Strike-slip tectonics


Strike-slip tectonics is concerned with the structures formed by, and the tectonic processes associated with, zones of lateral displacement within the Earth's crust or lithosphere.

Deformation styles

Riedel shear structures

In the early stages of strike-slip fault formation, displacement within basement rocks produces characteristic fault structures within the overlying cover. This will also be the case where an active strike-slip zone lies within an area of continuing sedimentation. At low levels of strain the overall simple shear causes a set of small faults to form. The dominant set, known as R shears, form at about 15° to the underlying fault with the same shear sense. The R shears are then linked by a second set, the R' shear that form at about 75° to the main fault trace. These two fault orientations can be understood as conjugate fault sets at 30° to the short axis of the instantaneous strain ellipse associated with the simple shear strain field caused by the displacements applied at the base of the cover sequence. With further displacement the Riedel fault segments will tend to become fully linked, often with the development of a further set of shears known as 'P shears', which are roughly symmetrical to the R shears with respect to the overall shear direction, until a throughgoing fault is formed. The somewhat oblique segments will link downwards into the fault at the base of the cover sequence with a helicoidal geometry.

Flower structures

In detail many strike-slip faults at surface consist of en echelon and/or braided segments in many cases probably inherited from previously formed Riedel shears. In cross-section the displacements are dominantly reverse or normal in type depending on whether the overall fault geometry is transpressional or transtensional. As the faults tend to join downwards onto a single strand in basement, the geometry has led to these being termed flower structure. Fault zones with dominantly reverse faulting are known as positive flowers, those with dominantly normal offsets are known as negative flowers. The identification of such structures, particularly where positive and negative flowers are developed on different segments of the same fault, are regarded as reliable indicators of strike-slip.

Strike slip duplexes

Strike slip duplexes occur at the step over regions of faults, forming a lens shaped near parallel arrays of horses. These occur between two or more large bounding faults which usually have large displacement.
An idealized strike-slip fault runs in a straight line with a vertical dip and has only horizontal motion, thus there is no change in topography due to motion of the fault. In reality, as strike slip faults become large and developed, their behavior changes and becomes more complex. A long strike slip fault follows a staircase-like trajectory consisting of interspaced fault planes that follow the main fault direction. These sub parallel stretches are isolated by offsets at first, but over long periods of time they can become connected by step overs in order to accommodate the strike slip displacement. In long stretches of strike-slip the fault plane can start to curve, giving rise to structures similar to step overs.
Right lateral motion of a strike slip fault at a right step over gives rise to extensional bends characterised by zones of subsidence, local normal faults, and pull apart basins. On extensional duplexes, normal faults will accommodate the vertical motion, creating negative relief. Similarly, left stepping at a dextral fault generates contractional bends; shortening the step overs which is displayed by local reverse faults, push-up zones, and folds. On contractional duplex structures, thrust faults will accommodate vertical displacement rather than being folded, as the uplifting process is more energy efficient.
Strike slip duplexes are passive structures; they form as a response to displacement of the bounding fault rather than by the stresses from plate motion. Each horse has a length that varies from half to twice the spacing between the bounding fault planes. Depending on the properties of the rocks and the fault, the duplexes will have different length ratios and will develop on either major or subtle offsets, although it is possible to observe duplex structures that develop on nearly straight fault segments.
Because the motion of the duplexes may be heterogeneous, the individual horses can experience a rotation with a horizontal axis, which results in the formation of scissor faults. Scissor faults exhibit normal motion at one end of the horse and a thrust motion at the other end. Because strike slip duplexes structures have more horizontal motion than vertical motion, they are best observed on a map rather than a vertical projection, and are a good indication that the main fault has a strike slip motion.
An example of strike slip duplexes were observed in the Lambertville sill, New Jersey. Flemington and the Hopewell faults, the two main faults in the region, experienced 3 km of dip slip and over 20 km of strike slip motions to accommodate regional extension. It is possible to trace the lensoidal structures which are interpreted as horses that form duplexes. The lens structures observed in the 3M quarry are 180 meters long and 10 meters wide. The main duplex is 30 m in length and other smaller duplexes are also present.

Geological environments associated with strike-slip tectonics

Areas of strike-slip tectonics are associated with:

Oceanic transform boundaries

are broken into segments offset from each other by transform faults. The active part of the transform links the two ridge segments. Some of these transforms can be very large, such as the Romanche fracture zone, whose active portion extends for about 300 km.

Continental transform boundaries

Transform faults within continental plates include some of the best known examples of strike-slip structures, such as the San Andreas Fault, the Dead Sea Transform, the North Anatolian Fault and the Alpine Fault.

Lateral ramps in areas of extensional or contractional tectonics

Major lateral offsets between large extensional or thrust faults are normally connected by diffuse or discrete zones of strike-slip deformation allowing transfer of the overall displacement between the structures.

Zones of oblique collision

In most zones of continent-continent collision the relative movement of the plates is oblique to the plate boundary itself. The deformation along the boundary is normally partitioned into dip-slip contractional structures in the foreland with a single large strike-slip structure in the hinterland accommodating all the strike-slip component along the boundary. Examples include the Main Recent Fault along the boundary between the Arabian and Eurasian plates behind the Zagros fold and thrust belt, the Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault that runs through Chile and the Great Sumatran fault that runs parallel to the subduction zone along the Sunda Trench.

The deforming foreland of a zone of continent-continent collision

The process sometimes known as indenter tectonics, first elucidated by Paul Tapponnier, occurs during a collisional event where one of the plates deforms internally along a system of strike-slip faults. The best known active example is the system of strike-slip structures observed in the Eurasian plate as it responds to collision with the Indian plate, such as the Kunlun fault and Altyn Tagh fault.