Brittle–ductile fabrics and P – T conditions of deformation in the East Pernambuco shear zone (Borborema Province, NE Brazil)

Abstract

Fabrics of the East Pernambuco shear zone (EPSZ) were studied via microstructural analysis, mineral chemistry and isochemical phase diagram modelling to constrain the pressure and temperature conditions of deformation during shearing. Granitic mylonites show fractured feldspar porphyroclasts embedded in a fine-grained, recrystallized quartzo-feldspathic matrix. These mylonites grade laterally into banded ultramylonites characterized by stretched feldspar clasts alternated with recrystallized quartz bands. Fractures in these ultramylonites are filled by phyllosilicates. The mineral chemistry of the feldspars points to systematic changes between porphyroclasts, grains within fractures and fine-grained mixtures. Quartz crystallographic fabrics in the mylonites suggest activation of prism slip, while the ultramylonites show the activation of both rhomb and basal slip systems. Thermodynamic modelling suggests that the mylonites were formed at 4.75 ± 0.25 kbar and 526 ± 9°C, while the ultramylonites yield conditions of 5.9 ± 1 kbar and 437 ± 17°C. These observations suggest that the EPSZ records a heterogeneous path of strain accommodation, marked by decreasing temperature from its western sector to its eastern termination. The differences in metamorphic conditions are consistent with a transitional, brittle–ductile strain regime. Such characteristics indicate that the EPSZ is a Neoproterozoic shear belt nucleated and heterogeneously exhumed at the brittle–ductile transition, possibly in an intracontinental setting.Supplementary Material: EPMA analysis of feldspars in Caruaru and Gravatá domains and T-X(O2) pseudosections are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5125957