2 d rotation behavior of a rigid ellipse in confined viscous simple shear numerical experiments using fem abstract the rotation behavior of rigid elliptical inclusions adherent to the viscous matrix in simple shear flow is investigated using a 2 d finite element numerical model several simulations were performed using different ratios s between shear zone width and inclusion s least principal axis a computational strategy was devised to calculate pressure and viscous forces exerted on the inclusion and deduce its angular velocity for large s values results agree remarkably well with theoretical predictions while for small s values results deviate significantly from theory but are in agreement with previous analogue experiments the numerical model provided detailed and coherent information about the physical parameters involved in the process e g pressure strain rate and vorticity distributions within the model

folding of boudinaged layers abstract the boudinage structure in the vaddo area in sweden developed during an early isoclinal folding during a second deformation which deformed the axial surfaces and the limbs of the isoclinal folds the shapes of boudins were variously modified the resulting structures include folding of the individual boudins into half waves a tile like piling up of straight or gently folded boudins and arrangement of straight boudins in a herring bone pattern similar structures have been produced experimentally in soft models containing boudins of different competencies the relative importance of the different physical parameters which contribute towards the development of the various structures is examined in particular the experiments showed that when the competence contrast between the boudin and the host material was rather small the shape of the boudins was modified by a second deformation into trapezoidal forms often with flame shaped projections at the edges from an analysis of the experimental and natural structures a set of criteria has been formulated which can be used to identify structures formed by superposed deformations and to give an approximate idea of the competence contrast between the boudin and the host rock during the second deformation

deformation partitioning during transpression in response to early devonian oblique convergence northern appalachian orogen usa abstract transpressive deformation was distributed heterogeneously within the central maine belt shear zone system which formed in response to early devonian oblique convergence during the acadian orogeny in the northern appalachians straight belts are characterized by tight folds s l fabrics and sub parallel form lines and asymmetric structures that together indicate dextral se side up kinematics in contrast intervening zones between straight belts are characterized by open folds and l s fabrics within both types of zone metasedimentary rocks have fabrics defined by the same minerals at the same metamorphic grade including a penetrative moderately to steeply ne plunging mineral lineation thus we interpret accumulation of plastic deformation and regional metamorphic re crystallization to have been synchronous across the central maine belt shear zone system discordance between inclusion trails in regionally developed porphyroblasts of garnet and staurolite and matrix fabrics in straight belt rocks records shortening by tightening of folds and greater reorientation of matrix fabrics with respect to porphyroblasts kinematic partitioning of flow was responsible for the contrasting states of finite deformation recorded in the central maine belt shear zone system perturbations in the flow were caused by serially developed thrust ramp anticlines in the stratigraphic succession immediately above the avalon like basement at which decollement of the shear zone system was initially rooted general shear deformation at the ramps involved strain softening with an enhanced component of noncoaxial flow in contrast deformation during extrusion in the intervening zones involved strain hardening with a greater component of coaxial flow part of the thickening stratigraphic succession exceeded tsolidus reflected by the occurrence of migmatites and granites the latter were partly sourced from the underlying avalon like basement that was involved in the deformation and melting

progressive development of structures in a ductile shear zone in the singhbhum shear zone of eastern india successive generations of folds grew in response to a progressive ductile shearing during this deformation a mylonitic foliation was initiated and was repeatedly transposed the majority of fold hinges were formed in an arcuate manner at low angles to the y axis in an e w trending subhorizontal position and major segments of the fold hinges were then rotated towards the down dip northerly plunging x axis the striping and intersection lineations were rotated in the same manner the down dip mylonitic lineation is a composite structure represented by rotated early lineations and newly superimposed stretching lineations the consistent asymmetry of the folds the angular relations between c and s surfaces and the evidence of two dimensional boudinage indicate that the deformation was non coaxial but with a flattening type of strain with 1 2 the degree of non coaxiality varied both in space and time from the progressive development of mesoscopic structures it is concluded that the 2 3 km wide belt of ductile shear gave rise to successive anastomosing shear zones of mesoscopic scale when a new set of shear lenses was superimposed on already sheared rocks the preexisting foliation generally lay at a low angle to the lenses no new folds developed where the acute angle was sympathetic to the sense of shear displacements where the acute angle was counter to the sense of shear the pre existing foliation lying in the instantaneous shortening field was deformed into a set of asymmetric folds

flow variation in layered rocks subjected to bulk flow of various kinematic vorticities theory and geological implications abstract flow variation is studied analytically in rocks with layers of varied competence and varied orientation with respect to constant bulk flow fields of given kinematic vorticity 0 w k 1 the results explicitly demonstrate that flow varies significantly from layer to layer and with time in any individual layer even though the bulk flow is constant any flow regime can occur and the instantaneous stretching axes isa spin all the time reverse sense of non coaxiality can occur in the same layer at different times and in different layers at the same time this study further reveals the significance of heterogeneity and non steadiness in natural flows the assumption of a time independent flow history for natural deformation is highly unrealistic the spinning of the instantaneous stretching axes isa and the variation of flow regimes have bearings on the progressive development of fabrics and structures such as folded boudins refolded folds in shear zones and double rotation of porphyroclasts that are often interpreted as being due to multi deformational events

flow in natural shear zones the consequences of spinning flow regimes abstract the ancient flow regime in natural shear zones is often considered to have followed a deformation path comparable to that in theoretical shear zones i e progressive simple shear between rigid wall rocks with a persistent flow plane orientation parallel to the edges of the zone this is often based on the presence of monoclinic fabric elements in the zones which indicate a dominantly non coaxial flow regime though not necessarily persistent simple shear the deformation fabric of a shear zone from the pyrenees illustrates that even at a kinematic vorticity number of w 1 simple shear along the entire deformation path obliqueness of the flow planes with the edges of the zone is possible for some time if incremental stretching axes were rotating with respect to zone edges this implies that ductile deformation must have taken place in the wall rock of the zone such a flow regime may be difficult to recognize with the fabric criteria used at present but leads to an unusual kinematic significance of the shear zone involved in extreme cases the zone may have acted as a passive marker in a ductilely deforming medium it also means that not only w must be known to reconstruct the ancient flow regime in natural shear zones but at least also the time dependence of the orientation of the incremental stretching axes

domainal and fabric heterogeneities in the cap de creus quartz mylonites abstract a characteristic domainal configuration is reported for both micro structures and c axis fabrics in the cap de creus pure quartz mylonites as displayed in 50 samples from the centres of different shear zones three types of domains are found a b and c each domain has a distinct c axis orientation pattern these three fabric elements also labelled a b and c make up the total fabric c axis fabrics are symmetric or asymmetric with respect to the main mylonitic foliation depending on the presence or absence of the b domain and its fabric element the boundaries of the domains are parallel to the main mylonitic foliation two domain types a and b display an internal foliation defined by preferred grain boundary alignment parallel to the direction of optical orientation within the domain the internal foliations are oblique to the main mylonitic foliation in two different senses giving the sample a herring bone appearance these internal foliations are shown to be related to extensional crenulations domains are not produced by host controlled recrystallization the fabric elements and corresponding domains are the expression of kinematic heterogeneities on the scale of the thin section

flow and finite deformation of surface elements in three dimensional homogeneous progressive deformations rocks are heterogeneous materials deformation structures and fabrics in the ductile lithosphere can result from the history of the three dimensional flow field or the progressive deformation of some rheologically distinct elements embedded in the 3d flow field or a combination of both the flow and progressive deformation of a rheologically distinct element is generally non steady even if the hosting 3d flow field is steady vorticity decomposition is the key to following the progressive history of the deformation of specific elements a general theoretical background to the problem is presented flow and progressive deformation of surface and layer like elements in 3d homogeneous flows are investigated specifically analytical procedures to calculate the sectional vorticity number and the sectional dilatancy number on a general section in a 3d flow field are introduced the theoretical analysis is applied to various examples of sectional flow embedded in different types of 3d homogeneous and steady flow fields implications of this investigation for kinematic analysis of natural rock deformation are discussed all types of material line histories are expected in sectional flows of layer like elements shortened boudins can be formed in a single progressive deformation in sequences of rocks with a well developed transposition foliation common in large scale high strain zones each layer unit may have undergone a unique deformation history during its rotation to the final shear zone boundary parallel orientation in kinematic analysis of such areas it is important to ascribe the correct kinematic significance to structural associations and fabrics

vorticity determination distribution partitioning and the heterogeneity and non steadiness of natural deformations abstract an investigation on vorticity in general heterogeneous and non steady flows is presented the bulk vorticity of a flow is solely determined by the imposed boundary conditions and it exerts no constraints on local flow the distribution of bulk vorticity in different rheological domains and the partitioning of the distributed vorticity into shear induced vorticity and spin are both time dependent this indicates that heterogeneous flows are inevitably non steady in a quantitative example it is demonstrated that even though the imposed boundary movement is a constant simple shear local flow can be non steady spinning and non coaxial super simple shear flow with internal kinematic vorticity number greater than i occurs but the finite strain does not necessarily pulsate the geological implications of this investigation are discussed the significance of heterogeneity and non steadiness in natural deformations are emphasized it is concluded that vorticity distribution and partitioning is the link between different scale structures the internal kinematic vorticity number is not a criterion of finite strain oscillation

garnet rotation and the development of axial plane crenulation cleavage rotated helicitic garnets syntectonically overgrowing axial plane crenulation cleavage on the limbs of folds show the opposite sense of rotation to that undergone by the folded foliation during the development of the fold the garnet rotation is inconsistent with simple minded shear models for the development of the crenulation cleavage and it is useful to consider this problem in order to understand the development of crenulation cleavage better various models are considered in an attempt to explain both garnet rotation and cleavage morphology earlier models were based on the assumption that garnet rotation is driven by shear parallel to s2 they were mostly unsatisfactory but one involving migration of the crenulation hinges is viable when combined with other models described here the new models proposed here are based on the assumption that garnet rotation is driven by shear on the crenulated surface s1 the new foliation s2 is considered to be a passive structure at least in the early stages of its development these models satisfactorily explain garnet rotation and development of the cleavage including differentiation and they can be used to predict the morphological evolution of the cleavage microstructure as it should be preserved in garnets comparison of observed and predicted helicitic structures strongly supports the proposed models evidence is presented to show that where a garnet has an se that is a schistosity and an si that is a crenulation cleavage the schistosity can have developed by unfolding of the crenulations

forward modeling of non steady state deformations and the minimum strain path reply structural analyses of shear zones often rely on an assumption of steady state behavior i e that the ratio of pure shear strain rate s to simple shear strain rate s remains fixed throughout deformation however geological deformations are not necessarily steady state non steady state deformation paths can be theoretically modeled if certain deformation parameters such as strain or offset are specified we have analyzed a two dimensional case of specified offset and geometry termed the minimum strain path the minimum finite strain needed to produce a fixed offset across a shear zone is neither simple shear nor pure shear but a combination of the two the minimum strain path if this deformation accumulates with a steady state deformation the kinematic vorticity number w of the minimum strain path varies with the amount of finite offset although w approaches 0 7 at high offset values because of this relation between w and finite offset the minimum strain path is better modeled as a non steady state deformation in which case deformation history starts close to simple shear but rapidly changes to a more pure shear dominated deformation it is expected that the minimum strain path is applicable to geological deformation zones with relaxed boundary conditions such as basal parts of spreading nappes or extensional detachment systems 0 1997 elsevier science ltd

shear fractures in anisotropic ductile materials an experimental approach abstract analogue models have been used to investigate the influence of planar mechanical anisotropy on the orientation of shear fractures in an elastoviscous brittle material multilayered models consisting of a mixture of plasticine vaseline and preferentially oriented paper flakes have been coaxially deformed for this purpose the evolution of the orientation length and connectivity of fracture sets has been systematically analysed with progressive coaxial deformation the experimental results show that the orientation of fractures with respect to the deformation axes depends on the orientation of transverse anisotropy two symmetrical sets of shear fractures are formed in models with layering parallel to the extension axis x while the fracture network is asymmetrical with respect to the deformation axes for cases with oblique anisotropy the average dihedral angles between fracture sets are higher than 100 with the obtuse bisector between the two sets oriented perpendicular to layers the stress fields calculated from fracture data differ from the boundary conditions applied by the deformation apparatus this misorientation is related to the degree of anisotropy in models with high oblique anisotropy both fracture arrays rotate in a dextral sense together with layers towards the x axis indicating that the presence of a strong anisotropy controls their evolution with progressive deformation

northwest verging folds and the northwestward movement of the caledonian jotun nappe norway abstract a family of asymmetric northwest verging back folds and crenulations occur on a regional scale in the caledonian decollement zone in southwestern norway they are the result of reversal of the emplacement movement of the jotun and other nappes in early devonian time the back folds may have formed progressively by two different mechanisms actively by buckling of the layering and more passively by transfer of slip across the layering reverse slip crenulations to balance the thinning of the zone caused by foliation parallel slip and shear band formation the former mechanism is considered to be most important during the initial stages of fold development gradually giving way to the latter mechanism the hinge lines of these folds appear to have remained stationary during deformation this is explained by the observation that the hinge lines lie within or close to the shear plane i e the plane of no rotation in simple shear deformation integration of strain across the deformation zone indicates a magnitude of back movement in the order of ca 20 36 km and it is argued that the deformation was close to simple shear

the motion of deformable ellipsoids in power law viscous materials formulation and numerical implementation of a micromechanical approach applicable to flow partitioning and heterogeneous deformation in earth s lithosphere abstract earth s lithosphere is heterogeneous in rheology on a wide range of observation scales when subjected to a tectonic deformation the incurred flow field can vary significantly from one rheologically distinct element to another and the flow field in an individual element is generally different from the bulk averaged flow field kinematic and mechanical models for high strain zones provide the relations between prescribed tectonic boundary conditions and the resulting bulk flow field they do not determine how structures and fabrics observed on local and small scales form to bridge the scale gap between the bulk flow field and minor structures eshelby s formalism extended for general power law viscous materials is shown to be a powerful means this paper first gives a complete presentation of eshelby s formalism from the classic elastic inclusion problem to newtonian viscous materials and to the most general case of a power law viscous inhomogeneity embedded in a general power law viscous medium the formulation is then implemented numerically the implications and potential applications of the approach are discussed it is concluded that the general eshelby formalism together with the self consistent method is a powerful and physically sound means to tackle large plastic deformation of earth s lithosphere

numerical modelling of porphyroclast and porphyroblast rotation in anisotropic rocks abstract the rotational behaviour of rigid objects in a weaker rock matrix during deformation has been the subject of many field experimental and numerical modelling studies often centred on the question whether objects rotate or not in non coaxial deformation with numerical studies gaining increasing popularity and importance we here provide an overview of the results published so far and provide new simulations originally shape and orientation were investigated while the emphasis shifted to rheology and slip between object and matrix in the nineties of the last century due to improved numerical techniques anisotropic rheology has become the focus of most recent studies indicating that it is a primary factor in the rotation behaviour of objects we present new simulations investigating the role of anisotropy on different scales relative to the object and show how this influences the rotation rate as well as the inclusion patterns in case of syntectonically growing porphyroblasts these simulations show that a variety of factors play a role to determine the rate and sense of rotation of objects the variability of the inclusion patterns that can develop necessitates extreme caution in the kinematic interpretation of these structures when observed in the field

ductile thrusting in the himalayas shear sense criteria and stretching lineations the most useful criteria used for the determination of the sense of shear can be found in the huge himalayan ductile shear zone known as m c t they allow the determination of the sense of shear in relation with an unequivocal southward directed intracontinental thrust the various criteria analyzed at different scales of observation show the permanence of the shear flow regime throughout the metamorphic evolution however most of the observed shear criteria are due to late nappe emplacement postdating the climax of the metamorphism the most striking feature is the stretching lineation which is roughly normal to the thrust trace all along the belt it parallels everywhere the shear direction and thus indicates the transport direction of the nappes the observed radial pattern of stretch trajectories implies that the local motion does not correspond to the average plate convergence

the association of folds and veins in shear zones abstract paired hook shaped asymmetric folds with shared limbs cut by axial planar veins dikes or fractures are common in glaciers and rocks the sense of offset across the vein or fracture is characteristically opposite to that expected from the sense of fold asymmetry the kinematics of development of the folds and the relationship of the folds to the fractures or veins can be understood by considering the nature of glacial flow and by utilizing simple clay experiments in zones of simple shear dilational fractures may form at about 45 to the shear zone boundaries the perturbation of strain around such a fracture during its development and subsequent rotation and closure under continued deformation causes layers or pre existing foliation cut by the fracture to become folded thus folding is a consequence of the fracturing and not vice versa the precise shape of the fold depends on the nature of the perturbation and particularly whether or not the fracture remains for a time open or fluid filled and thus has walls unable to sustain a shear stress during vein rotation paired hook folds provide evidence for non coaxial strain and are good sense of shear indicators however not all folds with veins parallel to their axial surfaces form in the way described in this paper in some cases vein emplacement occurs late during fold development or post dates folding in these cases offsets along the veins are consistent with fold asymmetry

structural evolution of sulphide tectonites and their host rocks stratmat mine new brunswick the sulphide orebodies at the stratmat mine in new brunswick are treated as tectonites because their primary characteristics have been so modified by deformation recrystallization and vein injection that most of their original features have been obscured pb zn cu sulphide orebodies at the stratmat mine consist of sulphide and sulphide silicate tectonites gneisses schists phyllites and slates produced by the mixing of two sulphide precursors and silicate host rocks by polyphase deformation much of which relates to progressive non coaxial deformation quartz vein injection during and after this period of deformation and the intermixing of nonsulphide lithotypes led to dilution of the initial ore composition both the deformation of the orebodies and fluid migration manifested by vein injection reflect processes that were operative in a major shear zone no indisputable primary characteristics of the orebodies are preserved although a number of tectonic and or tectonically modified features m

deformation path in high strain zones with reference to slip partitioning in transpressional plate boundary regions abstract the current status of the kinematics and strain geometry of high strain zone studies is briefly summarized a general high strain zone has a triclinic deformation path and monoclinic shear zones are special end member cases fabrics observed in natural shear zones and theoretical considerations based on continuum mechanics are compatible with this conclusion non steady deformation paths remain difficult to deal with and may ultimately rely on a realistic mechanical treatment of high strain zones which may be possible when our knowledge of the mechanical behavior of rocks under natural deformation conditions is improved an examination of the phenomenon of slip partitioning in transpressional plate boundary regions shows that the bulk deformation path in the forearc area trench parallel high strain zone is generally triclinic the alpine fault in the south island of new zealand provides an example of a currently active triclinic shear zone the southern knee lake shear zone of manitoba canada provides an archean example of a triclinic shear zone

the ephemeral development of c shear bands a numerical modelling approach abstract c shear bands are ubiquitous structures in shear zones but their development is poorly understood previous research has determined they mostly occur in rocks with a high mechanical strength contrast using numerical models of viscoplastic deformation we studied the effect of the proportion of weak phase and the phase strength contrast on c shear band development during simple shearing to a finite strain of 18 we found that c shear bands form in models with 5 weak phase when there is a moderate or high phase strength contrast and they occur in all models with weak phase proportions 15 contrary to previous research we find that c shear bands form when layers of weak phase parallel to the shear zone boundary rotate forwards this occurs due to mechanical instabilities that are a result of heterogeneous distributions of stress and strain rate c shear bands form on planes of low strain rate and stress and not in sites of maximum strain rate as has previously been suggested c shear bands are ephemeral and they either rotate backwards to the c plane once they are inactive or rotate into the field of shortening and thicken to form x and triangle shaped structures

development of phyllonite from granodiorite mechanisms of grain size reduction in the santa rosa mylonite zone california abstract field and laboratory investigations indicate that phyllonite within the santa rosa mylonite zone developed from granodiorite without hydrous alteration of the original mineral assemblage initial grain size reduction within zones of phyllonite was accomplished through whole rock cataclasis subsequent deformation occurred through ductile flow the original cataclastic failure is recorded by sharp boundaries with the surrounding rock which are retained through the ductile overprint biotite in phyllonite has a mean grain size of 3 m and exhibits straight boundaries and a strong crystallographic preferred orientation trace analyses of hvem images indicate that the largest biotite grains are most strongly oriented and the grains are elongate parallel to lineation tem observations indicate that typical grains have irregularly spaced stacking faults and twins evidence for intracrystalline folding and cataclasis present in protomylonite and mylonite is absent bending or kinking of grains is rare these observations suggest that biotite in phyllonite accommodated deformation through dynamic recrystallization in concert with intracrystalline slip and mechanical rotation grain size reduction to form phyllonite is accompanied by macroscopically and microscopically visible changes in the character of foliations in the rock we suggest that these changes are linked to the deformation mechanisms operating within the fine grained phyllonite

constraints on deformation path from finite strain gradients we present a methodology for analyzing finite strain gradients in high strain zones in order to place constraints on the zone s possible deformation path to accomplish this the high strain zone is divided into several sub zones within each of which finite strain is described by a single ellipsoid based on knowledge of the spatial and temporal evolution of deformation strain observed in less deformed sub zones is then mathematically removed from more deformed sub zones to calculate incremental finite strains the mean kinematic vorticity number of each of these increments must be constant if deformation was steady state we use the methodology to analyze two natural examples of high strain zones at different scales both natural examples have non steady state likely deformation paths which may be a common characteristic of high strain zones although results of the methodology are not unique identification of likely paths considerably narrows the range of possible deformation paths consequently useful kinematic information can be extracted from finite strain data even in instances where the detailed spatial and temporal evolution of a high strain zone cannot be determined conclusively

progressive refolding in ductile shear zones abstract the foliation formed in a ductile shear zone can become folded by continuing shear in the zone without the foliation having to enter the shortening sector of the flow field if the foliation lies parallel to the shear plane infinitesimal variations in the rate of shear strain cause compensating rotations that may amplify into folds small increases in the rate cause backward rotations counter to the sense of shear these do not amplify small decreases cause forward rotations that do amplify

reconstruction of deformation and flow parameters from deformed vein sets abstract in any homogeneously deformed material sets of material lines with a similar stretch history occupy sectors with a scale and orientation that depend on finite strain area change rate and vorticity of the parent flow if the size and shape of these material line sectors are known they can be used to determine the sense of shear and to calculate deformation and flow parameters even if actual stretches along material lines are unknown in rocks which have undergone near homogeneous deformation on a large scale the orientation of sets of boudinaged folded and folded boudinaged or boudinaged folded veins can be used for such calculations a general theoretical background to the problem is presented and a mohr circle construction to carry out the deformation and flow analysis is introduced among other statements the theory predicts that shortened or folded boudins must develop in non coaxial monophase deformation with considerable area change in the plane of observation or in polyphase deformation

structural geology meets micromechanics a self consistent model for the multiscale deformation and fabric development in earth s ductile lithosphere abstract earth s lithosphere is made of rheologically heterogeneous elements of a wide range of characteristic lengths a micromechanics based self consistent multiorder power law approach is presented to account for lithospheric deformations and the accompanying multiscale fabric development the approach is principally based on the extended eshelby theory for the motion of a power law viscous ellipsoid in a power law viscous matrix and the idea of embedding inhomogeneities within inhomogeneities the extended theory provides a general means for investigating deformation partitioning in heterogeneous rocks the inhomogeneities within inhomogeneities method allows multi hierarchical levels of flow field partitioning and hence multiscale deformations to be investigated partitioned flow fields are used to investigate fabric development being based fully on micromechanics the approach generates model predictions of both kinematic quantities strain strain rates and vorticity and stress histories the former can be directly compared with field and laboratory structural observations while the latter can help to understand the physics of natural deformations the self consistent and multiscale approach is applied to a natural example of the cascade lake shear zone in the east sierra nevada of california the modeling shows that the fabrics are most consistent with a steeply dipping transpression zone with a convergence angle of 20 and a strike slip displacement about 26 km further the strength evolution of the model zone confirms that a transpression zone is a weakening system with respect to the simple shearing component and a hardening one for the pure shearing component this is consistent with slip partitioning in obliquely convergent plate boundaries boundary normal convergence tends to spread over a broad area whereas boundary parallel shear tends to localize in major strike slip zones

interpretation of deformation fabrics of infrastructure zone rocks in the context of channel flow and other tectonic models infrastructure zones are essentially horizontal to shallowly dipping crustal scale zones of non coaxial flow with two possible interpretations a a crustal scale shear zone transporting upper crust over lower crust and or mantle transport flow or b a zone of channel flow in which there is a flux of weak crust between relatively strong upper and lower crust and or mantle away from the centre of the orogen transport flow has a constant shear sense across the zone whereas in channel flow the sense of shear reverses across the zone channel flow may be driven by extrusion extrusive channel flow due to the two channel walls approaching one another or by a pressure gradient along the channd normal channel flow with no convergence of the walls necessary arguments based on strain compatibility and mechanics suggest that extrusive channel flow is unlikely kinematic vorticity numbers have been used to show that infrastructure and other shear zones have undergone flattening strains but we show that the numbers are incompatible with extrusion we also show that in addition to the problems inherent in determining kinematic vorticity numbers from fabric the numbers cannot be related to bulk flow in mechanically heterogeneous zones because of flow partitioning drag folds are a better indication albeit qualitative of whether a zone is thinning or not they also give a conservative estimate of the minimum accumulated shear strains and may inhibit strain localization like snowball garnets they indicate shear strains that are so large that the pure shear thinning component for a steady shear zone has to be small

messinian stromatolite thrombolite associations santa pola se spain an analogue for the palaeozoic stromatolite thrombolite associations are the dominant facies forming large portions of the santa pola carbonate platform se spain during deposition of the terminal carbonate complex tcc the tcc the last period of marine sedimentation in the western mediterranean associated with the messinian salinity crisis comprises a ne sw trending thrombolite reef with occasionally interlayered stromatolite horizons and a predominantply stromatolite and oolite facies in the back reef area the stromatolites are mainly dome shaped but fine columnar or wavy undulose forms can occur the stromatolites form huge bioherms extending tens to hundreds of metres they are finely laminated with alternating layers of dolomicrite and dolomicrospar the dolomicrite layers appear to be a primary dolomite precipitate whereas the dolomite crystals in the dolomicrospar layers apparently formed around a meta stable nuclei which was subsequently dissolved or degraded the low content of sand sized particles in the stromatolitic layers indicates formation under low energy conditions possibly on a tidal flat as reported from other areas in the western mediterranean deposition of the tcc at santa pola was apparently cyclic whereby stromatolites generally terminate each depositional cycle subtidal conophyton stromatolites possibly the only known occurrence younger than palaeozoic are however found on the reef slope at the base of the first tcc depositional cycle the dolomitic nature of the unadulterated stromatolitic laminations and the association of stromatolites and thrombolites as platform builders were a common feature in the early palaeozoic but are unusual in post ordovician carbonate facies we propose that the conditions during tcc deposition were very restricted possibly reflecting an environment similar to that of the early palaeozoic

successive development of plane noncylindrical folds in progressive deformation in the history of superposed deformations of the iron formations at the western border of the kolar gold field in s india an important event was the successive growth of broadly coaxial plane noncylindrical folds in course of a progressive deformation concomitant with development of ductile mesoscopic shear zones the noncylindrical folds were initiated as active folds by the creation of a buckling instability at successive stages on newly developed foliation surfaces the nucleation of noncylindrical folds and the subsequent axial plane folding of the tightened mature folds are explained by the mechanical inhomogeneity of the rocks and the heterogeneous character of strain the correlation between increasing tightness and increasing noncylindricity of the folds indicates that the initial curvatures of hinge lines were accentuated by an extension parallel to the subhorizontal stretching lineation from the patterns of deformed lineations over folds of varying tightnesses it is concluded that the passive accentuation of hinge line curvatures was mostly achieved when the folds had already become isoclinal or very tight

the partitioning of deformation in flowing rock masses abstract most geological structures owe their development to heterogeneous and or non steady flow flow partitioning refers to the division of the instantaneous velocity field into components related to translation strain and rotation flow partitioning during the development of a geological structure usually changes with time and different histories of flow are involved at different points in the developing structure heterogeneity leads to the development of flow domains with different characteristics notably the degree of non coaxiality of deformation and different partitionings of the rotational component of flow into shear induced vorticity and spin during non steady flow there is often continual repartitioning of vorticity between the spin and shear induced components spin is an important aspect of flow leading to the development of structure this paper discusses the partitioning of deformation in a flowing rock mass coaxial flow tends to occur in isotropic materials in regions near weakly constrained boundaries non coaxial flow is favoured by suitably oriented material anisotropy and or the presence of well defined boundary constraints involving parallel relative displacements a developing anisotropy e g a crystallographic fabric in a shear zone can induce a change from coaxial to non coaxial flow other effects are related to the scale of approximation for example bulk shear induced vorticity can be locally converted to spin flow in the crust and mantle of the earth produces geological structures on all scales and involves many different types of rheological response the factors that affect flow partitioning e g spin versus non coaxial deformation are therefore of interest

deformation path partitioning within the transpressional white mountain shear zone california and nevada most numerical simulations of transpression zones predict a change in finite stretching direction from subhorizontal to subvertical for simple shear dominated zones we provide a detailed description of a dextral transpression zone the white mountain shear zone wmsz with a range of lineation orientations and compare these natural data to numerical models the wmsz is characterized by steeply dipping foliations with dominant shallowly plunging lineations and coeval subordinate domains of steeply plunging lineations within shallowly lineated domains foliation geometry shear sense indicators and quartz c axis fabrics indicate a large component of simple shear while microstructural and quartz c axis fabric data from steeply lineated domains indicate a large component of pure shear geometric relationships between foliations and lineations and quartz c axis fabrics demonstrate that lineation orientation has remained constant during much of the deformation history comparison of numerical models with the data collected from wmsz shows that the shear zone geometry and the observed strain path partitioning do not match any of these models we propose a conceptual kinematic model for the wmsz involving stable segregated coeval kinematic domains of simple shear dominated fabrics and pure shear dominated fabrics that accommodate the transcurrent and contractional components of deformation respectively

mesoscale eddies in the south china sea observed with altimeter data 1 a composite time series 1993 2000 of sea surface height anomaly from several satellites is used to identify eddies in the south china sea scs the eddy lifetime radius strength and straight line travel distance are estimated altogether 58 anticyclonic eddies and 28 cyclonic eddies are identified for this period they are grouped into four geographical zones according to known eddy generation mechanisms and their statistics are discussed accordingly our geographical classification is a useful first step in gaining an overview of their generation

structures and fabrics in a crustal scale shear zone betic cordillera se spain abstract a broad zone of dominantly ductile high strain deformation lies beneath the aguilon nappe in the sierra alhamilla southern spain it forms part of a crustal scale movement zone traceable through much of the betic cordillera which separates the higher betic nappes from the underlying nevado filabride complex the zone is characterized in outcrop by a distinctive platy foliation and a strong nne trending stretching lineation microstructural characteristics include quartz ribbons mica fish augen of feldspar and other minerals in a matrix of dynamically recrystallized quartz and extensional crenulation cleavages narrow bands of ultramylonite and cataclasite occur within and on the margins of the movement zone deformation occurred under lower greenschist facies conditions and was accompanied by retrogression of earlier higher grade mineral assemblages structures in the movement zone developed in a temporal sequence beginning with isoclinal folding and transposition of older foliations this was followed by the formation of extensional crenulation cleavages and the progressive localization of strain into the ultramylonite bands mylonitic foliation in these bands is deformed by syn mylonite folds restricted to the bands all these structures were then deformed by s to se vergent small scale folds restricted to the movement zone as a whole cataclasis associated with alteration is localized along the ultramylonite bands and indicates a transition to late stage brittle deformation the lower boundary of the movement zone is gradational strain decreases recrystallized grainsize and the degree of recrystallization of quartz increases and pressure solution becomes the dominant deformation mechanism in mica schist asymmetric quartz fabrics in the movement zone indicate a nne sense of shear but variations in the degree of asymmetry suggest that flow was partitioned with the ultramylonite bands taking up much of the shear strain and the intervening rocks deforming more slowly and with a lower degree of non coaxiality diffuse fabrics in the fine grained ultramylonite bands may indicate a switch to a grainsize sensitive deformation mechanism and an overall downward increase in the opening angle of crossed girdle fabrics may reflect increased water activity at depth

a fundamental problem with the kinematic interpretation of geological structures abstract non steady flows are ubiquitous in nature not only do imposed boundary conditions vary with time and rock rheology change during the course of deformation but also deformation is generally heterogeneous and all of these conditions lead to non steady flow histories in modern kinematic analysis flow apophyses the instantaneous stretching axes and the vorticity vector collectively referred to as the eigen directions of deformation are used in place of bruno sander s kinematic axes for deformation with a steady flow history this practice is well justified and has led to great advances in structural geology but for non steady flow histories the geometrical relationships among eigen directions flow pattern vary with time this makes it inappropriate to correlate an association of structures and fabrics with certain time invariant flow patterns and hence raises the question how should we interpret geological structures and fabrics kinematically without the assumption of homogeneous and steady deformation we suggest that the answer lies primarily in forward modeling of deformation based on a knowledge of rock properties