Stress: definitions and general concepts, the stress ellipsoid, Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion and 2D Mohr’s circle, shear and normal stresses.
Strain: definitions and general concepts (homogeneous and heterogeneous strain, finite and progressive strain, rotational and no-rotational), parameters (strain ellipsoid)
Deformational mechanisms: Brittle deformation; intracrystalline plasticity; diffusive mass transfer.
Brittle behaviour: Mohr-Coulomb criterion and its applications; Amonton’s law and Byerlee criterion; Anderson’s model; pre-existing discontinuities reactivation and slip tendency analysis.
Geometric and kinematic analysis:
Deformation bands and Joints: definitions, general characteristics and relationships with folds and faults.
Faults: identification and classification (normal, reverse and strike-slip faults), kinematic indicators and sense of movement, fault length/displacement relationships, description of the fault rocks relative to the core and to the damage zones and of their conduit / barrier role in the circulation of fluids.
Folds: description, classification and mechanisms. Minor folds: general characteristics and relationship with respect to host fold structures.
Cleavage: description, classification and relationships with respect to fold structures – Fabrics: foliations, lineations and tectonites, ductile (mylonites) and brittle-ductile (cataclastic) shear zones, S-C fabric
Structural assemblages
Thrust systems: geometry and 2D/3D analysis (nomenclature, relationships between thrust and folds, thrust sequences, branch lines, cut-off lines, stratigraphic separation diagrams); tectonic styles (thick- and thin-skinned) balanced geological cross-sections, pre-existing discontinuities (faults) in the evolution of thrust systems, stress partitioning between strike-slip and reverse faults.
Inversion tectonics: definitions, nomenclature, analogue models and examples, relationships among pre-, syn- and post-orogenic structures; application of inversion tectonics models to thrust belts.
PRACTICALS
Field-based geometric and kinematic analyses of geological structures (folds, thrusts, normal and strike-slip faults). Construction of balanced and restored geological cross-sections