BEDDING-PLANE SLIP OVER A PREEXISTING FAULT, AN EXAMPLE - THE RAMON-FAULT, ISRAEL

Small-scale tectonic structures were found to reveal widely distributed bedding-parallel slip in the sedimentary cover of the central Negev. The orientation of these structures indicates that this region has undergone consistent upper-sheet movements to the south. Bedding-parallel slip zones are situated at the contact between rocks with different mechanical properties. The local extension fields were generated during the subsequent southward bedding-parallel slip above the downthrown block of the Ramon Fault. In the extension zone the normal rock sequence has undergone dislocation by means of bedding-plane faults and oblique faults. The structure development resembles boudinage in macroscale. The southward bedding-plane slip was responsible for compression in the transition zone from tilted to horizontal bedding. This zone was localized along the synclinal hinge of the tilted block and characterized by development of folds and fault blocks overturned in the transport direction.