Search results for "Wall rock"

Multiple intrusive phases in the Leinster Batholith, Ireland: geochronology, isotope geochemistry and constraints on the deformation history

2017

The formation of granite batholiths, commonly by incremental assembly of small magma batches, and their correlation with tectonic events, on both local and regional scales, is crucial to understanding the evolution of the Earth9s continental crust. However, these correlations often rely on assumptions about the detailed relationship and timing of mapped units. Here we report how an integrated geochronological, structural and isotope geochemical study in only one key locality from the late Caledonian Leinster Batholith in SE Ireland provides the potential for unravelling essential questions on batholith petrogenesis. The Northern Unit of the Leinster Batholith intruded incrementally, as demo…

Apparent boudinage in dykes

2004

Intrusive rocks may be arranged in the form of strings of lenses or beads, as found on the Cap de Creus Peninsula, NE Spain, and in the South Finland Migmatite-Granite Belt. These structures first appear to be the result of stretching and boudinage of intrusive sheets or dykes. However, closer examination reveals that they are not boudins, but are instead primary intrusive structures. A detailed study was performed on a swarm of pegmatite intrusions at Cap de Creus. Layering is often continuous between beads, and, in some cases, individual beads exhibit a very irregular shape. These observations are shown to be incompatible with an origin by boudinage. Analogue experiments were used to test…

Shear zone junctions: Of zippers and freeways

2017

Abstract Ductile shear zones are commonly treated as straight high-strain domains with uniform shear sense and characteristic curved foliation trails, bounded by non-deforming wall rock. Many shear zones, however, are branched, and if movement on such branches is contemporaneous, the resulting shape can be complicated and lead to unusual shear sense arrangement and foliation geometries in the wall rock. For Y-shaped shear zone triple junctions with three joining branches and transport direction at a high angle to the branchline, only eight basic types of junction are thought to be stable and to produce significant displacement. The simplest type, called freeway junctions, have similar shear…

Textural, chemical and isotopic variations induced by hydrothermal fluids on mesozoic limestones in northwestern Sicily

1984

The results are given of textural and compositional investigations carried out on carbonate materials outcropping in various localities in northwestern Sicily where fluorite, barite and calcite mineralizations of hydrothermal origin occur. Observation of the textural features indicate variations in the degree of calcite recrystallization and silicification that appear to be more marked in rocks that show more evident effects of mineralization. The geochemical behaviour of the minor elements indicate variations in chemical composition (increase of Mn, Fe, and Sr and removal of Mg) as a result of interactions between mineralizing fluids and host-rocks. Comparison between the isotopic composit…

Dilatation Sites: Fibrous Veins, Strain Shadows, Strain Fringes and Boudins

1998

Many deformed rocks contain sites with a deviant mineralogy and fabric, interpreted as an effect of rearrangement of material by local dilatation and precipitation during deformation. Such ‘dilatation sites’ can be isolated and elongate (veins), flanking rigid objects (strain shadows) or occur in the neck of boudinaged layers or elongate crystals (Fig. 6.1). Strain shadows are also referred to in the literature as pressure shadows. Most veins and many strain shadows and boudin necks have sharp contacts with the wall rock and may form by precipitation of material from an aqueous solution in a fracture, as outlined below. Such sites are usually filled with polycrystalline material which may b…

The geochemistry of the Barra do Itapirapua carbonatite (Ponta Grossa Arch, Brazil): a multiple stockwork

2002

The Early Cretaceous Barra do Itapirapuā carbonatite, in southern Brazil, belongs to the initial stages of the alkaline carbonatitic magmatism in the Ponta Grossa Arch Province, as related to the opening of the south Atlantic Ocean. The magmatic evolution of the complex comprises four phases of intrusive carbonatite that are composed of medium- to coarse-grained Mg and Fe carbonatites with small volumes of late fine- to very fine-grained Mg carbonatites and show evidence of pervasive hydrothermal events. Drill core samples reveal the existence of silicate rocks of syenitic composition of two different origins. Among the silicate rocks, there are syenites of a likely magmatic origin, as well…

The formation of large quartz veins by rapid ascent of fluids in mobile hydrofractures

2001

Abstract This paper aims to resolve two main problems related to the formation of quartz veins: (1) the predominance of quartz veins at shallow crustal levels and not deeper in the crust, close to the source of metamorphic fluids where the temperature sensitivity of quartz solubility is much higher than at lower, upper-crustal temperatures and (2) the formation of very large 100–1000 m scale quartz veins that would require huge amounts of fluid flow in current models of vein formation. It is proposed here that these problems are resolved by the recognition of very fast (m/s) mobile hydrofracture ascent of batches of fluid. Mobile hydrofractures are fluid-filled fractures that propagate at t…

Intrusion mechanisms in a turbidite sequence; the Voetspoor and Doros plutons in NW Namibia

2007

Abstract Two syntectonic plutons of Cambrian age intruded Neoproterozoic metaturbidites in Namibia at the junction of the NS trending Kaoko and EW trending Damara belts. Sinistral transpression in the Kaoko Belt produced km-scale upright D1 folds overprinted by minor D2 folds. D3 is associated with N–S shortening in the Damara Belt. The plutons show two main pulses of intrusion: hornblende syenite intruded late during D1 or during D2 and biotite granite during D3. Each tectonic event produced a strain shadow defined by the shape of folds and the foliation trend around the plutons. The internal igneous fabric and the arrangement of wall rock xenoliths that locally make up 50% of the intrusio…

1999

Two retrograde, amphibolite facies shear zones were studied to explore the relationship between retrograde mineral reactions, volume strain, fluid flow, mylonitization, and coaxial versus noncoaxial deformation. The two shear zones are the contractional Mafwewu Hills shear zone and the transcurrently displacing Mkamasa River shear zone of northern Malawi. In general, shear-zone formation is characterized by the breakdown of feldspar and biotite and the formation of sillimanite, quartz, and water. Silica, alkali, and alkali earth elements were mobile. Mass-balance calculations, based on major- and trace-element geochemistry, indicate as much as 50%–60% volume loss in mylonite. Fluid to rock …

Modelling of segment structures: Boudins, bone-boudins, mullions and related single- and multiphase deformation features

2009

Finite element modelling has been used to simulate the development of segment structures, deformed layer segments separated by veins, such as boudins, mullions, and bone-boudins. A parameter sensitivity analysis is used to compare the influence of the nature of the flow, the relative viscosities of veins in necks and the host rock, and the initial geometry of the layer segments. Parameter fields have been determined for the relative viscosity of veins and layers, and the kinematic vorticity number of flow. Reworked segment structures can have several shapes such as bone-, bulging, shortened bone-boudins and their asymmetric equivalents such as domino- and shearband-boudin geometry. The mode…