RESEARCH ARTICLE Geometry and Kinematics of Bivergent Extension in 10.1029/2020TC006641 the Southern Cycladic Archipelago: Constraining an Key Points: Extensional Hinge Zone on Sikinos Island, Aegean Sea, • New and novel (re)interpretation of extension-related structures in Greece Cycladic Blueschist Unit • Extensional structures resulted from Uwe Ring1 and Johannes Glodny2 high degree of pure-shear flattening during general-shear deformation 1Department of Geological Sciences, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden, 2GFZ German Research Centre for • Structures are interpreted to reflect Geosciences, Potsdam, Germany an extensional hinge zone in southern Cyclades Abstract We report the results of a field study on Sikinos Island in the Aegean extensional province Supporting Information: of Greece and propose a hinge zone controlling incipient bivergent extension in the southern Cyclades. Supporting Information may be found A first deformation event led to top-S thrusting of the Cycladic Blueschist Unit (CBU) onto the Cycladic in the online version of this article. basement in the Oligocene. The mean kinematic vorticity number (Wm) during this event is between 0.56 and 0.63 in the CBU, and 0.72 to 0.84 in the basement, indicating general-shear deformation with about Correspondence to: equal components of pure and simple shear. The strain geometry was close to plane strain. Subsequent U. Ring,
[email protected] lower-greenschist-facies extensional shearing was also by general-shear deformation; however, the pure- shear component was distinctly greater (Wm = 0.3–0.41). The degree of subvertical pure-shear flattening Citation: increases structurally upward and explains alternating top-N and top-S shear senses over large parts of Ring, U., & Glodny, J.