- journal_title：Geology
- Contributor：Donald M. Fisher ; Sean Willett ; Yeh En-Chao ; M. Brooks Clark
- Publisher：Geological Society of America
- Date：2007-
- Format：text/html
- Language：en
- Identifier：10.1130/G22850A.1
- journal_abbrev：Geology
- issn：0091-7613
- volume：35
- issue：1
- firstpage：65
Recent observations of cleavage patterns, strain histories, and kinematics across the Taiwan mountain belt depict systematic orogen-scale variations with respect to the synorogenic divide and suggest that the pattern of cleavage development is a predictable consequence of orogen stresses and kinematics. In Taiwan, continental crust within the collision is accreted in the prowedge facing Asia, but is advected eastward into the east-verging retrowedge, where the most deeply exhumed rocks are exposed. Wedge mechanics predict a reversal in the direction of plunge of the principal compressive stress at the topographic divide between the opposing wedges. The observation of a single cleavage in western Taiwan suggests that the cleavage in the prowedge remains stable with respect to the stress orientation. In contrast, the existence of a second crenulation cleavage in the retrowedge is evidence for an abrupt change in stress orientation and unstable buckling of preexisting prowedge fabrics. Advection of a fabric across a topographic divide in a doubly vergent wedge provides an explanation for the occurrence of cleavage fronts and fans in natural systems such as Taiwan.