Thermal-mechanical response to simple shear extension
The mechanism of extension in the continental crust is apparently much more complex than that acting in the oceanic lithosphere. Recently, Wernicke has proposed that a significant fraction of extension in the continental lithosphere may occur by a simple shear mechanism along discrete fault/shear zones which cut the crust, and perhaps extend into the uppermost mantle. Clearly much of the surface evidence for extension supports this concept, but the depth extent of simple shear extension in the continental crust is unclear. Using numerical simulations, the thermal and associated mechanical behavior of the continental lithosphere in response to lithosphere extension along a low-angle simple shear zone which cuts through the lithospheric plate was determined in order to evaluate the resolving ability of thermal (heat flow and metamorphic P-T-time paths) and elevation observations in constraining the mode of continental extension.