For a distance of c. 40 km between Lake Te Anau and the Hollyford Valley, the fault cuts plutonic host rocks and has an estimated total dextral separation of c. 6-8 km. We report previously unidentified mylonites, cataclasites, pseudotachylites and fault gouge subparallel to pervasive sets of planar cooling joints in the Hut Creek-Mistake Creek area plutonic suites. The outcropping assemblage of joints and fault rocks record thermal, seismic and rheological conditions in the southern Glade Fault. Here we integrate methods to characterise the fault rocks and fracture damage zone of the southern Glade Fault from Glade Pass to Mt Aragorn. We use (i) EDS (Energy Dispersive x-ray Spectroscopy), XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) and EBSD (Electron Backscatter Diffraction) analysis to describe the mineralogy, kinematics and microstructures of fault rocks and, (ii) drone orthophotography and traditional structural measurements to detail geometrical relationships between structural features. Field mapping of glacially polished outcrops identifies the zone of brittle fault-related damage (i.e. damage zone + fault rock sequence) is up to one order of magnitude narrower than documented along other strike-slip faults with similar displacements, suggesting that the Glade Fault Zone represents an “end-member” of extreme localization of brittle deformation and fault displacement. This is interpreted to result from linkage of pre-existing cooling joints (and mylonitic shear zones), which allowed the younger brittle fault zone to establish its length and planarity relatively efficiently compared to the case of fault nucleation and growth in more isotropic host rocks.</p>


2017 ◽  
Vol 47 (3) ◽  
pp. 427-440
Author(s):  
Edimar Perico ◽  
Carlos Eduardo de Mesquita Barros ◽  
Fernando Mancini ◽  
Sidnei Pires Rostirolla

ABSTRACT: In the Paleoproterozoic Transamazonas Province, synkinematic granitogenesis has taken place synchronously with compressive tectonic stress. The synkinematic character of the granites is marked by their WNW elongate shape, and by the presence of pervasive and concordant synmagmatic foliation. Ductile shear zones are concordant to the previous regional WNW structures, and tend to be accommodated along contacts between Rhyacian synkinematic granitoids and both Archean orthogneisses and Siderian metabasites. Locally phyllonitic shear zones and brittle-ductile shear zones with cataclasites are oriented subparallel to the preexisting ductile foliation. Late orogenic brittle faults N30E-trending strike-slip faults are either sinistral or destral. 40Ar/39Ar dating of muscovite developed on fault planes gave ages of 1977 ± 8 Ma and 1968 ± 11 Ma. Structural and geochronological data from rocks of the Transamazonas Province permit to conclude that most mylonites and brittle structures were controlled by preexisting structures such as geological contacts and petrographic facies boundaries. Compressive tectonic stress would have initiated at ca. 2100 Ma, since the former magmatic arc (Bacajaí complex), still present at 2070 Ma when syntectonic granites were emplaced and remained until 1975 Ma after granite plutonism and regional cooling.


1995 ◽  
Vol 250 (1-3) ◽  
pp. 61-87 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ekkehard Scheuber ◽  
Konrad Hammerschmidt ◽  
Hans Friedrichsen

Lithosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Beihang Zhang ◽  
Jin Zhang ◽  
Heng Zhao ◽  
Junfeng Qu ◽  
Yiping Zhang ◽  
...  

Abstract Strike-slip faults are widely developed throughout the Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB), one of the largest Phanerozoic accretionary orogenic collages in the world, and may have played a key role in its evolution. Recent studies have shown that a large number of Late Paleozoic–Early Mesozoic ductile shear zones developed along the southern CAOB. This study reports the discovery of a NW–SE striking, approximately 500 km long and up to 2 km wide regional ductile shear zone in the southern Alxa Block, the Southern Alxa Ductile Shear Zone (SADSZ), which is located in the central part of the southern CAOB. The nearly vertical mylonitic foliation and subhorizontal stretching lineation indicate that the SADSZ is a ductile strike-slip shear zone, and various kinematic indicators indicate dextral shearing. The zircon U-Pb ages and the 40Ar/39Ar plateau ages of the muscovite and biotite indicate that the dextral ductile shearing was active during Middle Permian to Middle Triassic (ca. 269–240 Ma). The least horizontal displacement of the SADSZ is constrained between ca. 40 and 50 km. The aeromagnetic data shows that the SADSZ is in structural continuity with the coeval shear zones in the central and northern Alxa Block, and these connected shear zones form a ductile strike-slip duplex in the central part of the southern CAOB. The ductile strike-slip duplex in the Alxa Block, including the SADSZ, connected the dextral ductile shear zones in the western and eastern parts of the southern CAOB to form a 3000 km long E-W trending dextral shear zone, which developed along the southern CAOB during Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic. This large-scale dextral shear zone was caused by the eastward migration of the orogenic collages and blocks of the CAOB and indicates a transition from convergence to transcurrent setting of the southern CAOB during Late Paleozoic to Early Mesozoic.


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