The geometry and kinematics of a suite of conjugate kink bands, southeastern Australia

Abstract

A conjugate set of subvertical kink bands is exposed in coastal outcrops of well-foliated Ordovician turbidites near Mystery Bay, Australia. All kink bands with widths exceeding 3 cm have complex internal structures including compound and parasitic kinks, stepped kink boundaries, internal crenulations, variable kink angles and prismatic voids. The kink bands are interpreted to result from rotation of short foliation segments between fixed kink planes with subsequent widening and modification by layer-parallel shear external to the kink band. Layer-parallel shear of both sinistral and dextral sense accompanied kinking and indicates a variable stress system during kink band development. Conjugate kink bands are abundant and are used to estimate bulk strain orientations. In general, the dominant kink set of a conjugate pair is inclined at a lower angle to the external foliation than the weaker set and this angular disparity increases with increasing dominance of one set. These observations are at variance with relationships described from experimental bulk pure shear deformation of anisotropic materials. It is suggested that orthogonal constraints in these experiments restrict layer-parallel shear to within a developing kink band and are, therefore, unlike many natural kink systems. Simple shear experiments can produce structures geometrically similar to natural kink bands.