The Awaé - Ayos strike-slip shear zones (southern Cameroon): Geometry, kinematics and significance in the late Pan-African tectonics

The Pan-African deformation of the Awaé - Ayos group (southern segment of the Neoproterozoic fold belt of Cameroon, Central Africa) is controlled by thrust tectonics and late strike-slip shear zones: the thrusting of the Pan-African Nappe over the Congo Craton (D2 deformation phase) is followed by a strike-slip shearing trending ENE-WSW (D3 deformation phase). During these stages deforming conditions were ductile to brittle-ductile. The dominant structural features of the D3 phase are penetrative foliation steeply dipping N or S, an associate ENE-WSW trending stretching lineation, and an N-S to NE-SW directed folding. Deformation criteria in the distinguished rock units indicate dextral sense of shear. An overall dextral transpressional model is assumed to explain these thrust and shear movements. © 2010 Schweizerbart'sche Verlagsbuchhandlung. Stuttagrt. Germany.