Vertical-axis rotations and deformation along the active strike-slip El Tigre Fault (Precordillera of San Juan, Argentina) assessed through palaeomagnetism and anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility

Abstract

Palaeomagnetic data from poorly consolidated to non-consolidated late Cenozoic sediments along the central segment of the active El Tigre Fault (Central-Western Precordillera of the San Juan Province, Argentina) demonstrate broad cumulative deformation up to ~450 m from the fault trace and reveal clockwise and anticlockwise vertical-axis rotations of variable magnitude. This deformation has affected in different amounts Miocene to late Pleistocene samples and indicates a complex kinematic pattern. Several inherited linear structures in the shear zone that are oblique to the El Tigre Fault may have acted as block boundary faults. Displacement along these faults may have resulted in a complex pattern of rotations. The maximum magnitude of rotation is a function of the age of the sediments sampled, with largest values corresponding to middle Miocene–lower Pliocene deposits and minimum values obtained from late Pleistocene deposits. The kinematic study is complemented by low-field anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility data to show that the local strain regime suggests a N–S stretching direction, subparallel to the strike of the main fault.