Folding by cataclastic flow at shallow crastal levels in the Canyon Range, Sevier orogenic belt, west-central Utah

Folds form by ductile deformation typically involving continuous flow. In the elastico-frictional regime, such deformation may be accomplished by cataclastic flow involving collective movement on a population of fractures and zones. The Canyon Range (CR) syncline, part of the CR thrust sheet in west-central Utah, developed in this regime. The CR syncline is composed of thick-bedded quartzite units with a small material contrast between layers, limiting limb rotation by flexural slip alone. Thus, fracture populations developed to accommodate fold tightening by limb rotation and thinning, and the formation of transverse zones across the fold. Several generations of fracture and deformation zone (DZ) networks are recognized from mesoscopic and microscopic evidence, and can be related to stages of folding. The net result of the large number of distributed fractures and deformation zones is a continuous deformation that is homogeneous at the scale of the outcrop. All these lines of evidence suggest that large-scale cataclastic flow accommodated folding by allowing rigid mesoscopic blocks to slide along bounding DZs.

Along its length, the CR syncline consists of several segments bounded by transverse zones with different mechanisms accommodating fold tightening in adjacent segments. In one segment, fold tightening progressed by limb rotation, and then out-of-the-core thrusting. In contrast, fold tightening in the adjoining segments occurred by rotation and thinning of one limb and possible hinge migration, with the steeply dipping to overturned limb showing progressive thinning of units on a megascopic scale and progressive increase in the thickness and density of deformation zones at all scales