The role of pressure solution seam and joint assemblages in the formation of strike-slip and thrust faults in a compressive tectonic setting; The Variscan of south-western Ireland

Abstract

The Ross Sandstone in County Clare, Ireland, was deformed by an approximately north-south compression during the end-Carboniferous Variscan orogeny. The initial assemblage consists of mutually abutting orthogonal arrays of 170° oriented set 1 joints/veins (JVs) and approximately 75° oriented set 1 pressure solution seams (PSSs) formed under the same stress conditions. Orientations of splay JVs and PSSs (set 2) suggest a clockwise remote stress rotation of about 35° responsible for the contemporaneous shearing of the set 1 arrays. Among these nearly orthogonal strike-slip faults, the prominent set is sub-parallel to set 1 JVs. These faults are formed by the linkage of en-echelon segments with broad damage zones responsible for right-lateral offsets of hundreds of meters. Thrust faults with up to 30 m of offset initiate within shale horizons and follow either the PSSs in the sandstones or high-angle shales within tilted sequences. Within the large thrust fault zones, compartmentalised blocks of rocks are bounded by thrust faults segments with various dip angles. Strike-slip and thrust faults are contemporaneous and owe their existence to initial weaknesses in the form of JVs and PSSs rather than by switching relative stress magnitudes and orientations associated with Andersonian models of faults and related stress orientations.