Horizontal slip along Alleghanian joints of the Appalachian plateau: evidence showing that mild penetrative strain does little to change the pristine appearance of early joints

Abstract

Some Alleghanian joints in black shales of the Geneseo and Middlesex Formations of the Catskill Delta complex, Finger Lakes district, New York, slipped horizontally up to 8cm. Horizontal slip is measured by the offset of ENE-striking joints. Alleghanian joints striking 330–350° display a right-lateral slip with an average value of 1.9cm, while joints striking 004–010° slip in the left-lateral sense with an average value of 1.3cm. The maximum horizontal stress (SH) driving this slip falls between 350° and 004°, the orientation of local Alleghanian layer-parallel shortening as indicated by both disjunctive and pencil cleavage. By commonality of orientation, we infer that slip on Alleghanian joints is driven contemporaneously with layer-parallel shortening. If so, the offset ENE-striking joints predate the Alleghanian stress field. These observations mean that both pre-Alleghanian and early Alleghanian joints persist through a period of penetrative strain.