Structure and evolution of the Lewisian Gairloch shear zone: variable movement directions in a strike-slip regime

Abstract

Synopsis The Gairloch shear zone (GSZ) has long been regarded as a dextral strike-slip shear zone with a northwesterly plunging shear direction. However, the original strain analysis applies only to the northeastern third of the zone and the structure of the remaining two-thirds is considerably more complex. The 6.5 km wide GSZ was formed during late Laxfordian (D3) deformation at c . 1.7 Ga. It was a product of the interaction of D3 folding and dextral strike-slip shear under retrogressive greenschist-facies metamorphism on rocks previously intensely deformed by early Laxfordian (D2) deformation in amphibolite-facies. The GSZ is divided into four units across strike: the Northeastern shear zone with NW-plunging D3 linear fabric; the Flowerdale belt with SE-plunging D2 linear fabric and low D3 strain; the Ard belt with steeply plunging F3 folds; and the Southwestern shear zone, with SE-plunging D3 lineation. Thus the GSZ consists of two high-strain D3 shear zones on either side of a central low-strain belt. Although consistently dextral strike-slip throughout, the D3 shear regime varies from NE-up in the Northeastern shear zone through sub-horizontal strike-slip in the Ard belt to SW-up in the Southwestern shear zone. This variation may have been caused by local uplift or depression induced by variations in geometry of the walls of the strike-slip system. A revised very approximate minimum estimate of the horizontal component of dextral shear is c . 9.5 km with a net NE-up vertical component of c . 5.5 km. Similarities in structure between the GSZ and the South Harris belt strengthen the case for these two zones to have been part of the same structure.