Search results for "Shear zone"
showing 10 items of 101 documents
Widening of Hydrous Shear Zones During Incipient Eclogitization of Metastable Dry and Rigid Lower Crust—Holsnøy, Western Norway
2021
The partially eclogitized crustal rocks on Holsnøy in the Bergen Arcs, Norway, indicate that eclogitization is caused by the interplay of brittle and ductile deformation promoted by fluid infiltration and fluid‐rock interaction. Eclogitization generated an interconnected network of millimeter‐to‐kilometer‐wide hydrous eclogite‐facies shear zones, which presumably caused transient weakening of the mechanically strong lower crust. To decipher the development of those networks, we combine detailed lithological and structural mapping of two key outcrops with numerical modeling. Both outcrops are largely composed of preserved granulite with minor eclogite‐facies shear zones, thus representing th…
Experimental modeling of viscous inclusions in a circular high-strain shear rig: Implications for the interpretation of shape fabrics and deformed en…
2002
[1] Deformation experiments with initially spherical and prolate viscous inclusions suspended in a viscous Newtonian matrix in a circular high strain annular shear rig provide insights on the shape development of inclusions in high strain shear zones during progressive deformation. Inclusions with a specific viscosity ratio with respect to the matrix material show distinct types of three-dimensional shape development. For instance, at a high viscosity ratio between matrix and inclusion a pulsating ellipsoid develops, which both continuously rotates and changes its shape from a sphere to an ellipsoid and back to a sphere. The experiments show that the shape of an inclusion that has a viscosi…
Brittle reactivation of ductile shear zones in NW Namibia in relation to South Atlantic rifting
2015
Rifting has occurred worldwide along preexisting mobile belts, which are therefore thought to control rift orientation on a large scale. On a smaller scale, shear zones within mobile belts are reactivated as rift faults. In NW Namibia, shear zones of the Neoproterozoic Kaoko Belt run subparallel to the present-day continental passive margin and are inferred to have been reactivated during the opening of the South Atlantic Ocean. However, the extent of this reactivation and the influence of the reactivated shear zones on South Atlantic rifting are largely unknown. A combined remote sensing and field study was conducted to quantify offsets that are a direct function of shear zone reactivation…
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…
Coeval high-pressure metamorphism, thrusting, strike-slip, and extensional shearing in the Tauern Window, Eastern Alps
2008
[1] Recent findings for a young (31.5 ± 0.7 Ma) age of high-pressure metamorphism at ∼90 km depths in the Eclogite Zone of the Tauern Window, Eastern Alps, prompt the question about the timing of the structural development of the Tauern Window and its relation to high-pressure metamorphism. We show that all major structures in the Tauern Window, resulting from strong N-S lithospheric shortening and simultaneous minor E-W extension, began developing coevally with high-pressure metamorphism in the Eclogite Zone. Large-scale strike-slip shear zones started to form at ∼32–30 Ma and facilitated the spatial accommodation of simultaneous shortening and extension. At least some of the strike-slip a…
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…
P-T path development derived from shearband boudin microstructure
2016
This work focuses on the development of a regional P-T-path from the Malpica-Lamego Ductile Shear Zone, NW Portugal, based on the microstructures of shearband boudins evolved during progressive simple shear. The combination of microstructural analysis, fluid inclusion studies, crystallographic pre- ffered orientation and fractal geometry analyses, allows to link several stages in the internal evolution of the boudin to regional P-T conditions. The boudinage process is initiated under differential stress after the original layer achieved sufficient viscosity contrast relative to the surrounding matrix. Two main transformations occur simultaneously: i) change in the external shape with contin…
Interpretative model of shearband boudins internal evolution in HT ductile shear zones
2012
The internal structure of a shearband boudin resulting from an original igneous, hydrothermal or metamorphic segregation tabular rigid body is a subject of scientific interest. It allows understanding the deformation mechanisms acting on homogeneous quartz aggregate activated during simple shear progressive deformation. This work is focused on the characterization of the internal evolution of shearband boudins, using microtextural analysis, fluid inclusions studies, fractal and OCP analysis. The proposed interpretative model shows the several structural stages that can be well established during the process of the internal evolution of shearband boudin.