Search results for "Mylonite"
showing 10 items of 32 documents
Late Palaeozoic to Mesozoic kinematic history of the Talas-Ferghana strike-slip Fault (Kyrgyz West Tianshan) as revealed by 40Ar/39Ar dating of syn-k…
2013
International audience; The NW-trending Talas-Ferghana Fault (TFF) in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, is one of the largest intracontinental strike-slip faults in the world. It extends over a distance of more than 2000 km from southern Tourghai to western Tarim and exhibits a maximum dextral offset of ∼200 km during the late Palaeozoic to present. The history of the fault provides important insights for the understanding of the evolution of southern Central Asia but remains poorly constrained due to lack of reliable geochronological data. We present new Ar-Ar ages and structural data from the Kyrgyz West Tianshan, that elucidate the kinematic history of the TFF in the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic. 40A…
Intermediate-depth earthquake generation and shear zone formation caused by grain size reduction and shear heating
2015
cited By 23; The underlying physics of intermediate-depth earthquakes have been an enigmatic topic; several studies support either thermal runaway or dehydration reactions as viable mechanisms for their generation. Here we present fully coupled thermomechanical models that investigate the impact of grain size evolution and energy feedbacks on shear zone and pseudotachylite formation. Our results indicate that grain size reduction weakens the rock prior to thermal runaway and significantly decreases the critical stress needed for thermal runaway, making it more likely to result in intermediate-depth earthquakes at shallower depths. Furthermore, grain size is reduced in and around the shear z…
Early exhumation of high-pressure rocks in extrusion wedges: Cycladic blueschist unit in the eastern Aegean, Greece, and Turkey
2007
Structural, metamorphic, and geochronologic work shows that the Ampelos/Dilek nappe of the Cycladic blueschist unit in the eastern Aegean constitutes a wedge of high-pressure rocks extruded during early stages of orogeny. The extrusion wedge formed during the incipient collision of the Anatolian microcontinent with Eurasia when subduction and deep underthrusting ceased and the Ampelos/Dilek nappe was thrust southward over the greenschist-facies Menderes nappes along its lower tectonic contact, the Cycladic-Menderes thrust, effectively cutting out a ∼30- to 40-km-thick section of crust. The upper contact of the Ampelos/Dilek extrusion wedge is the top-to-the-NE Selcuk normal shear zone, alon…
Horizontal contraction or horizontal extension? Heterogeneous Late Eocene and early Oligocene general shearing during blueschist and greenschist faci…
1995
Mylonitic structures related to two orogenic events are described from the upper and lower contacts of the Combin zone and the immediately overlying upper Austroalpine Dent Blanche nappe/Mont Mary klippe and the directly underlying lower Austroalpine Etirol-Levaz slice. The first event, Late Eocene in age, commenced during blueschist facies P-T conditions, but pre-dated the peak of subsequent greenschist facies overprint. The second event, Early Oligocene in age, took place during retrograde greenschist facies conditions. Most sense of shear indicators associated with the retrograde mylonites indicate top SE shearing, but subordinate top NW displacing shear sense indicators have also been m…
Normal faulting at convergent plate boundaries: Mylonitic extensional fabrics in the Franciscan subduction complex in Del Puerto Canyon, California, …
2004
[1] Using a strain and rotation analysis we tested the hypotheses that top-east mylonitic extensional structures in the uppermost Franciscan subduction complex in Del Puerto Canyon, California, accomplished exhumation of the Franciscan blueschists. We found no evidence of strongly noncoaxial deformation, instead our data indicate overall coaxial deformation in the proposed zone of mylonitic extensional deformation. There are no extensional strains, moderate vertical shortening occurred without horizontal extension and was compensated by modest deformation-related volume loss. There is also no strain gradient toward and within the proposed shear zone. Therefore the results of our work indica…
Oblique collision and evolution of large-scale transcurrent shear zones in the Kaoko belt, NW Namibia
2005
Abstract Early structures in the central part of the Kaoko orogenic belt of NW Namibia suggest that the initial stage of collision was governed by underthrusting of the medium-grade Central Kaoko zone below the high-grade Western Kaoko zone, resulting in the development of an inverted metamorphic gradient. In the Western zone, early structures were overprinted by a second phase of deformation, which is associated with localization of the transcurrent Puros shear zone along the contact between the Western and Central zones. During this second phase, extensive partial melting and intrusion of ∼550 Ma granitic bodies occurred in the high-grade Western zone. In the Central zone, the second phas…
Mimicking shear zones: An example from Wadi Filk, Jordan
2017
Abstract Ductile shear zones can develop in at least two ways: (1) a nucleus can grow laterally by free propagation into undeformed host rock, like most faults or joints; (2) the zone may nucleate and grow on or in a planar discontinuity and mimick its orientation. Most small-scale ductile shear zones are mimicking zones, but large-scale ductile shear zones could be free-propagating. The Wadi Filk mylonite zone in Jordan is a two km long, ten meter wide mylonite zone flanked by ultramylonite zones, developed in undeformed Neoproterozoic porphyritic monzogranite. Since mineral and major element composition of mylonite and monzogranite are identical, the structure seems to have formed by free…
δ objects as a gauge for stress sensitivity of strain rate in mylonites
1993
Abstract Our understanding of the flow properties of deforming rocks in the Earth's lithosphere is mainly based on theoretical work and on the extrapolation of high-strain-rate experimental data to the low strain rates of rock deformation in nature. The geometry of structures in naturally deformed rocks can be an additional source of information on the rheology of the lithosphere. Flow experiments show that the geometry of a mantle of recrystallised material around a rigid object can be used to distinguish between a linear or power-law relation of differential stress and strain rate in strongly deformed rocks such as mylonites. This means that it is possible to use geometrical patterns in d…
Mechanism and time of deformation and metamorphism of mylonitic orthogneisses from the Shagou Shear Zone, Qinling Belt, China
1990
Abstract The Shagou Shear Zone south of Xian (Shaanxi Province) is a branch of the Shangdan Fault Zone in the Qinling Belt and documents ductile deformation that affected granitoid rocks. Mylonitization took place under conditions of the lower amphibolite facies at temperatures of ca. 530°C, followed by a phase of stagnation, still under the same metamorphic conditions. The last deformation was a weak event during retrogressive greenschist metamorphism. The emplacement of the granitoid precursors of the mylonite is dated at 211 ± 8 Ma by the U/Pb zircon method, much younger than Nd model ages of 1.2–1.3 Ga, which indicates the involvement of older continental crust, probably in an active co…
Evolution of mica fish in mylonitic rocks
2003
Abstract Mineral fish are lozenge-shaped porphyroclasts, single crystals in a finer grained matrix, which occur in ductile shear zones and which are commonly used as shear sense indicators. Mineral fish of biotite, tourmaline, K-feldspar, garnet, hypersthene and quartz occur in mylonites but most common are white mica fish. These mica fish can be subdivided into six morphological groups that develop by different mechanisms determined by different initial shapes and orientations. The principal mechanisms of formation are intracrystalline deformation combined with rigid body rotation. Concomitant selective grain size reduction occurs by recrystallisation, cataclastic separation, pressure solu…