Layer-parallel shortening and related structures in zones undergoing active regional horizontal extension

Folds and thrust faults formed by layer-parallel shortening coaxial with extensional structures such as normal dip-slip faults and ductile necking structures with orthorhombic fabric symmetry are usual, but little-recognised structures formed within normal dip-slip shear zones bounding rifts. They are generated because of the shear distribution in a zone of progressive deformation and may be later extended and disrupted depending on which part of the strain ellipsoid they may be located. We here describe folds and thrust faults from the southern margin of the Ala?ehir Rift in western Turkey as an opportunity to discuss the properties of pure extension–related structures formed by layer-parallel shortening. Such structures are more commonly generated during the early stages of rifting, when deformation rates are slow and the shear zones broader than those forming later in the life of a rift when strain rates are usually higher. Such structures have commonly been mistaken for witnesses documenting regional episodes of shortening rather than as integral parts of the extensional structures forming rifts. Not all layer-parallel shortening-related structures therefore indicate regional shortening. We plead that hasty statements concerning the meaning of geological structures at all scales be avoided before a thorough understanding of bulk strains that have affected a region are properly understood.     

华北板块南缘的变形分解:洛南-栾川断裂带与秦岭北缘强变形带研究

秦岭洛南-栾川断裂带具有左旋斜向俯冲的运动学特征,其产状一般为107°/N∠65°。华南板块的俯冲方向为80°,俯冲角度为42°;华南板块运动方向为42°,运动方向与华北板块南部边界的夹角为65°,汇聚角25°。秦岭北缘强变形带内褶皱枢纽延伸方向为290°,与洛南-栾川断裂带存在15°的夹角。逆冲断层走向与褶皱的枢纽方向基本一致,大多数断层与洛南-栾川断裂带有相同的运动学极性,性质为左行平移逆断层。平移正断层走向主要为NE SW,断层性质、展布方向、运动学特征与板块汇聚的应力作用方式吻合;片理、片麻理走向117°,与洛南-栾川断裂带走向夹角为10°。在垂直剪切带的剖面上,系统观察岩石变形特征,测量面理产状,进行岩石有限应变测量,岩石非共轴递进变形分析结果表明:秦岭北缘强变形带内由南向北面理走向与剪切带走向的夹角逐渐增大,岩石剪应变量依次递减,造山带变形具有“三斜对称”特点。     

郯庐断裂带安徽段活断层特征与成因

详细的野外地质调查表明,郯庐断裂带安徽段活断层广泛存在,自北向南分别沿着嘉山盆地的东、西边界、合肥盆地东界与大别造山带东界分布。走向上自北向南由北北东向转为北东向,倾向上与早期盆缘正断层一致。这些活断层以逆右行平移活动为主,显示了逆冲分量随着断层倾角变小而增大的现象。依据一系列活断层擦痕实测数据的反演,指示它们活动时的应力状态为北东东-南西西向挤压,与现代应力状态一致。从多种现象综合分析,本文认为郯庐断裂带安徽段活断层的最新活动时代应为中更新世,从而该段没有强震记录或小震群集现象。本次工作表明,区内活断层主体上是早期盆缘正断层直接复活成因。由于其第四纪期间有限的累计垂直位移分量,并没有改变白垩-古近纪盆地发育阶段的地貌格局。     

The geometry of planar domino-style normal faults above a dipping basal detachment

Geometrical analysis of planar domino-style normal faults rooted into a dipping basal detachment fault allows derivation of equations which relate: (1) horizontal extension within the upper plate; (2) dip of the detachment; (3) final fault dips; (4) rotation that faults and beds undergo; and (5) net slip on domino-style faults. Past geometrical models have focused on extremely idealized and non-unique geometries, in which domino-style faults are parallel and similar cut-off points are all at the same elevation after faulting. This corresponds to evenly spaced domino-style faults above a horizontal detachment. Considering non-parallel faults and dipping detachments introduces unique geometries, which allows calculation, for example, of permissible depth ranges to the detachment. Horizontal extension varies significantly: (1) with dip of the detachment; and (2) for synthetic and antithetic cases, in which the domino-style faults dip in the same or opposite direction, respectively, as the detachment. When other factors (e.g. rotation and fault dips) are held constant, horizontal extension greatly increases for moderate detachment dips and moderately decreases for antithetic detachment dips, as compared to the horizontal detachment case. This is important because the synthetic case has been widely reported.     

Active normal faulting during the 1997 seismic sequence in Colfiorito,Umbria: Did slip propagate to the surface?

In order to determine whether slip during an earthquake on the 26th September 1997 propagated to the surface, structural data have been collected along a bedrock fault scarp in Umbria, Italy. These collected data are used to investigate the relationship between the throw associated with a debated surface rupture (observed as a pale unweathered stripe at the base of the bedrock fault scarp) and the strike, dip and slip-vector. Previous studies have suggested that the surface rupture was produced either by primary surface slip or secondary compaction of hangingwall sediments. Some authors favour the latter because sparse surface fault dip measurements do not match nodal plane dips at depth. It is demonstrated herein that the strike, dip and height of the surface rupture, represented by a pale unweathered stripe at the base of the bedrock scarp, shows a systematic relationship with respect to the geometry and kinematics of faulting in the bedrock. The strike and dip co-vary and the throw is greatest where the strike is oblique to the slip-vector azimuth where the highest dip values are recorded. This implies that the throw values vary to accommodate spatial variation in the strike and dip of the fault across fault plane corrugations, a feature that is predicted by theory describing conservation of strain along faults, but not by compaction. Furthermore, published earthquake locations and reported fault dips are consistent with the analysed surface scarps when natural variation for surface dips and uncertainty for nodal plane dips at depth are taken into account. This implies that the fresh stripe is indeed a primary coseismic surface rupture whose slip is connected to the seismogenic fault at depth. We discuss how this knowledge of the locations and geometry of the active faults can be used as an input for seismic hazard assessment.     

Three-dimensional compressional deformations in the Zailiski Alatau mountains,Kazakstan

Abstract

The classical model of faulting predicts that slip planes occur in two conjugate sets. Theoretically, more sets can be contemporarily active if pre-existing structures are reactivated in a three-dimensional strain field. Four to six sets of faults have been active in the Holocene in the Zailiski Alatau mountain range, Kazakstan. Faults strike with the highest frequency ENE and ESE and show mostly left-lateral reverse and right-lateral reverse motions, respectively. These faults have a bimodal distribution of dips, forming four sets arranged in orthorhombic symmetry. Locally, NNW- to NNE- striking vertical faults have also been active in the Holocene and show right-lateral strike-slip and left-lateral strike-slip motions, respectively. All these fault sets accommodated the general three-dimensional deformation, given by N-S-directed horizontal shortening, vertical extension, and E-W-directed horizontal extension. Field evidence also shows that the reverse motions, even if with a minor strike-slip component, occurred on high-angle planes with inclination of 65°-85°. ENE- and ESE-striking faults reactivated older fracture zones, whereas the other sets are newly formed. Comparison of these field results with the structures obtained from published analogue models shows a strong similarity of fault geometry and kinematics.     

On stress and strain in a continuous-discontinuous shear zone undergoing simple shear and volume loss

I summarise observations within a continuous-discontinuous shear zone to discuss the local stress and strain conditions experienced within a mixed rheology shear zone undergoing volume loss and deformation approximating simple shear. The Chrystalls Beach Complex, New Zealand, comprises phacoids formed from dismembered beds by layer-parallel extension, enclosed within a relatively incompetent matrix. Local extension is generally subparallel to the regional direction of shortening, and overall it appears that layer-parallel extension is a geometrical necessity in low angle shear zones where significant flattening occurs in response to simple shear accompanied by volume loss.Preferential stress loading of phacoids is predicted by fibre-loading theory, and the failure of phacoids by brittle fracture is thereby governed by fibre stresses transferred from the matrix. The principal stress orientations in a phacoid are likely rotated relative to the matrix, and either parallel or perpendicular to the phacoid-matrix interface. As preferential loading of phacoids decreases the stress level in the matrix, an increased volume fraction of phacoids increases the strength of the shear zone as a whole. However, only small matrix volume fractions are required for the composite to act nearly as weak as the matrix.     

Structural inversion and its controls : examples from the Alpine foreland and the French Alps

Abstract

Positive structural inversion involves the uplift of rocks on the hanging-walls of faults, by dip slip or oblique slip movements. Controlling factors include the strike and dip of the earlier normal faults, the type of normal faults — whether they were listric or rotated blocks, the time lapsed since extension and the amount of contraction relative to extension. Steeply dipping faults are difficult to invert by dip slip movements; they form buttresses to displacement on both cover detachments and on deeper level but gently inclined basement faults. The decrease in displacement on the hanging-walls of such steep buttresses leads to the generation of layer parallel shortening, gentle to tight folds — depending on the amount of contractional displacement, back-folds and back-thrust systems, and short-cut thrust geometries — where the contractional fault slices across the footwall of the earlier normal fault to enclose a “floating horse”. However, early steeply dipping normal faults readily form oblique to strike slip inversion structures and often tramline the subsequent shortening into particular directions.

Examples are given from the strongly inverted structures of the western Alps and the weakly inverted structures of the Alpine foreland. Extensional faulting developed during the Triassic to Jurassic, during the initial opening of the central Atlantic, while the main phases of inversion date from the end Cretaceous when spreading began in the north Atlantic and there was a change of relative motion between Europe and Africa. During the mid-Tertiary well over 100 km of Alpine shortening took place; Alpine thrusts, often detached along, or close to, the basement-cover interface, stacking the late Jurassic to Cretaceous sediments of the post-extensional subsidence phase. These high level detachments were joined and breached by lower level faults in the basement which, in the external zones of the western Alps, generally reactivated and rotated the earlier east dipping half-graben bounding faults. The external massifs are essentially uplifted half-graben blocks. There was more reactivation and stacking of basement sheets in the eastern part of this external zone, where the faults had been rotated into more gentle dips above a shallower extensional detachment than on the steeper faults to the west.

There is no direct relationship between the weaker inversion of the Alpine foreland and the major orogenic contraction of the western Alps; the inversion structures of southern Britain and the Channel were separated from the Alps by a zone of rifting from late Eocene to Miocene which affected the Rhone, Bresse and Rhine regions. Though they relate to the same plate movements which formed the Alps, the weaker inversion structures must have been generated by within plate stresses, or from those emanating from the Atlantic rather than the Tethyan margin.     

Rupture progression along discontinuous oblique fault sets: implications for the Karadere rupture segment of the 1999 Izmit earthquake, and future rupture in the Sea of Marmara

Large earthquakes in strike-slip regimes commonly rupture fault segments that are oblique to each other in both strike and dip. This was the case during the 1999 Izmit earthquake, which mainly ruptured E–W-striking right-lateral faults but also ruptured the N60°E-striking Karadere fault at the eastern end of the main rupture. It will also likely be so for any future large fault rupture in the adjacent Sea of Marmara. Our aim here is to characterize the effects of regional stress direction, stress triggering due to rupture, and mechanical slip interaction on the composite rupture process. We examine the failure tendency and slip mechanism on secondary faults that are oblique in strike and dip to a vertical strike-slip fault or “master” fault. For a regional stress field well-oriented for slip on a vertical right-lateral strike-slip fault, we determine that oblique normal faulting is most favored on dipping faults with two different strikes, both of which are oriented clockwise from the strike-slip fault. The orientation closer in strike to the master fault is predicted to slip with right-lateral oblique normal slip, the other one with left-lateral oblique normal slip. The most favored secondary fault orientations depend on the effective coefficient of friction on the faults and the ratio of the vertical stress to the maximum horizontal stress. If the regional stress instead causes left-lateral slip on the vertical master fault, the most favored secondary faults would be oriented counterclockwise from the master fault. For secondary faults striking ±30° oblique to the master fault, right-lateral slip on the master fault brings both these secondary fault orientations closer to the Coulomb condition for shear failure with oblique right-lateral slip. For a secondary fault striking 30° counterclockwise, the predicted stress change and the component of reverse slip both increase for shallower-angle dips of the secondary fault. For a secondary fault striking 30° clockwise, the predicted stress change decreases but the predicted component of normal slip increases for shallower-angle dips of the secondary fault. When both the vertical master fault and the dipping secondary fault are allowed to slip, mechanical interaction produces sharp gradients or discontinuities in slip across their intersection lines. This can effectively constrain rupture to limited portions of larger faults, depending on the locations of fault intersections. Across the fault intersection line, predicted rakes can vary by >40° and the sense of lateral slip can reverse. Application of these results provides a potential explanation for why only a limited portion of the Karadere fault ruptured during the Izmit earthquake. Our results also suggest that the geometries of fault intersection within the Sea of Marmara favor composite rupture of multiple oblique fault segments.     

Damage zone and slip-surface evolution over μm to km scales in high-porosity Navajo sandstone, Utah

Detailed mapping of throw variations and deformation along two km-scale normal faults in the high-porosity Navajo sandstone, Utah, has been used to investigate fault growth in this lithology. The faults consist of one or more through-going, striated, slip-surfaces, accommodating the greater part of the offset surrounded by a damage zone consisting of deformation band clusters and short, unconnected slip-surfaces. In contrast to previous models for deformation in this lithology, we find that the nucleation of slip-surfaces begins where measurable throw is negligible and deformation bands are forming and increasing in number. The microstructure and porosity of deformation bands and slip surfaces are distinct and independent of the amount of offset that they accommodate, i.e. they represent different and yet contemporaneous deformation mechanisms. The point where measurable throw begins to accumulate (the fault tip) is marked by the first through-going connected slip-surface. Increase in throw towards the centre of the fault results in a three-dimensional strain field, producing orthorhombic structural geometries within the damage zone. We find that the total width of the damage zone increases as offset is accumulated. For these faults, the damage zone width is approximately 2.5 times the total fault throw.     

先存断层产状及其组合关系对反转构造变形影响的离散元数值模拟研究

反转构造在我国含油气盆地中广泛发育,对于油气勘探具有重要意义.本文采用离散元颗粒流方法研究了先存正断层的陡缓程度、倾向组合关系和距离挤压端的远近等因素对断层的反转构造发育及其反转量的影响.模拟结果显示,先存断层的产状及其距离挤压端的远近会影响先存断层的反转次序、反转量,进而影响盖层内反转构造的发育.当先存正断层倾向指向...     

Three-dimensional structure along the inverted Palaeoproterozoic Fiery Creek Fault System, Mount Isa terrane, Australia

The NW-dipping Fiery Creek Fault System, located in the northern Mount Isa terrane, comprises numerous sub-parallel faults that record multiple episodes of Palaeo- to Mesoproterozoic movement. Hanging wall wedge-shaped stratal geometries and marked stratal thickness variation across the fault system indicate that the earliest movement occurred during episodic intracontinental extension (Mount Isa Rift Event; ca. 1710–1655 Ma). Reactivation of the fault system during regional shortening and basin inversion associated with the Mesoproterozoic Isan Orogeny (ca. 1590–1500 Ma) resulted in complex three-dimensional hanging wall geometries and highly variable strain in the hanging wall strata along the fault system. This has resulted in the development of discrete hanging wall deformation compartments, that are characterised by different structural styles. High strain compartments are characterised by relatively intense folding and the development of break-back thrusts, whereas low strain compartments are only weakly folded. Variations in hanging wall strain are attributed to selective reactivation of normal fault segments, controlled by the pre-inversion fault dip and lithological contrasts across the faults. Variation of the pre-inversion fault dip is interpreted to have been caused by episodic tilt-block rotation during crustal extension. Moderately dipping faults active early in the Mount Isa Rift Event show the greatest degree of reactivation, whereas younger and steeper normal faults have behaved as buttresses during inversion with strain focussed in zones of upright folding in the hanging wall.     

Relay zone geometry and displacement transfer between normal faults recorded in coal-mine plans

Overlap lengths, separations and throw gradients were measured on 132 relay zones recorded on coal-mine plans. Throws on the relay-bounding fault traces are usually ≤ 2 m and individual structures are recorded on only one seam. Throw gradients associated with relay zones are not always higher than on single faults, but asymmetry of throw profiles is diagnostic of relay zones. Bed geometries around larger faults in opencast mines are used to assess the displacement accommodated by shear in the vertical plane normal to the faults and displacement transfer accommodated by shear in the fault-parallel plane. Three-dimensional structure is defined for two relay zones, each recorded on five seam plans. These relay zones are effectively holes through the fault surfaces and overlap occurs between salients or lobes of the parent fault surfaces. Lobes initially terminated at tip-lines but, as the faults grew, gradually rejoined the main fault surfaces along branch lines. This type of relay zone originates by bifurcation of a single fault surface at a locally retarded tip-line and is an almost inevitable result of a tip-line irregularity.     

从反转构造的砂箱模型看柴达木早-中侏罗世盆地的构造性质

设计了基底均匀伸展半地堑正反转、基底均匀伸展书斜式正反转和对称地堑正反转等3个砂箱实验模型,着重研究后期构造反转对前期正断层构造的叠加与改造作用.单侧挤压实验结果表明,正反转过程中,挤压变形主要通过形成新的低角度逆冲断层实现,前期正断层多数可被保存下来,仅倾角不同程度地变陡.前期正断层全部反转为逆断层的可能性极小,仅在强烈逆冲变形带,逆冲断层才有可能完全取代前期的正断层.根据实验结果并结合柴达木盆地的实际资料,认为柴达木盆地早-中侏罗世时期为挤压性质的盆地.     

Antithetic fault linkages in a deep water fold and thrust belt

Deep water fold and thrust belts consist of both forethrusts and backthrusts that can link along strike to form continuous folds in the overburden. The interaction of faults of opposing dip are termed ‘antithetic thrust fault linkages’ and share the common feature of a switch in vergence of overlying hangingwall anticlines. Using three-dimensional seismic data, on the toe-of-slope of the Niger Delta, linkages are classified into three distinct structural styles. This preliminary classification is based on the vertical extent of faulting within a transfer zones relative to the branch line of the antithetic faults. The stratigraphic level of the lateral tip of the fault, the shape of lateral tip region of a fault plane and the stratal deformation within the transfer zones is also distinctive in each type of fault linkage. A Type 1 linkage comprises faults that overlap exclusively above the level of the branch line. A ‘pop-up’ structure forms within the transfer zone with sediments below remaining planar. The lower tip lines of faults climb stratigraphically towards the linkage zone creating asymmetric, upward-tapering lateral tip regions. In Type 2 linkages fault overlap occurs lower than the level of the branch line such that lateral fault tips are located within the footwall of the counterpart fault. Faulting is thus limited to the deeper section within the transfer zone and creates unfaulted, symmetric, bell-shaped folds in the overburden. Upper tip lines of faults lose elevation within the transfer zone creating asymmetric, downwards-tapering lateral tip regions. In Type 3 linkages both faults continue above and below the branch line within the transfer zone resulting in cross-cutting fault relationships. Horizon continuity across the folds, through the transfer zones, varies significantly with depth and with the type of fault intersection.     

The relationship between the geometry of normal faults and that of the sedimentary layers in their hanging walls

We derive an analytical expression that relates the shape of a fault in cross-section to the shape of the bedding horizons in its hanging wall block. The expression assumes that the hanging wall deforms by simple shear and that the footwall remains undeformed throughout. Although this paper concentrates on normal faults, the expression is equally valid and applicable to thrust faults. The direction of simple shear in the hanging wall block is arbitrary and has a dramatic effect on the predicted fault or bedding geometry. There is no reason to believe that the simple shear occurs on vertical planes, as is commonly assumed in graphical approaches to this problem, and ignoring the presence of inclined simple shear is likely to lead to considerable underestimates of the amount of extension across normal faults and in the amount of shortening across thrusts. Similar though more complicated expressions can be obtained when compaction within the hanging wall block is taken into account. For a planar normal fault such compaction may result in the development of a hanging wall syncline.     

Co-seismic Faults and Geological Hazards and Incidence of Active Fault of Wenchuan Ms 8.0 Earthquake,Sichuan,China

There are two co-seismic faults which developed when the Wenchuan earthquake happened. One occurred along the active fault zone in the central Longmen Mts.and the other in the front of Longmen Mts.The length of which is more than 270 km and about 80 km respectively.The co-seismic fault shows a reverse flexure belt with strike of N45°-60°E in the ground,which caused uplift at its northwest side and subsidence at the southeast.The fault face dips to the northwest with a dip angle ranging from 50°to 60°.The...     

Geometry and architecture of faults in a syn-rift normal fault array: The Nukhul half-graben, Suez rift, Egypt

The geometry and architecture of a well exposed syn-rift normal fault array in the Suez rift is examined. At pre-rift level, the Nukhul fault consists of a single zone of intense deformation up to 10 m wide, with a significant monocline in the hanging wall and much more limited folding in the footwall. At syn-rift level, the fault zone is characterised by a single discrete fault zone less than 2 m wide, with damage zone faults up to approximately 200 m into the hanging wall, and with no significant monocline developed. The evolution of the fault from a buried structure with associated fault-propagation folding, to a surface-breaking structure with associated surface faulting, has led to enhanced bedding-parallel slip at lower levels that is absent at higher levels. Strain is enhanced at breached relay ramps and bends inherited from pre-existing structures that were reactivated during rifting. Damage zone faults observed within the pre-rift show ramp-flat geometries associated with contrast in competency of the layers cut and commonly contain zones of scaly shale or clay smear. Damage zone faults within the syn-rift are commonly very straight, and may be discrete fault planes with no visible fault rock at the scale of observation, or contain relatively thin and simple zones of scaly shale or gouge. The geometric and architectural evolution of the fault array is interpreted to be the result of (i) the evolution from distributed trishear deformation during upward propagation of buried fault tips to surface faulting after faults breach the surface; (ii) differences in deformation response between lithified pre-rift units that display high competence contrasts during deformation, and unlithified syn-rift units that display low competence contrasts during deformation, and; (iii) the history of segmentation, growth and linkage of the faults that make up the fault array. This has important implications for fluid flow in fault zones.     

3D seismic analysis of gravity-driven and basement influenced normal fault growth in the deepwater Otway Basin,Australia

We use three-dimensional (3D) seismic reflection data to analyse the structural style and growth of a normal fault array located at the present-day shelf-edge break and into the deepwater province of the Otway Basin, southern Australia. The Otway Basin is a Late Jurassic to Cenozoic, rift-to-passive margin basin. The seismic reflection data images a NW-SE (128–308) striking, normal fault array, located within Upper Cretaceous clastic sediments and which consists of ten fault segments. The fault array contains two hard-linked fault assemblages, separated by only 2 km in the dip direction. The gravity-driven, down-dip fault assemblage is entirely contained within the 3D seismic survey, is located over a basement plateau and displays growth commencing and terminating during the Campanian-Maastrichtian, with up to 1.45 km of accumulated throw (vertical displacement). The up-dip normal fault assemblage penetrates deeper than the base of the seismic survey, but is interpreted to be partially linked along strike at depth to major basement-involved normal faults that can be observed on regional 2D seismic lines. This fault assemblage displays growth initiating in the Turonian-Santonian and has accumulated up to 1.74 km of throw.Our detailed analysis of the 3D seismic data constraints post-Cenomanian fault growth of both fault assemblages into four evolutionary stages: [1] Turonian-Santonian basement reactivation during crustal extension between Australia and Antarctica. This either caused the upward propagation of basement-involved normal faults or the nucleation of a vertically isolated normal fault array in shallow cover sediments directly above the reactivated basement-involved faults; [2] continued Campanian-Maastrichtian crustal extension and sediment loading eventually created gravitational instability on the basement plateau, nucleating a second, vertically isolated normal fault array in the cover sediments; [3] eventual hard-linkage of fault segments in both fault arrays to form two along-strike, NW-SE striking fault assemblages, and; [4] termination of fault growth in the latest Maastrichtian. We document high variability of throw along-strike and down-dip for both fault assemblages, thereby providing evidence for lateral and vertical segment linkage. Our results highlight the complexities involved in the growth of both gravity-driven normal fault arrays (such as those present in the Niger Delta and Gulf of Mexico) and basement-linked normal fault arrays (such as those present in the North Sea and Suez Rift) with the interaction of an underlying and reactivating basement framework. This study provides an excellent example of spatial variability in growth of two normal fault assemblages over relatively short spatial scales (∼2 km separation down-dip).     

Structure of a normal seismogenic fault zone in carbonates: The Vado di Corno Fault,Campo Imperatore,Central Apennines (Italy)

The Vado di Corno Fault Zone (VCFZ) is an active extensional fault cutting through carbonates in the Italian Central Apennines. The fault zone was exhumed from ∼2 km depth and accommodated a normal throw of ∼2 km since Early-Pleistocene. In the studied area, the master fault of the VCFZ dips N210/54° and juxtaposes Quaternary colluvial deposits in the hangingwall with cataclastic dolostones in the footwall. Detailed mapping of the fault zone rocks within the ∼300 m thick footwall-block evidenced the presence of five main structural units (Low Strain Damage Zone, High Strain Damage Zone, Breccia Unit, Cataclastic Unit 1 and Cataclastic Unit 2). The Breccia Unit results from the Pleistocene extensional reactivation of a pre-existing Pliocene thrust. The Cataclastic Unit 1 forms a ∼40 m thick band lining the master fault and recording in-situ shattering due to the propagation of multiple seismic ruptures. Seismic faulting is suggested also by the occurrence of mirror-like slip surfaces, highly localized sheared calcite-bearing veins and fluidized cataclasites. The VCFZ architecture compares well with seismological studies of the L'Aquila 2009 seismic sequence (mainshock M_W 6.1), which imaged the reactivation of shallow-seated low-angle normal faults (Breccia Unit) cut by major high-angle normal faults (Cataclastic Units).