Speaker
Mr
Eric Saffou
(University of the Western Cape)
Description
The distribution of strain and its variation within geologic terranes have always been a matter of great interest to structural geologists. The absence of good markers, especially in metamorphic zones has made strain analysis a very laborious task. A work flow for finite strain analysis is presented in this study. In the development of the work flow two important points were considered; firstly, the work flow should be applicable both for sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and secondly, the methods that would make up the work flow would integrate data that are easy to obtain from geological features. Using The Warm Zand structure as a case-study, we have investigated the finite strain using several advanced numerical methods. The Warm Zand Structure consists of strongly deformed calc-silicates of the Puntsit formation and feldpathic quartzites of the Goede Hoop formation which gradually change into pure quartzites in some locations. The second phase of folding F2 in the calc-silicates gave rise to isoclinal folds. Based on the type of strain markers we encountered, we designed a procedure to estimate the strain of the area of interest; for instance, in the Puntsit formation, folds are common and were used as strain markers. A mathematical analysis of the shape of these folds was first performed using Fold Profiler developed in the MATLAB® environment. As a result we found that the set of folds analysed was best fitted by conic sections and bézier curves. The latter showed that the Warm Zand Structure’s folds are close (30
Primary author
Mr
Eric Saffou
(University of the Western Cape)
