Tectonic evolution of the Yaoundé segment of the Neoproterozoic Central African Orogenic Belt in southern Cameroon

2007 ◽  
Vol 44 (4) ◽  
pp. 433-444 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hubert Mvondo ◽  
Sébastien Owona ◽  
Joseph Mvondo Ondoa ◽  
Jean Essono

The deformation history of the Neoproterozoic Central African Orogenic Belt in southern Cameroon is well recorded in the low- to high-grade rocks outcropping in the area around Yaoundé. The fabrics in these rocks are consistent with two main ductile deformation events D1 and D2. D1 predated emplacement of calc-alkaline dioritic bodies and caused the formation of nappes that resulted in high-pressure granulite metamorphism of soft sediments. A strong overprinting of these nappes during D2 symmetric extension, probably associated with large-scale foliation boudinage and (or) gneissic doming and intense magmatic underplating, gave rise to regional flat-lying fabrics. The latter were further buckled by D3 and D4 folding phases defining a vertical constriction occurring with a major east–west to NW–SE shortening direction. The corresponding F3 and F4 folds trend north–south to NE–SW and east–west to NW–SE, respectively, and represent the main regional strain patterns. Based on the east–west to NW–SE maximum shortening orientation indicated by F3 folds, it is proposed that the nappe-stacking phase D1 occurred in the same direction. The deformation history in the area can thus be described as corresponding principally to alternating east–west to NW–SE contractions and north–south to NE–SW orogenic-parallel extensions. At the regional scale, this could be due to the Transaharan east–west collisional system.

1998 ◽  
Vol 17 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. K. Singh ◽  
S. P. Singh ◽  
P. S. Saklani ◽  
C. S. Dubey

Structural analysis reveals that the Central Crystallines in the Garhwal region were subjected to four phases of deformations (D1 to D4). The D1 deformational phase is highly obliterated and usually found as F1 intrafolial (rootless) tight isoclinal folds in migmatites and gneisses. The D2 deformational phase produced strong pervasive S2 schistosity and asymmetric and open fold (F2) plunging 20-30° towards ENE-WSW. The L2 lineation plunge 5-10° towards east-west is well developed in medium grade metamorphic rocks. The D1 deformations were responsible for F3 folds reflected in large scale anticlinal and synclinal, overturned and recumbent folds, which have 10-40° plunges towards NW. The late D3 deformational stresses were responsible for shearing along the middle limbs of F1 folds and they ultimately initiated thrusting. The NNE­ SSW plunging mineral or stretching lineation (L3), S3 crenulation cleavage and S-C fabrics were developed during the dominant ductile shearing related to the late D3 deformation. The D4 phase characterised by brittle-ductile deformation (minor kinks, puckers, transverse/transcurrent faults, and S-C' fabrics) and extensive cataclasis along thrust- and fault-zones reflects the last episode of deformation. The structural and geochronological data indicate that D1 and D2 deformation episodes may be related to the Precambrian time while D3 and D4 are exclusively of the Tertiary age.


2013 ◽  
Vol 53 (2) ◽  
pp. 459
Author(s):  
Michael Swift

The Torres Basin is a recently discovered Mesozoic basin in the Papuan Plateau, southeast Papua New Guinea. Newly acquired deepwater offshore seismic data and older regional data have been (re)interpreted with the view of defining structural regimes in line with the onshore geological maps and conceptual cross sections. A regional time-space plot has been developed to elucidate the breakup of the northeastern Australian Plate with a focus on the geological history of the Papuan Plateau, which holds the Torres Basin geological section. This in turn has led to a re-evaluation of the structural style and history of the southern coastal region incorporating the East Australian Early Cretaceous Island Arc; it highlights that a significant horizontal structural grain needs to be considered when evaluating the petroleum potential of the region. The southern margin is characterised as a frontal thrust system, similar to the nearby Papuan Basin. A series of regional strike lines in conjunction with the dip lines is used to divide the region into prospective and non-prospective exploration play fairways. The role of transfer faults, basement-detachments faults, regional-scale thrust faults, and recent normal faulting is discussed in the compartmentalisation of the geological section. There is basement-involved anticlinal development on a large scale and a complementary smaller-scale thin-skinned anticlinal trend. These trends are characterised as having significant strike length and breadth. Anticlinal trap fairways have been defined and have similar size and distribution as that of the Papuan Basin.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salim Birkan Bayrak ◽  
Işıl Nur Güraslan ◽  
Alp Ünal ◽  
Ömer Kamacı ◽  
Şafak Altunkaynak ◽  
...  

<p>Marmara granitoid (47 Ma) is a representative example of the Eocene post-collisional magmatism which produced several granitic plutons in NW Anatolia, Turkey. It is a W-E trending sill-like magmatic body which was concordantly emplaced into the metamorphic basement rocks of Erdek Complex and Saraylar Marble. The granitoid is represented by deformed granodiorite which displays well-developed lineation and foliation in meso-scale defined by the elongation of mica and feldspar crystals and recrystallization of quartz however, in some places, magmatic textures are preserved. Deformed granodiorite is broadly cut by aplitic and pegmatitic dikes and contains mafic enclaves which display the same deformation indicators with the main granitoid.</p><p>Microstructural analysis shows that the solid-state deformation of the Marmara granitoid is classified as ductile deformation with high temperatures and ductile-to-brittle deformation with relatively lower temperatures. Evidence for the ductile deformation of the granitoid is represented by chessboard extinction of quartz, grain boundary migration (GBM) and subgrain rotation recrystallisation (SGR) which exhibits that the deformation temperature changed from 600 <sup>o</sup>C to 400<sup>o</sup>C. Bulging recrystallization (BLG), grain size reduction of amphibole, biotite and plagioclases and microcracks on plagioclases were considered as overlying ductile-to-brittle deformation signatures which develop between 300-<250 <sup>o</sup>C temperatures.</p><p>All of these field and micro-structural data collectively suggest that the shear sense indicators such as micafish structures and δ type mantled porphyroclasts displayed stair-steppings pointing out to a right lateral movement, indicating that the structural evolution and deformation history of Marmara granitoid was controlled by a dextral shear zone.</p>


1987 ◽  
Vol 24 (8) ◽  
pp. 1507-1525 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. M. Schwerdtner

Grenville gneiss of the central Georgian Bay region was subjected to ductile deformation that produced narrow mylonite zones as well as three sets of superimposed folds differing greatly in structural signature, size, and orientation. Some mylonite zones are concordant to gneissosity and are repeatedly folded, others cut gneissosity and postdate the folding. Gneissosity was generated as a regionally subhorizontal feature, either by crustal thinning or, like the early mylonite zones, by low-angle reverse shearing. An attempt is made to account for the initially subhorizontal gneissosity, the mylonite zones, and the folds in a regime of large-scale reverse shearing that strikes parallel to the Grenville Front.Upright northwest–southwest to north–south buckle folds dominate the map pattern and are subperpendicular to the reverse Grenville Front boundary fault. These set-2 folds cannot be attributed to reverse simple shearing but require a large component of east–west compression. Such stress could have been generated in a northwest–southeast zone of sinistral ductile shear caused by temporary locking of the southern segment of the Grenville Front boundary fault (now under Lake Huron).All structural facts can be explained without large differential translations of crustal slices. For example, most discordances in the regional gneissosity pattern could have been created by décollement and repeated buckling. Detailed geobarometry and petrologic studies may be required to settle the question of large-scale thrusting within the Grenville gneiss terrane.


1982 ◽  
Vol 119 (5) ◽  
pp. 433-461 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shutian Suo ◽  
Ruqi Liu ◽  
Xingyuan Ma

SummaryThe Songshan area is located in the southern part of the North China platform, which is one of the most completely cratonized tectonic units of China. Its basement has experienced a complex evolutionary history and was eventually consolidated at the end of early Proterozoic time about 1.7 Ga ago.A systematic study has been made of the deformation history of the lower Proterozoic Songshan Group and the Archean Dengfeng Group. At least two widespread episodes of deformation can be recognised in the early Proterozoic Zhongyue tectonic cycle and three in the Archean Songyang cycle. Large scale and small scale interference patterns of the superimposed folding are investigated with the aim of recognizing possible regularities in their occurrence and of gaining an insight into the regional deformation history. Two important aspects of superimposition relationships are illustrated: the control of earlier structures upon later ones and the reform of the former by thelatter; their geometrical regularities are also dealt with respectively.


2007 ◽  
Vol 178 (6) ◽  
pp. 437-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome Ganne ◽  
Jean-Michel Bertrand ◽  
Serge Fudral ◽  
Didier Marquer ◽  
Olivier Vidal

Abstract The basement domes of the central part of western Alps may result either from a multistage tectonic evolution with a dominant horizontal shortening component, an extensional behaviour, or both. The Ambin massif belongs to the “Briançonnais” domain and is located within the HP metamorphic zone. It was chosen for a reappraisal of the tectonic evolution of the Internal Alps in its western segment. Structural investigations have shown that Alpine HP rocks were exhumed in three successive stages. The D1 stage was roughly coeval with the observed peak metamorphic conditions and corresponds to a non-coaxial regime with dominant horizontal shortening and north movement direction. Petrological observations and P-T estimates show that the exhumation process was initiated during D1, the corresponding mechanism being still poorly understood. The D2 stage took place under low-blueschist facies conditions and culminated under greenschist facies conditions. It developed a retrogressive foliation and pervasive shear-zones at all scales that locally define major tectonic contacts. D2 shear zones show a top-to-east movement direction and correspond actually to large-scale detachment faults responsible for the juxtaposition of less metamorphic units above the Ambin basement and thus to a large part of the exhumation of HP rocks toward the surface. D2 shear zones were subsequently deformed by D3 open folds, large antiforms (e.g. the Ambin dome) and associated brittle-ductile D3 shear-bands. The D1 to D3 P-T conditions and P-T path of the blueschists occurring in the deepest part of the Ambin dome, was estimated by using the multi-equilibrium thermobarometric method of the Tweeq and Thermocalc softwares. Peak pressure conditions, estimated at about 14–16 Kb, 500oC, are followed by a nearly-isothermal decompression that occurred concurrently with the major D1–D2 change in the ductile deformation regime. Eastwards, the Schistes Lustrés units exhibit a similar geometry on top of the Gran Paradiso dome but exhibit opposite D2 movement direction. Lower-grade units are lying above higher-grade units, the shear zones occurring in between being similar to Ambin’s D2 detachments. Thus at regional scale, the D2 detachments seem to form together with the Ambin shear-zones, a network of conjugate detachments. Such a pattern suggests that the exhumation history is mostly controlled by a D2+D3 crustal-scale vertical shortening resulting in the thinning of the previous tectonic pile formed during D1. The slab-break off hypothesis may explain such an extensional behaviour within the western Pennine domain. It is suggested that the thermo-mechanical rebound of the residual European slab initiated between 35 and 32 Ma the fast exhumation of the previously thickened orogenic wedge (stack of D1 HP slices). It was immediately followed by a collapse of the wedge that may correspond to the E-W Oligocene extensional event responsible for the opening of rifts in the West European platform.


1989 ◽  
Vol 26 (10) ◽  
pp. 1976-1989 ◽  
Author(s):  
Frank Fueten ◽  
Pierre-Yves F. Robin

Early Proterozoic rocks and Archean gneisses of the Thompson Belt, east of the Churchill Province – Superior Province boundary, record the history of the Hudsonian Orogeny in this area. A structural study has been undertaken along a 45 km long corridor cutting across the width of the belt.Three blocks are defined along this transect, each characterized by a specific structural style and metamorphic history, Foliation and lineation data and the analysis of kinematic indicators from these blocks show that (i) the Thompson Belt has been an area of predominantly dip-slip movement for its recognizable ductile deformation history; (ii) the sense of shear for most of that history corresponds to the Superior side moving up with respect to the Churchill side; (iii) the shearing emplaced rocks of progressively higher metamorphic grade towards the southeast, away from the Churchill–Superior boundary; and (iv) there appears to have been a period of movement at the later stages of the Hudsonian Orogeny during which the sense of movement was Churchill side up.Structural and metamorphic data support a tectonic model in which the Superior Province has been thrust over the Churchill Province, with a convergence direction approximately perpendicular to the Thompson Belt.


2019 ◽  
Vol 2 ◽  
pp. 35-41 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paul Mehlhorn ◽  
Laura Winkler ◽  
Franziska-Charlotte Grabbe ◽  
Michael Kenzler ◽  
Anna Gehrmann ◽  
...  

Abstract. A thrust-bound footwall syncline located within the proximal part of the southern Jasmund Glacitectonic Complex is investigated, exploring the spatio-temporal relationship between glacitectonic macro- and microstructures. Orientation and geometry of macroscale folds and thrust faults reveal a two-phased deformation history recorded by the sedimentary sequence. The deformation is a result of glacitectonic imbrication and subsequent ice flow across Jasmund Peninsula during the late Weichselian. Clast microfabrics preserved within the folded glacial diamicts reveal that till-internal deformation is mainly related to subglacial shearing within the glacier bed, which predates large-scale imbrication and folding.


2001 ◽  
Vol 34 (1) ◽  
pp. 329 ◽  
Author(s):  
U. RING

Astypalea Island lies south of the Late Cretaceous to Eocene high-pressure belt of the Cyclades and north of the Miocene high-pressure belt of the External Hellenides. The rocks of the island belong to the Tripolitza unit. The latter unit occupies a critical tectonic position in Astypalea between the unmetamorphosed Tripolitza rocks in Crete and the high-pressure Basal unit, which is correlated to the Tripolitza unit, in the Cyclades. We have subdivided the deformation history of Astypalea Island into four events, D; through D4. The problem with interpreting the structural data is that the Di and D2 events cannot unequivocally be ascribed to horizontal crustal contraction or crustal shortening. In our interpretation, Dt caused top-S internal imbrication within the Tripolitza unit as a result of crustal shortening. We envision that this event occurred when the Phyllite-Quartzite and Plattenkalk units were underthrust beneath the Tripolitza unit in the Oligocene. D was probably associated with top-N extension and may be related to large-scale crustal extension across the Cretan detachment in the Early Miocene. D3 caused high-angle faulting due to E-W contraction and D4 was due to N-S extension.


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