Paleostress field reconstruction and revised tectonic history of the Donbas fold and thrust belt (Ukraine and Russia)

In the WNW‐ESE Donbas fold belt (DF), inversion of 3500 microtectonic data collected at 135 sites, in Proterozoic, Devonian, Carboniferous, and Cretaceous competent rocks allowed reconstruction of 123 local stress states. Accordingly, four successive paleostress fields reveal the tectonic evolution of the DF. At the numerous sites that have been affected by polyphase tectonics, the chronology between local paleostress states (also paleostress fields) was established using classical criteria (crosscutting striae, pre‐ or post‐folding stress states, stratigraphic control). The oldest event is an extensional stress field with NNE‐SSW σ 3 . It corresponds to the rifting phases that generated the basin in Devonian times and its early Visean reactivation. Later, the DF was affected by a transtension, with NW‐SE σ 3 characterizing Early Permian tectonism, including the development of the “Main Anticline” of the DF and the pronounced uplift of its southern margin and Ukrainian Shield. Two paleostress fields characterize the Cretaceous/Paleocene inversion of the DF, which was accompanied by folding and thrusting. Both are compressional in type but differ by the trend of σ 1 , which was first NW‐SE and subsequently N‐S. The discrete paleostress history of the DF allows a revised interpretation of its tectonic evolution with significant implications for understanding the geodynamic evolution of the southern margin of the East European Craton.