Los pliegues son estructuras geológicas que se presentan en muchos medios geológicos. Analizar su geometría nos permite obtener una aproximación de la deformación que acomodaron. Los pliegues tipo chevron son útiles para hacer estimaciones de acortamiento en sistemas orogénicos debido a su particular geometría. A pesar de esto, no se ha propuesto un método para calcular la deformación total (dinámica y cinemática) que experimentan estas estructuras. En el presente trabajo se expone un método para el cálculo del acortamiento en pliegues chevron que han sufrido una deformación post flexión o post pandeo, el cual toma como base el modelo propuesto por Ramsay en 1974. El método propuesto es conceptualmente sencillo y general, lo que permite su aplicación para estimar el acortamiento en sistemas orogénicos alrededor del mundo.
Structural analysis in the northern margin of the Quetico subprovince (part of the Archean Superior Province of the Canadian Shield) in Minnesota reveals that the main deformation involved polyphase folding (F 1 recumbent and nappe-like, and F 2 upright, east–west trending, and tight to isoclinal) during regional ductile transpression and amphibolite-facies metamorphism. A younger deformation, developed during the latter stages of regional transpression, resulted in the generation of localized ultraphyllonites along the steeply dipping Rainy Lake – Seine River fault (RLSRF), the major fault separating the Quetico subprovince from the Rainy Lake wrench zone (a wedge-shaped block between the Quetico and Wabigoon subprovinces). The transpression involved north–south shortening and east–west dextral shear. The presence of shear zones in amphibolite-facies wall rock south of the fault and in lower grade ultraphyllonites within the RLSRF suggests that localization of shear occurred by work and (or) reaction softening, possibly enhanced by the influx of fluids during regional cooling. The youngest structures in the wall rock are conjugate brittle faults oriented similarly to the youngest ductile shear structures in the RLSRF, indicating that the zone of transpression widened following the stage of strain localization, possibly due to work hardening during continued regional cooling. Widening of the zone of deformation was accompanied by an increase in the relative intensity of the north–south shortening component of transpression, revealed by chloritized necks of boudinaged quartz ribbons, quartz and calcite microfabrics, and flattening strains. Protracted ductile flow and localized greenschist-facies conditions in the RLSRF, which occurred during widening of the zone of deformation and rotation of the kinematic frame (to produce north–south shortening structures), are best explained by an influx of fluid phases.Mesostructures and quartz microfabrics in late tectonic (but synkinematic) peraluminous leucogranitoid intrusions and host schist 10 km south of the RLSRF record north–south shortening, but not east–west dextral shear, and further support late north–south shortening across the RLSRF.Tectonic settings for the RLSRF include (i) a suture between distinct lithotectonic terranes or (ii) a zone of localization of deformation within the northern margin of the Quetico subprovince following collision between the Quetico and Wabigoon terranes.
Abstract We examine the influence of initial fabric on the development of fractures in experiments in which clay cakes are sheared over two horizontal base plates that move past each other in wrench-fault motion. An anisotropic fabric in the kaolinite was produced during the preparation of the clay cakes for these experiments. To produce the fabric, the clay was either screeded perpendicular to the underlying fault, screeded parallel to the underlying fault, or molded to develop a cake-parallel fabric that is isotropic in the horizontal plane. The influence of the initial fabric is striking. With cake-parallel fabric, both Riedel (R) and conjugate Riedel (R′) shears develop, the former being much more pronounced than the latter. With a fault-parallel fabric, only R shears developed, while with a cake- and fault-perpendicular fabric, only closely spaced high-angle shears developed initially, with more widely spaced R shears forming later. There is a difference in the orientation of the R shears in the three types of fabric, with the angle being smallest for a fault-parallel fabric (mean of initial fractures of 15°) and largest for a fault-perpendicular fabric (mean of initial fractures of 25°). The high-angle shears have an initial average angle of 80° for cake-parallel fabric and 100° for fault-perpendicular fabric. Only in the case of the high-angle fractures for a fault-perpendicular fabric is there significant rotation after formation. It is likely that the difference in fracture orientation attributed to anisotropy of the initial fabric of the clay also has its counterpart in nature and is not confined to fractures formed in shear zones.
Abstract At a depth of about 75 m in the lower part of the accumulation area of the Barnes Ice Cap there is a change from fine-grained ice with a weakly-oriented c -axis fabric to coarser ice with a broad single-maximum fabric. At a depth of about 150 m the single maximum becomes elongate perpendicular to the direction of bubble elongation, and then splits into two distinct maxima making an angle of about 40–45° with respect to one another. At greater depths a third and finally a fourth maximum appear, forming the well known diamond pattern. Mean crystal size does not seem to increase in the transitions from one to two and thence to three maxima, but it may become more uniform. Crystal size does increase in the transition from three to four maxima, however. At the base of the glacier there is a 10–20 m thick layer of unusually-bubbly, fine-grained white ice with a strong single-maximum fabric. The depths to the transitions increase up-glacier and in place of the single-maximum fabric a small-circle pattern is found. Down-glacier the depths to the transitions decrease, systematically eliminating the higher zones. Thus in the lower part of the ablation area, ice with a four-maximum fabric appears at the surface. The independent variables governing these fabric transitions appear to be temperature T , stress τ , and cumulative strain ³ oc . In a tentative stability diagram showing the fields in which given fabrics are stable in T – τ – ³ oc space, multiple-maximum fabrics occur at high temperatures (> —10°C) and at moderate to high stresses, weakly-oriented fabrics at low stresses or low cumulative strains, broad single-maximum fabrics at moderate stresses or moderate cumulative strains, and strong single-maximum fabrics at high stresses or large cumulative strains.