0000000000177814
AUTHOR
Kurt Stüwe
Thermobarometric constraints on pressure variations across the Plattengneiss shear zone of the Eastern Alps: implications for exhumation models during Eoalpine subduction
Forward and inverse mineral equilibria modelling of metapelitic rocks in the hangingwall and footwall of the Plattengneiss, a major shear zone in the Eastern Alps, is used to constrain their tectonometamorphic evolution and assess models for their exhumation. Forward (pseudosection) modelling of two metapelitic rocks suggests a steep clockwise P–T path with a near-isothermal decompression segment from a pressure peak at ~18–19 kbar and 670 °C to the metamorphic peak at 680–720 °C and 11–13 kbar. A subsequent decrease to 600–645 °C and 8–9 kbar is inferred from the late growth of staurolite in some samples. Conventional thermobarometric calculations (inverse modelling) on 18 samples with the…
A strike-slip core complex from the Najd fault system, Arabian shield
Metamorphic core complexes are usually thought to be associated with regional crustal extension and crustal thinning, where deep crustal material is exhumed along gently dipping normal shear zones oblique to the regional extension direction. We present a new mechanism whereby metamorphic core complexes can be exhumed along crustal-scale strike-slip fault systems that accommodated crustal shortening. The Qazaz metamorphic dome in Saudi Arabia was exhumed along a gently dipping jog in a crustal-scale vertical strike-slip fault zone that caused more than 25 km of exhumation of lower crustal rocks by 30 km of lateral motion. Subsequently, the complex was transected by a branch of the strike-sli…
Multistage Tectonism and Metamorphism During Gondwana Collision: Baladiyah Complex, Saudi Arabia
Field evidence from the Baladiyah complex in the northern part of the Arabian^Nubian Shield of Saudi Arabia indicates several erosional unconformities separating different high- and medium-grade metasedimentary sequences. This suggests that the collision between East and West Gondwana involved several cycles of exhumation and burial, providing a unique opportunity to study the multiple stages of this orogeny. A mineral equilibria approach and thermodynamic modeling are used to place constraints on the formation conditions of each of these cycles. It is shown that the complex is characterized by three regional metamorphic events followed by a fourth metamorphic event related to shear heating…
Modeling of anisotropic grain growth in minerals
The role of surface energy anisotropy during grain growth is investigated using both physical experiments on octachloropropane and numerical experiments using the Elle microstructural modelling system. In particular the effects of anisotropy on growth rates, grain shapes and lattice preferred orientations are analysed. Anisotropic growth in thin polycrystalline sheets of octachloropropane is found to systematically remove certain c-axis orientations from the sample, without obviously modifying the grain shapes. By comparison with equivalent numerical experiments, we can explain these observations with a simple boundary layer model that treats each side of each grain boundary as an independe…