Structural petrology (Knopf, 1933), or petrofabrics (from Gefugekunde der Gesteine) (Sander, 1930), is an important branch of structural geology in which the geometry and genesis of the textural and structural features (i.e., the fabric) of rocks are studied with a view toward reconstructing the structural history of the rock or rock mass. The emphasis on fabric and structure clearly distinguishes petrofabrics from sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic petrology, which are primarily concerned with the origin and the mineralogical and chemical evolution of the rocks. These disciplines overlap as in the study of tectonites when deformation is a primary mechanism of metamorphism.
Structural petrology consists of a descriptive phase in which fabric elements (Table 1) are described and classified and an interpretive phase in which these elements serve as the bases for inferences about the kinematic and dynamic evolution of the rock. The kinematics of deformation deals with the directions...
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friedman, M. (1987). Structural petrology . In: Structural Geology and Tectonics. Encyclopedia of Earth Science. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31080-0_112
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-31080-0_112
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