Particle size distributions of fault rocks and fault transpression: are they related?

Laboratory experiments on rock faulting show that processes of particle comminution in fault rocks are influenced by several parameters, including fault strike and normal stress across faults. In nature, normal stress across faults increases with increasing transpressional strike of faults. Accordingly, different structural fabrics and particle size distributions are expected for cataclastic rocks that have developed along faults with different transpressional orientations and comparable displacements within regional-scale strike-slip fault zones. Adjacent bands of cataclastic gouge and breccia were analysed from four small-scale fault zones. All have comparable displacements and very similar protolith (i.e. shallow-water limestone), structure, kinematics, size, and tectonic environment, but different transpressional strikes within the regional-scale left-lateral Mattinata strike-slip fault, Italy. An inverse linear relationship is found between fault transpressional angles and fractal dimensions of particle size distributions from cataclastic rock samples.