Exploring the relationships between shear zones and granites: field and microstructural data for contrasting case studies of the Borborema Province (NE Brazil)

Abstract

We discuss meso- and microstructural features of granites closely related to strike-slip shear zones in the Borborema Province, NE Brazil. The Riacho do Icó stock is an en-cornue intrusion aged at ca. 607 Ma. Magmatic fabric is recorded in the core of the granite, whilst increasing deformation is marked by the development of mylonitic fabrics towards the Afogados da Ingazeira shear zone, including magmatic foliation and lineation rotation. Early recrystallization of quartz and K-feldspar crystals is widespread as a fabric with well-developed granoblastic polygonal textures and lobate subgrain boundaries, heterogeneously deformed lenses and ameboid quartz ribbons, typical of igneous rocks submitted to deformation in deep crustal levels. On the other hand, the Espinho Branco-Santa Luzia leucogranitic belt is hosted along the Patos Lineament, aged between the ca. 575 – 565 Ma interval. These rocks show discordant relationships with the host migmatites and the main deformational fabric is characterized by a dominant magmatic foliation that is locally overprinted by structures that are typical of solid-state flow. Quartz melt pockets and interstitial quartz grains filling fractures in feldspar clasts are common. Such characteristics are compatible with granites that were injected in the continental crust along planar anisotropies (i.e., shear zones) formed during the late-stage partial melting events that originated the migmatites of the area. The case studies are proxies in the understanding of different episodes of magma emplacement along shear zones in this part of West Gondwana.