Formation of lithospheric shear zones: Effect of temperature on two-phase grain damage

Abstract

Shear localization in the lithosphere is a characteristic feature of plate tectonic boundaries, and is evident in the presence of small grain mylonites. Localization and mylonitization in the ductile portion of the lithosphere can arise when its polymineralic material deforms by a grain-size sensitive rheology in combination with Zener pinning, which can impede, or possibly even reverse, grain growth and thus promotes a self-softening feedback mechanism. However, the efficacy of this mechanism is not ubiquitous and depends on lithospheric conditions such as temperature and stress. Therefore, we explore the conditions under which self-weakening takes place, and, in particular, the effect of temperature and deformation state (stress or strain-rate) on these conditions. In our model, the lithosphere-like polymineralic material is deformed in a two-dimensional simple shear driven by constant stress or strain rate. The mineral grains evolve to a stable size, which is obtained when the rate of coarsening by normal grain growth and the rate of grain size reduction by damage are in balance. Damage involves processes by which some of the deformational energy gets transferred into surface energy. This can happen by (i) dynamic recrystallization (grain damage) and (ii) stretching, deforming and stirring the material interface (interface damage). The influence of temperature enters through rheological laws (which govern the rate of work and damage), grain growth kinetics, and the damage partitioning fraction, which is the fraction of deformational work that goes into creating new surface energy. We demonstrate that a two-phase damage model, in which the partitioning fraction depends on both temperature and roughness of the interface between the phases, can successfully match the field data, including the reported correlation of grain size and temperature, the increasing dominance of dislocation creep at higher temperatures and a large range of grain sizes observed across the depth of a single shear zone.