Main Frontal thrust deformation and topographic growth of the Mohand Range,northwest Himalaya

The Main Frontal thrust (MFT) uplifts the Himalayan topographic front. Deciphering MFT deformation kinematics is crucial for understanding how the orogen accommodates continuing continental collision and assessing associated hazards. Here, we (a) detail newly discovered fault-zone exposures along the MFT at the Mohand Range front in northwestern India and (b) apply contemporary fault zone theory to show that the MFT is an emergent fault with a well-developed fault zone overlain by uplifted Quaternary gravels over a horizontal length of ∼700 m. Northward from the front, the fault zone grades from a central, gouge-dominated core to a hanging-wall, rock-dominated damage zone. We observed incohesive, non-foliated breccia, fault gouge, and brittle deformation microstructures within the fractured country rocks (Middle Siwaliks) and outcrop scale, non-plunging folds in the proximal hanging wall. We interpret these observations to suggest that (1) elastico-frictional (brittle) deformation processes operated in the fault zone at near surface (∼1–5 km depth) conditions and (2) the folds formed first at the propagating MFT fault tip, then were subsequently dismembered by the fault itself. Thus, we interpret the Mohand Range as a fault-propagation fold driven by an emergent MFT in contrast to the consensus view that it is a fault-bend fold. A fault-propagation fold model is more consistent with these new observations, the modern range-scale topography, and existing erosion estimates. To further evaluate our proposed structural model, we used a Boundary Element Method-based dislocation model to simulate topographic growth from excess slip at a propagating fault tip. Results show that the frontal topography could have evolved by slip along a (a) near-surface fault plane consistent with the present-day MFT location, or (b) blind MFT at ∼3 km depth farther north near the drainage divide. Comparing modelled vs. measured high resolution (∼16 cm) topographic profiles for each case provides permissible end-member scenarios of an either dynamically-evolving, high erosion, northward-migrating frontal scarp or a static, low, and symmetric, MHT-related fold, respectively. Our integrated approach is expected to deliver an improved understanding of coupled fault-generated deformation and topographic growth that may be applied more broadly across the entire Himalayan front.     

The juxtaposition of eclogite and mid‐crustal rocks in the Orlica–Śnieżnik Dome,Bohemian Massif

Eclogite, felsic orthogneiss and garnet–staurolite metapelite occur in a 5 km long profile in the area of Mi?dzygórze in the Orlica–?nie?nik dome (Bohemian Massif). Petrographic observations and mineral equilibria modelling, in the context of detailed structural work, are used to document the close juxtaposition of high‐pressure and medium‐pressure rocks. The structural succession in all lithologies shows an early shallow‐dipping fabric, S1, that is folded by upright folds and overprinted by a heterogeneously developed subvertical foliation, S2. Late recumbent folds associated with a weak shallow‐dipping axial‐plane cleavage, S3, occur locally. The S1 fabric in the eclogite is defined by alternation of garnet‐rich (grs = 22–29 mol.%) and omphacite‐rich (jd = 33–36 mol.%) layers with oriented muscovite (Si = 3.26–3.31 p.f.u.) and accessory kyanite, zoisite, rutile and quartz, indicating conditions of ～19–22 kbar and ～700–750 °C. The assemblage in the retrograde S2 fabric is formed by amphibole, plagioclase, biotite and relict rutile surrounded by ilmenite and sphene that is compatible with decompression and cooling from ～9 kbar and ～730 °C to 5–6 kbar and 600–650 °C. The S3 fabric contains in addition domains with albite, chlorite, K‐feldspar and magnetite indicating cooling to greenschist facies conditions. The metapelites are composed of garnet, staurolite, muscovite, biotite, quartz, ilmenite and chlorite. Chemical zoning of garnet cores that contain straight ilmenite and staurolite inclusion trails oriented perpendicular to the external S2 fabric indicates prograde growth, from ～5 kbar and ～520 °C to ～7 kbar and ～610 °C, during the formation of the S1 fabric. Inclusion trails parallel with the S2 fabric at garnet and staurolite rims are interpreted to be a continuation of the prograde path to ～7.5 and ～630 °C in the S2 fabric. Matrix chlorite parallel to the S2 foliation indicates that the subvertical fabric was still active below 550 °C. The axial planar S2 fabrics developed during upright folding are associated with retrogression of the eclogite under amphibolite facies conditions, and with prograde evolution in the metapelites, associated with their juxtaposition. The shared part of the eclogite and metapelite P–T paths during the development of the subvertical fabric reflects their exhumation together.     

冕宁三代褶叠层构造的发现及成因分析

位于扬子地台西缘的冕宁三代地区，出露有震旦纪一晚二叠世的沉积岩及火山岩，岩石普遍遭受了低绿片岩相变质和浅－中构造相变形，尤以顺层片理、顺层掩卧褶皱、顺层韧性剪切带最为发育，地层序列正常。它们是地壳伸展机制下的褶叠层构造组合，它发生于晚二叠世，定型于三叠纪。     

龙门山北段唐王寨-仰天窝地区伸展构造解析

通过对唐王寨—仰天窝地区的构造解析,提出了组成唐王寨—仰天窝向斜的志留、泥盆系中发育有印支晚期逆冲推覆构造形成之前的伸展构造,主要表现为志留、泥盆系之间的剥离断层以及褶叠层等构造样式。通过对区域构造背景及辉绿岩脉形成时间的分析,探讨了伸展构造形成的机制,认为本区的伸展构造主要形成于晚二叠世。     

Propagation history of the Osaka-wan blind thrust,Japan, from trishear modeling

Mapping the nucleation and 3D fault tip growth of the active Osaka-wan blind thrust provides an opportunity to asses how reactivated thrusts build slip from preexisting faults and the threat they pose as sources of large earthquakes. Analysis of folded growth strata, based on 2D trishear inverse modeling allows a range of best-fit models of the evolution of slip and propagation of the fault to be defined. The depth of the fault tip at 1200 ka varies between ∼1.5–4.5 km, suggesting the fault grew upward from high in the crust, and that it is reactivated. From its onset at ∼1500 ka, the fault grew rapidly along strike in ∼300 ky, and upwards with a P/S ratio of 2.5–3.0, but variable fault slip in space and time. Shallower depths of the fault tip at initiation and thinner basin fill correlates with slower propagation with time, contradicting models that argue for sediments as inhibitors of fault growth. Results also suggest the displacement profile of the currently active thrust is offset from its predecessor, assuming shallower depths to the original fault correlate with greater displacement in its prior history. These results suggest reactivated faults may accrue slip differently than newly developed ones, based on the history of upward fault propagation.     

Orogen-transverse tectonic window in the Eastern Himalayan fold belt: A superposed buckling model

The Eastern Lesser Himalayan fold-thrust belt is punctuated by a row of orogen-transverse domal tectonic windows. To evaluate their origin, a variety of thrust-stack models have been proposed, assuming that the crustal shortening occurred dominantly by brittle deformations. However, the Rangit Window (RW) in the Darjeeling-Sikkim Himalaya (DSH) shows unequivocal structural imprints of ductile deformations of multiple episodes. Based on new structural maps, coupled with outcrop-scale field observations, we recognize at least four major episodes of folding in the litho-tectonic units of DSH. The last episode has produced regionally orogen-transverse upright folds (F₄), the interference of which with the third-generation (F₃) orogen-parallel folds has shaped the large-scale structural patterns in DSH. We propose a new genetic model for the RW, invoking the mechanics of superposed buckling in the mechanically stratified litho-tectonic systems. We substantiate this superposed buckling model with results obtained from analogue experiments. The model explains contrasting F₃–F₄ interferences in the Lesser Himalayan Sequence (LHS). The lower-order (terrain-scale) folds have undergone superposed buckling in Mode 1, producing large-scale domes and basins, whereas the RW occurs as a relatively higher-order dome nested in the first-order Tista Dome. The Gondwana and the Proterozoic rocks within the RW underwent superposed buckling in Modes 3 and 4, leading to Type 2 fold interferences, as evident from their structural patterns.     

塔里木盆地巴楚隆起古董山断裂带构造分析

古董山断裂构造带位于塔里木盆地西部的巴楚隆起上,走向北西-南东,延伸140 km左右。基于地震剖面的详细解释,识别出4期构造变形：寒武-奥陶纪正断层、二叠纪正断层、中新世冲断层、上新世-更新世冲断层及其伴生的正断层。中新世基底卷入型冲断层是古董山构造带的主控断裂构造,构成断裂带的主体,构造变形样式为断层传播褶皱。寒武-奥陶纪正断层形成复式地垒,隐伏于中新世主干断层之下。二叠纪正断层可能伴生有岩浆活动。先存的正断层和岩浆岩对古董山中新世断裂活动具有明显的控制作用;后期的断裂活动,即上新世-更新世逆冲断层和正断层,对中新世形成的断裂构造有改造作用。古董山断裂带东南端与玛扎塔格构造带西端交汇,但两者不是同一条断裂带。     

一个典型剖面的构造特征分析

断裂带上盘岩石的褶皱变形程度随距底板断层距离的不同而有规律的变化,即愈靠近底板断层,褶皱变形愈强烈,从而在剖面上呈现明显分带性.褶皱的形成与断裂活动有关,底板滑脱断层、底板逆冲断层和次级逆冲断层的滑动导致不同形态特征褶皱的形成,其中滑脱褶皱和断层传播褶皱典型,褶皱和断层在剖面上构成以逆冲顶板双重构造.     

The Late Paleozoic fold-thrust structure of the Tunka bald mountains, East Sayan (southern framing of the Siberian Platform)

According to the new geological, geochronological, and structural data, the Tunka bald mountains (East Sayan) have a nappe structure, which formed in the Late Carboniferous–Early Permian. The deformations have been dated by the ⁴⁰Ar–³⁹Ar method on the basis of syntectonic micas and amphiboles, whose structural and spatial positions have been determined in oriented thin sections. The geometrical analysis of macro- and microstructures has revealed three development stages of the structures, which followed one another in progressive deformation. The first (thrust-fault) stage (316–310 Ma) comprised a group of N-verging thrust sheets. In the second (fold deformation) stage (305–303 Ma), they were folded. The third (strike-slip fault) stage (286 Ma) comprised high-angle shears, along which V-shaped blocks were squeezed westward from the most compressed areas. All the structures developed under near-N–S-trending compression. The thrusting in the Tunka bald mountains was coeval with the major shear structures in the eastern Central Asian Fold Belt (Main Sayan Fault, Kurai, Northeastern, and Irtysh crumpled zones, etc.). Also, it was simultaneous with the formation of continental-margin calc-alkalic and shoshonite series (305–278 Ma) as well as that of the alkali and alkali-feldspar syenites and granites (281–278 Ma) of the Tarim mantle plume in the Angara–Vitim pluton, located near and east of the studied region. Thus, the simultaneous development of the Late Paleozoic structures, active-margin structures, and plume magmatism in southern Siberia might have resulted from the global geodynamic events caused by the interaction between the tectonic plates which formed the Central Asian Fold Belt.     

Spiral and staircase inclusion trail axes within garnet and staurolite porphyroblasts from schists of the Bolton Syncline, Connecticut: timing of porphyroblast growth and the effects of fold development

In the Littleton Formation, garnet porphyroblasts preserve three generations of growth that occurred before formation of the Bolton Syncline. Inclusion trails of foliations overgrown by these porphyroblasts are always truncated by the matrix foliation suggesting that garnet growth predated the matrix foliation. In contrast, many staurolite porphyroblasts grew synchronously with formation of the Bolton Syncline. However, local rim overgrowths of the matrix foliation suggest that some staurolite porphyroblasts continued to grow after development of the fold during younger crenulation producing deformations. The axes of curvature or intersection of foliations defined by inclusion trails inside the garnet porphyroblasts lie oblique to the axial plane of the Bolton Syncline but do not change orientation across it. This suggests the garnets were not rotated during the subsequent deformation associated with fold development or during even younger crenulation events. Three samples also contain a different set of axes defined by curvature of inclusion trails in the cores of garnet porphyroblasts suggesting a protracted history of garnet growth. Foliation intersection axes in staurolite porphyroblasts are consistently orientated close to the trend of the axial plane of the Bolton Syncline on both limbs of the fold. In contrast, axes defined by curvature or intersection of foliations in the rims of staurolite porphyroblasts in two samples exhibit a different trend. This phase of staurolite growth is associated with a crenulation producing deformation that postdated formation of the Bolton Syncline. Measurement of foliation intersection axes defined by inclusion trails in both garnet and staurolite porphyroblasts has enabled the timing of growth relative to one another and to the development of the Bolton Syncline to be distinguished in rocks where other approaches have not been successful. Consistent orientation of foliation intersection axes across a range of younger structures suggests that the porphyroblasts did not rotate relative to geographical coordinates during subsequent ductile deformation. Foliation intersection axes in porphyroblasts are thus useful for correlating phases of porphyroblastic growth in this region.