Understanding the deformation styles and mechanisms which affect the Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB) contributes to our ability to interprete the dynamic evolution of Paleoarchean greenstone belts and of the continental lithosphere. A variety of actualistic and non-actualistic, in part contradictory tectonic settings and processes (including gravitational collapse, terrane accretion, foreland basin shortening, continental rifting, doubly-vergent subduction and partial convective overturn) have been proposed to explain BGB deformation at a variety of scales. We compare these models and their regional 3-D predictions with emphasis on the BGB’s youngest deformed stratigraphic unit, the Moodies Group (ca. 3.21 Ga), also adding new structural data.

We find that none of the tectonic models accounts for all major structural features of the BGB nor can any model adequately explain the regionally and temporally heterogeneous distribution of deformation styles within the greenstone belt. However, the partial convective overturn model, despite some weaknesses and oversimplifications, appears to be suited best to explain the geometry, orientation and formation of the dominating structural element of the BGB, the vertically-plunging Onverwacht Anticline (OA) with its 10-km-thick fold limbs. The formation and deformation of the adjacent smaller, commonly steeply doubly-plunging synclines filled with synorogenic siliciclastic sediment of the Fig Tree and Moodies groups could be partially explained as spatial adjustments to the rise and tilting of the OA although disparate processes acting at different scales need to be considered. In comparison to this large-scale vertical redistribution of mass by several tens of km, (sub-)horizontal displacements may have played a subordinate role at greenstone-belt scale, except along the regionally highly strained southern BGB margin in Eswatini.

了解影响巴伯顿绿岩带 (BGB) 的变形方式和机制有助于我们解释古太古代绿岩带和大陆岩石圈的动态演化。已经提出了各种现实主义和非现实主义、部分矛盾的构造背景和过程（包括重力坍塌、地体增生、前陆盆地缩短、大陆裂谷、双辐合俯冲和部分对流翻转）来解释 BGB 在各种情况下的变形的秤。我们比较了这些模型及其区域 3-D 预测，重点是 BGB 最年轻的变形地层单元 Moodies Group（约 3.21 Ga），还添加了新的结构数据。

我们发现，没有一个构造模型能够解释 BGB 的所有主要结构特征，也没有任何模型能够充分解释绿岩带内变形样式在区域和时间上的异质分布。然而，尽管存在一些弱点和过度简化，部分对流翻转模型似乎最适合解释 BGB 主要结构元素的几何形状、方向和形成，即垂直下沉的 Onverwacht 背斜 (OA) 及其 10 公里- 厚折叠四肢。相邻的形成和变形较小，充满无花果树和穆迪群的共生硅质碎屑沉积物的通常陡峭的双下倾向斜可以部分解释为对 OA 的上升和倾斜的空间调整，尽管需要考虑在不同尺度上起作用的不同过程。与这种数十公里的大规模垂直重新分布相比，（亚）水平位移在绿岩带尺度上可能起到了次要作用，除了沿区域高度紧张的埃斯瓦蒂尼 BGB 南部边缘。