Regional exhumation associated with strike-slip fault motion was first observed by Raymond A. Price (1979), who linked Eocene crustal stretching in the southern Canadian Rockies with strike-slip displacement on the Tintina fault system. Since that observation, examples of exhumation in continental strike-slip fault systems have been recognized in both transtensional and transpressional tectonic settings. Standard theory of strike-slip faulting does not provide obvious mechanisms for the exhumation process. The papers in this volume examine exhumation processes along major modern and ancient strike-slip fault systems at a wide range of scales in both depth and width using a broad spectrum of geological and geophysical methods. Results from these studies of transtensional and transpressional tectonic settings in western North America, South America, Asia, and New Zealand show that exhumation processes are diverse and contribute significantly to understanding the interaction of continental strike-slip faults with mid- to lower-crustal structures. |
