Paleostress field reconstruction in the Oslo region

The geodynamic history of a region is archived in its geologic record which, in turn, may reflect deformation patterns that causally can be related to certain configurations of paleostresses. In the Oslo Region, the exposed geological record ranges from Precambrian high-grade metamorphic rocks through Cambro-Silurian sedimentary rocks to Permo-Carboniferous sedimentary and magmatic rocks, the latter being related to the development of the Oslo rift system. We investigate the kinematics of outcrop-scale faults to derive the diversity of paleostress states responsible for the observed strain. For this purpose, we combine different graphical and numerical approaches to separate heterogeneous fault-slip data sets and estimate the associated reduced stress tensors. A reduced stress tensor consists of the directions of the three principal stress axes with σ₁ ≥ σ₂ ≥ σ₃ and the ratio of principal stress differences, R = (σ₂ − σ₃)/(σ₁ − σ₃).