Fault damage zone origin of the Teufelsmauer, Subhercynian Cretaceous Basin, Germany

Recognition of fractures as porosity-reducing deformation bands pervading all sandstone segments of the Teufelsmauer, Subhercynian Creatceous Basin, Germany, motivates a study relating the observed macroscopic and microscopic deformation to the damage zone of the nearby Harz border fault. Deformation bands, confirmed and documented by several porosity-reducing micro-mechanisms, such as cataclasis, particulate flow, pressure solution and a heavy quartz cementation, were mapped and analyzed in terms of the kinematics and deformation intensities expressed by them. Deformation band kinematics are uniform throughout the entire basin and consistent with the large-scale tectonic structures of the area. A strain intensity study highlights two narrow but long zones of deformation bands, sub-parallel to the Harz border fault. Deformation band kinematics, strain intensity, as well as micro-mechanisms are all consistent with a continuous but internally diverse deformation band damage zone of the entire Teufelsmauer structure along the Harz border fault, bringing new insights into the tectonic evolution and the origin of the heavy quartz cementation of the sandstones in the Subhercynian Cretaceous Basin.