MN331- ENGINEERING GEOLOGY

AND MAPPING
ENGINEERING GEOLOGY
Lecture 6

SHEAR ZONE
Prepared by Dr. Kaul Gena

In many respects, shear zones are the deep-level

equivalents to faults. They should accommodate relative
displacement of the surrounding rocks just as faults do but
rather than be surfaces, they consistute bands of rock that
have undergone deformation. Some shear zones can be
narrow - rather like faults. Others can be tens of
kilometres wide - the deep-lithosphere equivalents of
fault-dominated plate boundaries seen at the Earth's
surface today. The next slides provides a brief introduction
to shear zones, illustrated by outcrop scale examples from
the field.

What`s the problem?

Shear Zone Experiment

There are several ways of quantifying shear strains across shear

zones. The principal aim is to use these data to establish the
displacement across the shear zone. We can use deflected markers
that were originally oriented at 90 degrees to the shear plane - this
is the easiest case to follow. Alternatively we can use the general
case of any pre-existing marker - as long as we can establish its
original orientation. Finally we can determine the shear strain
from new foliations. In all case these estimations should be done
on a plane (e.g. an outcrop surface) perpendicular to the shear
plane and parallel to the shear direction. It is important then to be
able to evaluate the orientation of the shear plane.

Characteristics

Sheared aplite veins in a deformed

granitoid, Ticino, Switzerland. The
two aplite veins had different original
orientations and therefore show
different deflections into the shear
zone. Nevertheless the sense of
deflection is the same and may be
used to deduce the sense of shear in
the shear zone.

Analyzing Shear Zone

Dissolution and reprecipitation of minerals are important mechanisms

by which rocks can change shape (i.e. deform). The process is
generally termed Diffusional Mass Transfer (DMT) - although some
people refer to the dissolution part as "pressure solution". The key
idea is that materials tend to dissolve when compressed (like carbon
dioxide gas in a fizzy drink with the cap on) and come out of solution
when the pressure is released. So the direction of maximum
compression in rocks is normal to planes of maximum solution with
precipitation in the direction of minimum compressive stress. You can
judge this by the next slides. In fine grained rocks the surfaces of
dissolution are commonly wavy. These features are called stilolites.
Pressure solution is also an important way to form cleavage. There are
different types of reprecipitation sites.

Stilolites

Seen here in Carboniferous limestones from south Wales,

this is a classic example of a stilolite. These features can be
mistaken for folds, with in this case the direction of
maximum compression aligned horizontally. This is wrong
because the stilolite forms by solution - with, in this case, the
direction of maximum compression aligned vertically. Notice
the veins too

Cleavage

Example of pressure solution cleavage in silts from south Devon.

The cleavage here is aligned vertically and has generated the
characteristic "stripes" of this form of cleavage. Notice that the
white vein has been dissolved across the solution seams and is
locally buckled (indicating that the vein is less soluble than the
original silt - possibly because the mineral grains in the vein are
bigger). The vein can be related to the same deformation, opening
up vertically as the maximum compression acted horizontally.

Reprecipitation
Reprecipitation is an important part of the
deformation process. There are several different
sorts of site such as veins... which can occur on
all scales.
Vein arrays seen on a bedding surface in Cretaceous
limestones, Swiss Alps. These veins are filled by
new, bright white calcite.
They can often form across large parts of an outcrop

Photomicrograph of a calcite vein developed in a

limestone, from the french Alps (Chartreuse area).
This vein is about 100 microns across.
Veins are simply voids formed by dilatation created
along fractures (commonly tensile fractures) into
which has been precipitated new minerals - such
as calcite or quartz