Significance of first-order faults in folding mechanically isotropic layers: Evidence from the Sudbury Basin, Canada

Abstract

The Sudbury Basin is a non-cylindrical fold basin demarcated by the layered Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC), the eastern part of which is transected by prominent curved faults. Folding of the SIC and adjacent rock units occurred in the brittle field and is peculiar due to its petrographically distinct, but initially mechanically similar layers. Overall, the layers are characterized by low levels of solid-state strain raising the question how the layer contacts acquired their curvature. We addressed this question by developing a G.I.S.-based workflow to analyze the orientation and slip vectors of the faults. Slip vectors form clusters of normal and reverse slip along a given fault. The clustering is best interpreted in terms of successive slip events during folding of the SIC. As the faults formed most likely as planar reverse faults prior to folding of the SIC they subsequently served as mechanically anisotropic elements to fold the SIC. The results contribute to (1) better understand the folding mechanisms of thick melt sheets in the upper crust, (2) explain apparently incompatible principal strain axes during progressive deformation, and (3) efficiently analyze the orientation and kinematics of fault zones close to the Earth's surface.