The porphyritic diorite Chah-Musa subvolcanic intrusion is located in the Toroud-Chah Shirin magmatic arc in the northern Central Iranian structural zone. The elliptical Chah-Musa body hosts a copper deposit and intrudes an Eocene sequence of volcanic breccia, agglomerate and red tuffaceous sediment. High magnetic susceptibility values are attributed to the presence of magnetite as a magnetic carrier. Changes in bulk magnetic susceptibility correlate with zonation of alteration in the intrusion. Although the degree of anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility decreases due to hydrothermal alteration, the field observations confirm that this parameter can be used as a strain marker. Strongly oblate magnetic ellipsoids are found in the eastern half of the intrusion where isolated outcrops of flat-lying tuffaceous host cover dioritic rocks (roof zone). Stations with prolate ellipsoids mostly belong to the centre of the intrusion where the magnetic lineations plunge steeply. They are interpreted as indicating the main feeder zone. The concentric fabric pattern at the periphery of intrusion, the oblate magnetic ellipsoids at the roof, the highest anisotropy degree along the small diameter of the intrusion, and an intense deformation of the host rocks, especially at the western margin, all are evidence that the intrusion was ballooning during the late stages of its emplacement. Ascent and emplacement of the Chah-Musa body is ascribed to the tensional space provided by a dextral shear zone created by the regional left-lateral movement on the bounding Anjilow and Toroud strike-slip faults.

The Galway Granite Complex is unique among the British and Irish Caledonian granitoid terranes, as it records punctuated phases of magmatism from ∼425–380 Ma throughout the latest phase of the Caledonian Orogeny. Remapping of the Omey Pluton, the oldest member of this suite, has constrained the spatial distribution and contact relationships of the pluton's three main facies relative to the nature of the host rock structure. The external contacts of the pluton are mostly concordant to the limbs and hinge of the Connemara Antiform. New AMS data show that a subtle concentric outward dipping foliation is present, and this is interpreted to reflect pluton inflation during continued magma ingress. Combined field, petrographic and AMS data show that two sets of shear zones (NNW–SSE and ENE–WSW) cross-cut the concentric foliation, and that these structures were active during the construction of the pluton. We show that regional sinistral transpression at ∼420 Ma would have caused dilation along the intersection of these two fault sets, and suggest that this facilitated centralised magma ascent. Lateral emplacement was controlled by the symmetry of the Connemara Antiform to ultimately produce a discordant phacolith. We propose that regional sinistral transpression at ∼420 Ma influenced the siting of smaller intrusions over NNW–SSE faults, and that the later onset of regional transtension caused larger volumes of magma to intrude along the E–W Skird Rocks Fault at ∼400 Ma.

The Palaeozoic rocks of the Dingle Peninsula provide a record of the evolution of the Caledonides, Acadides and Variscides. The succession ranges from Early Ordovician deep-water sediments, through Silurian shallow marine to non-marine sediments and volcanic rocks to an Old Red Sandstone (ORS) succession topped by Carboniferous marine shales. Comparison of structural styles in the unconformity-bounded groups, together with a detailed analysis of fault zones, allows the tectonic history to be deduced. The older rocks record Caledonian processes on the margin of Avalonia during Early Ordovician time and convergence then soft collision with Laurentia during Silurian time. The Dingle Basin was developed during the late Silurian – Early Devonian transtension in the Iapetus suture zone and was inverted in the latest Emsian Acadian orogenic episode. Post-Dingle Group ORS groups in the north of the peninsula were deposited in a syn-rift footwall block to the main Munster Basin. The Acadian transpressional and Munster Basin extensional structures were reactivated or overprinted in the Variscan deformation such that Acadian folds are transected by Variscan cleavage in both plan and vertical views. After Iapetus closure, changes in the tectonic regime are believed to be a result of adjustments in the geometry of subduction of the Rheic Ocean.

The Xiaoxia anticline is a basement-cored fold in the northeastern Qinghai–Tibetan Plateau. It formed during the Middle–Late Cenozoic in a NNE-orientation oblique to prevailing WNW-striking thrusts in the surrounding region. The fold lies within the fault-bounded Xining Basin, which has behaved as a clockwise rotating and internally deforming block during the mid–late Tertiary. Proterozoic crystalline basement rocks and Jurassic–Cretaceous–Cenozoic terrestrial sediments exposed within the fold record three separate oblique-slip deformation events as determined by cross-cutting generations of faults and folds. The modern Xiaoxia anticline developed by: (1) outward-directed thrusting on the two fold limbs and, (2) oblique-slip thrusting on closely spaced minor NNE-striking faults that caused distributed uplift and passive shear folding of the sedimentary cover within the fold core. Tilted and thrusted river terraces on the flanks of the Xiaoxia anticline dated by optically stimulated luminescence and electron spin resonance indicate that folding has continued into the Late Quaternary (post-45.5 ± 5.5 ka) and therefore may still be active today. The development of the Xiaoxia anticline appears to be best explained in the context of the kinematic evolution of the Xining Basin's bounding strike-slip faults. Formation of the Xiaoxia anticline demonstrates that partitioned transpression in an evolving transpressional setting can invert intra-montane basins and produce basement-cored folds, thereby contributing to regional plateau uplift.

Kinematic analysis of mélange fabrics provides critical information concerning tectonic processes and evaluation of the kinematics of ancient relative plate motion. Systematic kinematic analysis of deformed structures within a tectonic mélange exposed along the Zagros Suture Zone elucidates that this zone is an ancient transpressional boundary. The mélange is composed of a greywacke and mudstone matrix surrounding various lenses, blocks and ribbons of radiolarian chert, limestone, sandstone, pillow lava, tuff, serpentinite, shale and marl. The deformation fabrics of the mélange suggest that the mélange units were tectonically accreted at shallow levels within a subduction complex, resulting in layer-parallel extension and shearing along a NW–SE-trending suture that juxtaposes the Afro-Arabian continent to the south and the Central Iranian microcontinents to the north. The tectonic mélange is characterized by subhorizontal layer-parallel extension and subsequent heterogeneous non-coaxial shear resulting in alternating asymmetric and layer-parallel extensional fabrics such as P–Y fabrics and boudinaged layers. Kinematic data suggest that the mélange formed during oblique subduction of the Neo-Tethys oceanic lithosphere in Late Cretaceous time. Kinematic shear sense indicators reveal that the slip direction (N9°E to N14°E) during accretion-related deformations reflects the relative plate motion between the Afro-Arabian continent and Central Iranian microcontinents during Late Cretaceous to Miocene times.

We describe the geometry and kinematics of a Jurassic to Early Cretaceous transpressive sinistral strike-slip system within a metamorphic basement inlier of the Mesozoic magmatic arc near Bahia Agua Dulce at latitudes 31–32°S in north-central Chile and discuss possible relations with the Atacama Fault System further north. Sinistral transpression overprints structures of an accretionary system that is represented by the metamorphic basement. Sub-vertical semi-ductile NNW-striking strike-slip shear zones are the most conspicuous structures. Chlorite and sericite grew, and white mica and quartz dynamically recrystallized, suggesting low-grade metamorphic conditions during semi-ductile deformation. Folds at the 10–100 metre scale developed before and during strike-slip shearing. The folds are deforming a former sub-horizontal transposition foliation that originated during prior accretion processes. The folds have axes sub-parallel to the strike-slip shear zones and sub-vertical axial surfaces indicating a component of shortening parallel to the shear-zone boundaries, suggesting an overall transpressive deformation regime. Transpressive strike-slip deformation also affects Middle Triassic (Anisian) basal breccias of the El Quereo Formation. 40Ar–39Ar laser ablation ages of synkinematically recrystallized white mica in one of the shear zones provide an age of 174–165 Ma for the waning stages of semi-ductile strike-slip shearing. The semi-ductile shear zones are cut by mafic and rhyolite dykes. Two rhyolite dykes yield 40Ar–39Ar ages of 160.5 ± 1.7 Ma and 131.9 ± 1.7 Ma, respectively. The latter dyke has been affected by brittle faulting. Fault-slip analysis shows that the kinematics of the faulting event is similar to the one of the semi-ductile shearing event, suggesting that sinistral transpression continued after ~130 Ma. Timing, kinematics and geographic position suggest that the shear zones at Bahia Agua Dulce represent a southern continuation of the prominent Atacama Fault System that affected the Jurassic/Early Cretaceous arc over its ~1400 km length.

The anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) is widely and routinely used to measure the preferred orientations of Fe-rich minerals in undeformed and weakly deformed granite plutons. The interpretation of the mapped AMS fabrics depends on rock-textural observations, on the map patterns of the fabrics in plutons, and on comparisons of the pluton fabrics to tectonic structures in the country rocks. The AMS may document emplacement-flow related fabrics, but the emplacement fabrics may be reworked or completely overprinted by rather weak tectonic strains of the magma mush or the cooling pluton, especially in syntectonic intrusions. The Late Devonian Canso granite pluton is an excellent example of overprinting of emplacement fabrics by weak tectonic strains. The Canso pluton was emplaced ca. 370 Ma along the boundary between the Meguma and Avalon tectonic terranes, in the northern Appalachian orogen. The AMS was mapped along two traverses that cross the pluton and that are perpendicular to the terrane boundary. Textural evidence suggests the rocks underwent very modest post-full crystallisation strains. The AMS records the dextral transcurrent shearing that occurred on the terrane boundary during emplacement and cooling of the Canso pluton, supporting interpretations that weakly deformed syntectonic granites can be used as indicators of regional bulk kinematics. AMS fabrics in Late Devonian granites of the Meguma Terrane suggest partitioning of the non-coaxial shearing into the terrane bounding fault, with pure-shear dominated deformation further from the fault. Numerical simulations suggest that the kinematics recorded by the fabrics in the Canso pluton was simple-shear, or transpression or transpression with small components of pure shear oriented perpendicular to the bounding shear zone.

Synmagmatic and solid-state structures within the Naxos pluton and its rim may provide insight into the interplay between plutonism and regional deformation at upper-crustal level. Within the hornblende–biotite granite of western Naxos, synmagmatic foliations display two distinct patterns, onion-skin in the north and tangential to the rim in the south. The two areas are separated by the NE-trending Glinadon fault. Deformed mafic enclaves in the pluton are prolate, with their long axes parallel to the synmagmatic lineation. In contrast, phenocryst distribution analysis, using the Fry method, defines an apparent oblate strain with a horizontal stretching lineation. Planar markers within the pluton progressively steepen through the vertical at the east pluton border. Several lines of evidence, such as dykes intruding axial areas of rim-parallel folds, foliated or folded aplite veins, folds and spaced cleavage in the mollase, and inverted stratigraphy, suggest pluton emplacement and deformation during transpressional deformation. A northward divergent flow regime with magma spreading out mainly from the Naxos fault, and the deflection of both the synmagmatic foliation pattern and the flow lines at the Glinadon fault, suggest that the NE–SW- and N–S-trending faults were active during pluton formation. In the south the pluton has grown by the expansion of dykes occupying P-shear positions with respect with the Naxos fault; in the north a piecemeal block down-drop complements this process and favours voluminous magma concentration. During the late evolutionary stages of pluton construction, the magma chamber was compartmentalized into NE-trending sectors affected by block rotation in an anticlockwise manner. Understanding the role of faults in the emplacement of the Naxos pluton is important for understanding emplacement of other plutons in the Aegean Sea region, since most of them are controlled by N–S- (Ikaria pluton) or NE- (Tinos, Serifos and Delos plutons) trending faults.

Structures deforming Llandovery turbidites of the Gala Group in the Southern Uplands terrane are spectacularly exposed in the Berwickshire coastal section, southeastern Scotland. The upward-facing, upright to NW-vergent folds and associated structures appear to record a single regional phase of subhorizontal NW–SE contractional deformation, with a steeply dipping direction of bulk finite extension. These structures are markedly different from those developed in rocks correlated with the Upper Llandovery Hawick Group exposed some 5 km to the south in the Eyemouth–Burnmouth coastal section. Here a highly domainal system of sinistral transpressional strain occurs, with zones of steeply plunging curvilinear folds, clockwise cleavage transection and bedding-parallel sinistral detachment faults. The markedly different bulk strain patterns in the Berwickshire coastal sections are thought to reflect the regionally diachronous nature of transpressional deformation in the Southern Uplands terrane. There are striking similarities in the structures recognized in the Berwickshire coastal sections and those developed in stratigraphically equivalent units along strike in southwestern Scotland and Northern Ireland. This confirms the lateral structural continuity and correlation of tracts and tract boundaries along the entire length of the Southern Uplands terrane. The regional structure suggests that a phase of top-to-the-NW backthrusting and backfolding associated with the southern margin of the Gala Group outcrop marks the transition from orthogonal contraction to sinistral transpression in the Southern Upland thrust wedge during late Llandovery times.

A transpressive crustal-scale dextral shear zone is documented in the Variscan Basement of northeastern Sardinia. It indicates the presence of a shear deformation parallel to the belt overprinting previous D1 structures related to nappe stacking and top-to-the-S and -SW thrusting. The L2 stretching lineation points to an orogen-parallel stretching and to a general change in the tectonic transport from D1 to D2. Phase D1 developed during initial frontal collision, whereas the D2 deformation was characterized by dextral shearing during the increasing curvature of the Ibero-Armorican arc. Transpressional deformation developed in a regime of decreasing pressure. It caused telescoping of the Barrovian isograds and the exhumation of the low- to medium-grade metamorphic rocks. In this sector of the Variscan belt, exhumation is due to continuing compression with an increasing component of horizontal displacement. The overall change of the shortening direction in a large sector of an orogenic belt, with the occurrence of increasing orogen-parallel displacement, may be regarded as a general mechanism affecting the exhumation of rocks and preventing the thickened collisional crust from undergoing a generalized gravitational collapse.

The Notre Dame and Exploits subzones of Newfoundland's Dunnage Zone are correlated with the Midland Valley and Southern Uplands of Scotland, using detailed comparisons of two key Lower Palaeozoic successions which record similar histories of extension and compression. It follows that the Baie Verte Line, Red Indian Line and Dover Fault are equivalent to the Highland Boundary Fault, Southern Upland Fault and Solway Line, respectively.

The Betts Cove Complex and overlying Snooks Arm Group of the Notre Dame Subzone are analogous to the Ballantrae Complex of the Midland Valley, both recording the Arenig evolution and subsequent obduction of an arc and back-arc system. The Early Ordovician to Silurian sequence unconformably overlying the Ballantrae Complex is poorly represented in the Notre Dame Subzone but important similarities can still be detected suggesting corresponding histories of continental margin subsidence and marine transgression.

In the Exploits Subzone, Early Ordovician back-arc volcanic rocks are overlain by Llandeilo mudstones and Late Ordovician to Early Silurian turbidites. A similar stratigraphy occurs in the Northern and Central Belts of the Southern Uplands and both areas have matching transpressive structural histories. Deeper erosion in the Exploits Subzone reveals Cambrian and Early Ordovician volcano-sedimentary sequences structurally emplaced on the Gander Zone, and such rocks are probably present beneath the Southern Uplands. Combined data from the Notre Dame Subzone and Midland Valley suggest an Arenig southeast-dipping subduction zone. Early Ordovician volcanic rocks in the Exploits Subzone and Southern Uplands have back-arc basin geochemistry and support the model of the Southern Uplands as a transition from back-arc to foreland basin. Preferential emergence of the Dunnage Zone and contrasts between Exploits Subzone and Southern Uplands turbidite basins are attributed to collision of Newfoundland with a Laurentian promontory and Scotland with a re-entrant. This hypothesis also explains the transpressive structural regime common to both areas.