Continental Transpressional and Transtensional Tectonics

Book excerpt: Many present-day and ancient continental deformation systems appear to have formed due to significantly oblique relative plate motions. Transpression and transtension zones are formed where the oblique motions involve components of compression and extensions, respectively. This book covers the recent advances in our understanding or transpressional and transtensional deformation zones both in theory and in real geological settings from around the world. The volume opens with an up-to-date overview of the topic that sets the scene for the more detailed papers which follow. The papers are grouped into four sections. The first, Modelling Transpression and Transtension, includes a series of papers that discuss theoretical strain models in the context of field examples and analogue experiments. The second section details the tectonic evolution of Continental Transform Zones and includes papers on the Dead Sea Transform, western USA and Chile. The third section, Oblique Divergence Zones, has papers on gravitational collapse in the Norwegian Caledonides and in SW North America, the break-up of Gondwana and a pull-apart basin in northern China. The final section on Oblique Convergence Zones, has case studies from Brazil, European Variscides, Antarctica, the Himalayas, the Sierra Nevada batholith and Italy.