Deformation:

The essence of structural geology, this is

what we look for, interpret and analyze to unravel Earths history,
ranging from grains of sand to mountain belts. (Ch 2 in Fossen).
Box fold in Tien Shan Mountains of China

Deformation includes things we observe easily.

Most deformation is
defined as strain, - the change in shape of rocks as measured before and
after deformation occurs. But we need to know what the rock looked
like in the first place! Layered sediments are the most useful.

Folded limestone

Deformation includes things we observe easily.

Most types of
deformation is defined as strain, - the change in shape of rocks as measured
before and after deformation has occurred. But we need to know what the
rock looked like in the first place. Besides sediments, mineral crystals, fossils
and pebbles make good objects by which to measure strain.

Other types of deformation are harder to identify and include rotation

or translation of rocks. But some sort of outside reference, or datum is
needed to quantify this. Sea level often makes a great datum for uplift.

Upraised beach ridges in San Diego

Upraised beach ridges in San Diego

In review Deformation is the manner and/or record of how rocks move

Remember we only see the end result of a deformational history in

ancient mountain belts. For actively deforming regions, we at least get
a snapshot of the latest part of the deformational history. Similar to say,
watching just the credits of a movie and trying to deduce the plot
versus seeing ten minutes or so in the middle of the movie to determine
what happened previously in the plot.
The perfect situation
would determine
a displacement field
that includes particle
paths, perhaps with
InSAR or continuous
GPS monitoring.
But this is pretty near
impossible with most
methods of data
analysis

Some types of deformation include processes with significant changes

in volume (but this is not particularly common). The question is how
much can rocks be compressed or shrunk? What has to happen to
allow this to occur? For that matter, can fluids be compressed easily?

Volume loss can occur however by compaction as pore space is reduced

by burial, and when pore fluids are expelled. Dissolution is also a means by
which rocks might experience a volume loss. The shaded relief map of the
area around Moab and Arches National Park illustrates the effects of
dissolution - the valleys here are formed by collapse of sediments above
salt that is dissolved in groundwater.
Large scale dissolution of rocks occurs. This can be common in regions
such as eastern Utah with thick deposits of evaporites, particularly halite.

Valleys formed by collapsed folds - Moab

A nasty example of pressurized pore fluids set up the geologic conditions

that lead to the blowout of the Deepwater Horizon oil well. Drillers were
not prepared for a layer of sediment with highly pressured pore fluids and
gas which erupted upward through the borehole to the rig at the
surface. And blowout preventers failed, and things blew up, and people
died, and ecosystems got destroyed and

So how do we measure deformation? Start with a reference frame.

Then measure the change in shape or orientation in the feature itself.

Differences between pure and simple shear

(and how to measure them)

Both types of shear can occur in the same region, and at different scales

A series of excellent animations of deformation that are produced by

either simple or pure shear have been developed by Rob Holcombe at
the University of Queensland. They can be viewed at:
http://www.holcombe.net.au/animations/
rodhAnimationLibrary.html#Quicktime
To start, look at the following files
http://www.holcombe.net.au/animations/
PureShearPoints_ani.gif
http://www.holcombe.net.au/animations/
SimpleShearFoldedLines_ani.gif
http://www.holcombe.net.au/animations/
SimpleShearRandomEllipses_ani.gif
http://www.holcombe.net.au/animations/
PureShearStrainfringe_ani.gif
These are only a few of the animations available on this site. I encourage you
to look at all of them, while thinking about what sort of rocks would be required
to actually record these processes (i.e. that you could measure shear in).

In class learning module

Lets go to a highly deformed region to first identify strain,
then think about how we might measure it. Well also start
learning how to exploit Google Earth in this exercise.
1. Break up into groups of 5 students
2. Fire up Google Earth on a laptop (or watch mine)
3. Type in the search term for Afar Ethiopia
4. Try and identify what plate boundaries might be in this
area (zoom out to see where you are located)
5. Identify what types of deformation might have
occurred in the region. Hint, its an area of very low
elevation, comprised entirely of basaltic volcanic rocks
at a misfit between the Horn of Africa and Yemen.

In class learning module

1. Once you have determined what types of geologic

structures lie in the region, orient yourself so you are
looking at them in cross section. It helps to consider the
orientation of the volcanic strata in the region.
2. Now relate the volcanic strata to the obvious ridges,
which are bounded by faults. You can change vertical
exaggeration to help visualize the features in the
region.
3. Draw a topographic profile and use this to determine
the relationship between the dipping volcanic strata
and the faults.
4. Can you measure the deformation in this region?

How might we measure stretching?

For instance, we might

want to measure the
amount of stretching
across a rift
This GE image is from the
Afar region of Ethiopia
between Africa and the
Middle East. How might
you go about measuring
the amount of stretching
this region has undergone?
Hints: how are the layers of
volcanic rocks dipping?
(Lets start by firing up
Google Earth and picking
a useful perspective)

First draw a topographic profile (in GE), then measure the dip of the beds. Then
measure the separation across the faults, assuming they dip ~ 60 degrees.

Draw a topographic profile

In Google Earth
Make a simple cross section,
then measure its length

Restore the section, first

by restoring faults, then
by rotating the beds
Calculate the difference
in length of the section
And presto, youve calculated
The amount of stretching in this
region

The previous example of rotated normal faults brings us to the concept of

rotation in relation to simple shear. Called vorticity, this occurs at scales
of mineral grains in shear zones (i.e. garnets), to cylindrical folding above
a thrust fault, or vertical axis rotations in a strike slip fault zone.

One
ways
to define
a precise
strain history
Oneof
ofthe
thebest
best
ways
to define
a precise
strain
is
to model
systems
with physical
analogues.
history
is structural
to model
structural
systems
with
These
panels
show
the
evolution
of
faulting
and
physical analogues. These panels show the
stretching in such an aparatus.
evolution of faulting and stretching in such an
aparatus.

Each panel is a cross

section of the deformation
as it was stretched (the first
panel as the starting point.

End Deformation
Reading: Chapter 2 in Fossen