Extensional failure and hydraulic valving at Minas da Panasqueira, Portugal: evidence from vein spatial distributions, displacements and geometries

Abstract

At Panasqueira, Portugal, exceptional exposure and demonstrable vein connectivity allow robust characterisation of brittle/elastic failure mechanisms in intrusive-related environments. Extensional failure was driven by cycles of fluid injection (hydraulic valving) and vein growth under conditions with λ v≥1 and differential stress <4 T. Failure was episodic and produced a swarm of W–Sn-bearing quartz veins characterised by positive volumetric strain. Worked veins consist of families of co-planar vein-lobes linked at branch-points. Geometrically coherent vein displacements constrain an elliptical anomaly (the damage zone) in which values of extensional strain are symmetrically distributed, decreasing systematically away from a centrally located maxima to zero at a tip-line loop. Vein textures indicate rapid, episodic, vein opening, μm- to dm-scale vein apertures, spatially and temporally variable rates of vein filling and periodic baffling of fluid migration pathways. Although the vein swarm represents a single vein cluster, vein thickness and spacing populations are typically non-power law and define anomaly-scale heterogeneous strain with inhomogeneously deformed marginal zones surrounding a homogeneously deformed high-strain core. Deviations from power-law behaviour were promoted by competitive vein growth that provided mechanisms for (i) inhibiting vein nucleation and (ii) localising deformation onto a few evenly spaced veins.