CHAPTER NINE

9. FOLIATIONS AND LINEATIONS

Contents
• Introduction
• Foliation
✓ Classification of foliation
✓ Mechanisms of foliation development
• Lineation and its classification
• Boudins, Mullions and Rods
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 9.1. Introduction To Rock Fabric
❖ To a structural geologist, The term Rock Fabric is spatial & geometric
arrangement of component features in the seen on a large scale enough to
include many samples of each features in regularly & repetitive way.
❖ The fabric themselves are called fabric elements; which includes mineral
grains, clasts, compositional layers, fold hinges and plane of parting.
❖ It defined as terms of:-
• Texture (geometrical aspects of the grains in a rock such as grain size,
shape, arrangement, etc.)
• Microstructure (the presence of “small scale” compositional/ primary
layering, foliations, lineations, deformation lamellae, intracrystalline,
etc.) &
• Lattice Preferred Orientation (the arrangement of atoms, or ions in a
crystal)
• The basic categories of rock fabric based on dimension:
- 0 dimension: no fabric, random, isotropic.
- 1 dimension: linear (Lineation)
- 2 dimension: planar (Bedding, Foliation, Cleavage, Schistosity) 2
• In the vast majority of deformed metamorphic rocks, the fabric of which is due to
the systematic movement of the individual units under a common external force
are called Tectonites.
• Fabric of tectonites reflects the history of their deformation, or rocks with fabric
that features that indicate continuous solid (ductile) flow during formation.
Classification of Tectonites
• S- Tectonites have a dominant planar fabric and may indicate a flattening type of
strain. This may be due to a lack of minerals capable of giving a lineation , eg, in
a phyllonite.
• L- Tectonites have a dominant linear fabrics and generally indicate a
constrictional type of strain.
• L-S Tectonites have equally developed linear and planar fabric elements and
may indicates a plane strain deformation. Many Mylonites are L-S tectonites
consistent with a simple shear deformation.

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 9.2. Foliation
Foliation refers to the presence of closely spaced planar, parallel
discontinuities in a rock. It is shown by the presence of:
– parallel planes of compositional banding in rocks and
– parallel planes of preferred splitting in rocks, known as cleavage.
• It is particularly prominent in metamorphic rocks that occurs
homogenously and penetratively throughout the outcrop resulting from
the alignment of constituent mineral grains along straight or wavy planes.
✓ Homogenously means, the feature which is distributed in the a body
has been the same characteristics in any arbitrary volume of the rock.
✓ Penetrative means, the foliation occurs throughout the volume of the
rock.
✓ Foliation( Folia - Leaf in latin); describing the sheet-like, planar structure.
• Foliation formed during genesis rock is called non-tectonic foliation (S0)
• Foliation formed due deformation is S- tectonites, i.e. S1, …Sn.

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• The planar fabric in the rock fabric is defined by:-
– Sedimentary diagenetic/ planes.
– Compositional layering in metamorphic rock.
– Oriented mineral grains/clasts (platy/flaky grains) along successive planes.
– Oriented deformed mineral grains/ clasts along successive planes.
– Alternative grain size variation along successive planes
– preferred orientation of in-equant minerals
– Planar discontinuities (microfractures)
– Crystallographic preferred orientation (alignment of crystal structures)
– The concentration of certain minerals along some specific planes of
rhythmic micro-folds.

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 9.2.1. Classification of foliation
❑ Genetic classification of Foliations based on:- Relative formation
of foliation with respect to rock formation as:-
❖ Primary foliation and Secondary foliations.
A) Primary foliation:- are formed during the emplacement of magma
or during the flow of lava and depositions or/ diagenetic of sediments.
• Originated by Sedimentary Processes such as transport and
deposition:
- Bedding (So)
- Preferred Orientation of Sedimentary clasts
• Originated by Primary Igneous Processes such as lava flow and
crystallization:
✓Magmatic Layering in Igneous Rocks (Flow banding in rhyolite),
and,
✓Preferred Orientation of Bubbles and Pumice Fragments
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 Types of Primary foliation
• Bedding foliation: is attributed to
vertical compaction of the
sediments under static load of
overlying strata.

Diagenetic foliation is result from

orientation of crystallization of
diagenetic minerals (calcite, dolomite,
fe-oxides and clay minerals)

• Preferred orientations of
bubbles: characterizes some types
of extrusive igneous rocks
especially “pumice fragments”
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Preferred orientations of clasts:
usually characterizes clastic
sedimentary rocks which
orientation occurs due to
sedimentary processes during
deposition.

• Magmatic layering (flow

banding):- characterizes
cumulate magmatic rocks

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 Secondary Foliation
❑ Secondary foliation :- are meso to microscopic penetrative planar
fabric formed after lithification and/or crystallization of rocks due
to tectonic stress and under conditions of elevated temperature and
pressure.
• They are also called tectonic foliation.
➢ Foliations have a structure defined by alternating domains and
Microlithon.
➢ Domains (the concentrated zones of fabrics defining the cleavage
or foliation) and Microlithons (the spaces between two adjacent
cleavage domains).
➢ The term “Cleavage” refers to the ability of a rock to split or cleave
into more or less parallel surfaces.
➢ Cleavage is a (large) subgroup of foliation – not all foliated rocks
split preferentially along the foliation. is found in very low-grade
(lower greenschist facies). 9
❖ Secondary Foliations can be classified based on the morphology
as:-
A) Spaced Foliation B) Continuous Foliation
▪ Compositional Foliation ✓ Pencil Cleavage
✓Diffuse foliations ✓ Slaty cleavage
✓Banded foliations ✓ Phyllitic cleavage
• Disjunctive Foliation ✓ Schistosity
✓Stylolitic ✓ Gneissic layering and
✓Anastomosing Migmatization
✓Rough ✓ Mylonititc Foliation
✓Smooth
• Crenulation cleavage

Note: The morphology of foliation reflects formation processes like

metamorphic grade, PT-conditions, heating and cooling history, fluid activity,
etc.
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 Spaced foliation
❑ Spaced foliation: are defined by cleavage domain spacing having 10µm
and more. They are Categorized into compositional, Disjunctive and
Crenulation foliations.
• The Spacing between regularly and repetitive occurrence of less deformed
domains in foliated rock.

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A. Compositional foliation is a result of the segregation of minerals into
distinct layers or bands, usually due to metamorphic processes, which
leads to the formation of foliated textures in rocks
They are characterized by rocks having weak to cleave parallel to the
foliation.
❑ Compositional foliations are subdivided into diffuse and banded
foliation
I. Diffuse foliations are defined by widely spaced and weak
concentration of minerals in a rock of predominantly one lithology.
• They are common in ultramafic rocks and in deformed granites.
E.g. Dunnites have sparse layers of concentration of pyroxene crystals, and
in deformed granite concentrations of mafic minerals define the foliation.
II. Banded foliations are defined by relatively closely spaced
compositional layers that are mineralogically distinct and have comparable
abundance.
• They are common in high grade metamorphic rocks.
E.g. Gneissic layering.
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Gneissic Layering
❖ Foliated gneiss is a metamorphic
rock in which the foliation is defined
by compositional banding .
• Commonly, light and dark bands of
felsic and mafic mineralogy
alternate. This color banding in gneiss
is called gneissose.

B. Disjunctive cleavage: is a foliation that contain thin cleavage domains or

seam marked by concentrations of oxides and strongly aligned platy
minerals.
➢ The Cleavage domains are separated by tabular or lenticular domains
called microlithons in which platy minerals are less abundant or more
randomly oriented.
➢ They are commonly formed in previously unfoliated rocks such as
mostly in sedimentary rocks limestone or mudstone. And also form in
some foliated rocks cross cutting an earlier foliation.
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➢ They are subdivided into four:
i. Stylolite (irregular cleavage)
ii. Anastomosing (networks of cleavage surfaces)
iii. Rough (short, discontinuous cleavage domain)
iv. Smooth (long, continuous domains free from irregularities or
un evenness)

1. Stylolitic foliation:- exhibits long,

continuous but very irregular cleavage
domains that commonly have a distinct
tooth like geometry in cross-section.
• There is little or no fabric alignment
in the microlithon.
• Spacing in cleavage domains ranges
form 1-5cm & more
• Common in limestone Figure: Disjunctive cleavage formed by
dissolution seams (stylolite) in low-
grade limestones, Biure, Spain
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Figure: Disjunctive cleavage types. Stylolitic (limestones) and anastomosing (sandstones)
cleavages are usually spaced, while continuous cleavages in more fine-grained rocks are
separated into rough and smooth variants, where the rough cleavage can develop into the
smooth version. All disjunctive cleavages are domainal, and the cleavage domains (C) are
separated by undeformed rock called microlithons (M).
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2. Anastomosing foliation: - is distinguished
by long, continuous wavy cleavage domains
that form an irregular network outlining
lenticular microlithons.
• The spacing of cleavage domains tends to
be less than stylolithic foliation, averaging
0.5-1cm
• Common in phyllite and schists ‘Anastomosing’ cleavage in sandstone

3. Rough cleavage:- is typical of deformed

rocks containing abundant sand size mineral
grains.
✓The cleavage domains are short,
discontinuous concentrations of highly
oriented platy minerals that envelope the
coarse grains.
✓ Spacing of cleavage domains less than ‘Rough’ Cleavage in slate, width 2mm
1mm.
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4. Smooth foliation:- cleavage domains
are long, continuous and smooth and
have concentrations of highly oriented
platy minerals.
– Fabric development with in the
microlithons commonly ranges from
random to completely oriented
– Characteristics of some slates
– The cleavage domains spacing less Pressure-solution Spaced Cleavage-’Smooth’
than 1mm.

C. Crenulation foliation:- Formed by

harmonic wrinkles or chevron folds that
develop in pre-existing foliation.
• The new foliation cut across the old
foliation, in which has both limbs are
symmetric, or long limbs of asymmetric
crenulations.
• Microlithons width is comparable with
half-wavelength crenulations
Crenulation foliation Slate (width 7mm)
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 Continuous foliation
• Continuous foliation:- are defined by domains spacing less than
10µm. Also known as non domanial structures.
• It is characterized by complete orientations of homogeneously
distributed platy minerals, or by alignments of flattened mineral
grains.
• These are stated based on grain size from fine to coarse size;
includes pencil, slaty, and phyllitic cleavages, schistosity, …etc.

1. Pencil cleavage : characterizes

fine grained sedimentary rocks like
shales and mudstones which breaks
into elongate pencil like shards.

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2. Slaty cleavage: - is a fine, continuous
tectonic structure resulting from parallel
orientation of clays or other layer
silicates minerals (e.g. chlorite and
muscovite)
▪ Micro-domains spacing is not
recognizable in the field.
▪ Foliation provides strong cleavage

3. Phyllitic cleavage:- is the foliation on

phyllitic rock unit that is composed of
strongly aligned fine-grained white
mica and/or chlorite
• The mineralogy and fabric of phyllites
give the rock a distinctive silky luster.

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 4. Schistosity: characterizes low-
medium grained metamorphic rocks,
which tends to be wavy as mica
curves around the large crystals.
• Weak cleavage than phyllitic
structures.

Foliation Relationships with folds

❖ The axial surface foliation (APF): develop
parallel or subparallel to the axial plane of
folds. Both are usually perpendicular to the
maximum compressional stress at the time of
deformation. They have:
• Fans across the fold (convergent &divergent)
• Cleavage/ foliation refraction
• Transecion of cleavage/ folaition
• Helps to determine the geometry of folding
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• Fan is the radiating pattern within the fold which is convergent or divergent
depending on whether the foliation the foliation converges towards the core or
towards the convex side of fold respectively.
• Convergent fan is formed when the competent layers tend to parallel folds at
high angles strain axes to the layer boundaries.
• Divergent fans are formed when the incompetent layers tend to develop
congruent folds with large amounts of shear imposed by adjacent competent
layers.
• Foliation planes typically change orientation at
boundaries of layers with different grain size
or composition, i.e., competence. This change
of angular relationship between foliation and
bedding across lithological boundaries is
termed foliation/ cleavage refraction.

• Refraction occurs because the viscosity

contrast along alternating layers produces
local shear components during folding
(flexural slip). These add local strains so that
the flattening plane in the rock is not
parallel to that of the bulk strain. 21
• In few cases, the foliation seems axial
planar in profile, but it is oblique to the
hinge line and goes across from limb to limb
in the third dimension. Transection is the
oblique intersection between foliation and
the apparently coeval fold axes.
• Transection is generally attributed to a
rotating strain field during folding with
eventually pre-folding initiation of foliation
and fold axes developing oblique to the bulk
flattening.
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• The main reason of axial plane foliation is the parallel/ sub-parallel
alignment of platy minerals, chiefly layered silicates. Folialtion are
systematically associated with tectonic deformation and are
common in all grades of metamorphic rocks. Ductile flattening is
believed to be the principal causes of axial plane foliations.

APF

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Figure : (a) Mapped cleavage–layering relation in a deformed area. (b) Interpretation of a
largescale fold based on the assumption that the cleavage is related to such a fold

Figure. Discrete slaty cleavage in very low grade metasediments, axial planar to large-
scale inclined syncline. S0 = bedding, S1 = cleavage. Scotch Hill Syncline, Vermont 24
 Transposition foliation
❖ Transposition layering is defined by parts of pre-deformation surface
(bedding or an older foliation) which are rotated independently into a new
orientation, after intense deformation all of these parts become
subparallel.
❖ The process of changing one foliation into another – thereby removing the
frame of reference provided by the first foliation --- is known as
transposition.
❑ There are two basic processes are involved:
• Tight to isoclinals folding of initial foliation (for example, bedding) into
approximate parallelism with the axial surfaces, and
• Cutting out of the limbs by simple shear.

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Recognition criteria for transposition are
(1) Foliation parallel to bedding/ secondary layers,
(2) Isolated, interfolial fold hinges,
(3) Isolated boudins of competent layers and
(4) Extreme fattening of strain markers.

Pressure solution and

Isocline folds with Fold transposed
transposition of sandstone
some transposition parallel to foliation
lenses that originally were
part of a single bed 26
 9.2.2. Mechanisms of Foliation Development in rocks
• To recall the term again “FOLIATION : is the complete spatial and
geometric configuration of textural elements.
❑ Factors controlling the development of foliation during deformation are:
– Rock composition
– Orientation and magnitude of stress
– Temperature and pressure condition and,
– Fluid composition like CO2, H2O,etc.
❑ The four major micro-mechanisms involved in the development of
structural foliation are:
• Shape controlled Mechanical rotation of pre- existing inequant grains/
fabrics.
• Growth of inequant grains in a preffered dimensional orientation under
deviatoric stress field.
• Modification of grain shape and volume through pressure- solution
• Modification of grain shape by Crystal plastic deformation or diffusion.
• Mimetic growth (parallel to preexisting minerals after deformation).
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 a. Rotation + folding of
elongate minerals
b. Oriented nucleation &
growth of a mineral in a
stress field
c. Grain growth of micas
parallel to σ3
d. Change of grain shape by
crystalplastic deformation
e. Change of grain shape by
pressure solution
(dissolution creep)
f. Combination of ‘a’ & ‘e’
g. Restricted growth parallel
to platy minerals
h. Mimetic growth of
elongate grains due to
existing foliation

Figure. Proposed mechanisms for the development of

foliations.

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 9.3. LINEATION
Lineation is a general term to describe any repeated commonly penetrative
and sub-parallel or parallel alignment of elongate linear elements within a
rock.
• A lineation may be a primary igneous or sedimentary fabric element, such
as an array of elongate K-feldspar Porphyro-blasts, Inclusions or pebbles
oriented with their long dimensions mutually parallel, or flute casts.
• The Primary Alignment markers is correlated with a direction of flow
magma or Paleo-current and Flow of Lines.

• Structural Geology is particularly concerned with lineation produced by

deformation are called Tectonic Lineation’s.
• Lineation's due to ductile deformation lay on foliation planes and thus,
they are occurred as penetrative as foliations.
• Lineation's are referred to as L-elements (L- Tectonites) of the rock fabric.

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❑ Linear fabric any rock fabric can be expressed as :
✓ Intersection of two planar features (Bedding-cleavage, Cleavage-
cleavage intersection)
✓ Parallel alignments of linear crenulation (minor fold axes)
✓ Preferred alignments of mineral grains or pebbles w.r.t long axes
✓ Development of slickenside and striations faulted plane
✓ Developments of Boudin, Rods and Mullion structures

❑ Many types of lineations are occurred as are associated with other

structures (such as folds or boudins, …etc.),
and some are visible only on specific surfaces in a rock body, while
others reflect the arrangement and shape of mineral grains or clasts
within the rock.

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▪ For their description, we broadly group lineations into three
categories:
1. Form(crenulation) lineations,
2. Surface lineations, and
3. Mineral lineations.

1. Form (crenulation)
Lineations
If folds are closely spaced, the fold
hinges effectively define a rock fabric
that we can measure as a fold hinge
lineation
❖ Similarly, a crenulation lineation
is defined by the hinge lines of the
microfolds in a crenulated rock.

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2) Surfaces lineations: Surfaces lineations form on slip surfaces that
move in opposite directions

– groove lineations, formed by plowing of surface irregularities, and

– fiber lineations that are formed when vein mineral fibers precipitate
along a sliding surface.

• Surfaces lineation's, of course, are parallel to the slip direction and their
roughness may indicate fault surfaces that have been polished by the
process of frictional sliding are called slickensides .

• Slickensides form either on the original wall rock of the fault, or on the
surface of a thinlayerofgouge/cataclasite slip sense.

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33
e.g. slickenlines and grooves on fault plane surface
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A) Intersection Lineation's:- An intersection lineation is a linear fabric
element formed by, the intersection of two planar fabric elements
→bedding-cleavage intersection,

Fig. Sketches of surface lineations.

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3) Mineral lineation is the size of a
mineral grain or a cluster of mineral grains
commonly occur in the foliation plane of
metamorphic rocks, on shear surfaces, or in
the plane of mylonitic foliation.
e.g. The alignment growth of the crystal in a
preferred direction like hornblende, feldspar
minerals.

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A) Stretching mineral Lineation; is a
type of linear fabric which is taken to
indicate the direction of stretching in the
rock.
✓ Stretching of minerals and mineral
aggregates into a penetrative stretching
lineation forms the most common type
of lineation in deformed metamorphic
rocks.
❖ Boudins are tablet-shaped lenses of a
relatively rigid lithology, embedded in a
weaker matrix, that have collectively
undergone layer-parallel stretching.
✓ They are linear segments of a layer that
have been pulled apart along periodically
spaced lines of separation called boudin
lines.
Boudins
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• Mullion is the name that structural
geologists use for linear deformation
structures that are restricted to the
interface between a competent and an
incompetent rock.
• A common place to find mullion
structures in metamorphic rocks is at the
boundary between quartzite and phyllite
or Mica-Schist.

• Rods is the morphological term for elongate,

cylindrical and monomineralic bodies of
segregated minerals (quartz, calcite, pyrite, etc.) in
metamorphic rocks of all grades.
• Rods may have any profile outline, from elliptical
to irregular, dismembered rounded structures.
• They are generally parallel to local fold axis
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