Deformation in the Hinge Region of a Chevron Fold, Valley and Ridge Province, Central Pennsylvania
JournalofStructuraIGeolog3`ko{ ~,.No 2, pp 157tolt, h, 1986 (~IUI-~',I41/gc~$03(10~0(Ki Printed in Oreal Britain ~{: ]t~s¢~Pcrgam-n Press lJd Deformation in the hinge region of a chevron fold, Valley and Ridge Province, central Pennsylvania DAVID K. NARAHARA* and DAVID V. WILTSCHKO% Department of Geological Sciences, The University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan 481(19, U.S A (Received 27 November 1984: accepted in revised form 18 July 1985) Abstract--The hinge region of an asymmetrical chevron fold in sandstone, taken from the Tuscarora Formation of central Pennsylvania. U.S.A., was studied in detail in an attempt to account for the strain that produced the fold shape. The'fold hinge consists of a medium-grained quartz arenite and was deformed predominantly by brittle fracturing and minor amounts of pressure solution and intracrystalline strain. These fractures include: (1) faults, either minor offsets or major limb thrusts, (2) solitary well-healed quartz veins and (3) fibrous quartz veins which are the result of repeated fracturing and healing of grains. The fractures formed during folding as they are observed to cross-cut the authigenic cement. Deformation lamellae and in a few cases, pressure solution, occurred contemporaneously with folding. The fibrous veins appear to have formed as a result of stretching of one limb: the', cross-cut all other structures. Based upon the spatial relationships between the deformation features, we believe that a neutral surface was present during folding, separating zones of compression and extension along the inner and outer arcs, respectively. Using the strain data from the major faults, the fold can be restored back to an interlimb angle of 157°; however, the extension required for such an angle along the outer arc is much more than was actually measured.
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