Evidence from Fold Vergence for Coaxial Ductile Flow within the Otago Subduction Wedge, South Island, New Zealand

There has been a long-standing debate about the tectonic significance of the highly folded Otago schist, which is exposed in the Otago uplift on the South Island of New Zealand. This uplift marks the forearc high of a long-lived subduction wedge that flanked the Mesozoic Gondwana margin. The exhumed metamorphic rocks record temperatures up to ~450 C and depths up to ~25 km. The dominant foliation is generally gently dipping, with attitudes that follow the form of the uplift. Mesoscale folds are common, and some regional-scale fold are recognized as well. Previous workers have argued that deformation within the Otago Schist resulted from trenchward shearing above a subducting oceanic plate, but there has been little evidence for systematic fold vergence across the uplift to support this idea. We describe here a new method for analysing the average vergence of a pervasively folded unit, with the goal to test the degree of non-coaxiality associated with ductile deformation within the Otago wedge. Our analysis exploits a new database, compiled by the New Zealand IGNS, which summarizes thousands of structural measurements for the Otago Schist. Vergence is defined in the usual manner as the asymmetry of the fold relative to its axial plane. This asymmetry is attributed to shear-induced rotation at the scale of the fold. Non-coaxial shear can be locally induced, especially in strongly layered schist sequences. We want to know if the fold vergence is systematically developed at the regional scale. Each fold is represented by a vector parallel to the fold axis, with a direction defined by the right-handed rotation implied by the vergence. We argue that the net vergence is well approximated by the Fisher vector mean of the vergence vectors. In addition, we consider the spatial distribution of the vergence vectors across the uplift, with a specific focus on the structural boundary between the Caples and Torlesse, two accretionary units that make up the wedge. We find that there is no systematic vergence at the regional scale or localized along the Torlesse/Caples boundary. We do find local domains at the 10 km scale with a consistent vergence direction, but at large scales, the vergence pattern becomes averaged out. These result support the idea that the Otago schist formed by vertical shortening within a regional-scale coaxial flow field, perhaps driven by underplating beneath the uplift. Furthermore, the lack of a regional-scale vergence implies very weak coupling across the subduction zone.