Shear band foliation as an indicator of sense of shear: field observations in central Spain.

The Macizo de Nevera, a Paleozoic basement inlier surrounded by essentially flat-lying Mesozoic cover rocks of central Spain, exhibits an extremely consistent system of steep, dextral strike-slip faults. Different faults have a variable amount of displacement, but their en echelon arrangement and similar sense of displacement imply a cogenetic origin. A maximum displacement of 1.0 km, corresponding to an averaged angular shear strain of 1.5 and peak values of 6.6, occurs along the central part of the 6-km-long Truchas ductile shear zone. An early axial-plane cleavage is locally deflected into the Truchas shear zone and superposed by coarse shear band foliation. The consistent angular relationship between the new foliation and the shear zone boundary confirms the megascopic sense of shear. -Authors