Glide twinning and pseudotwinning in peristerite: twin morphology and propagation

Abstract

Optically visible Albite glide “twins” in a peristerite (∼An9Or1.6), identified from their tapering shape and relationship to grain boundaries, were studied by transmission electron microscopy. Near the tips in sections ⊥a, the microstructure consists of small (∼400 nm long) lensshaped Albite twins centred exclusively on the oligoclase lamellae. The lenses extend partly outwards into the two adjacent low albite lamellae and induce strong inhomogeneous strain. Where the lenses are closer together, they form, depending on the sense of shear, nearly linear left or right-stepping en echelon arrays, with overlap of the strain fields. Slightly farther in from the tip, the twin domains coalesce to form continuous pinch-and-swell lamellae, being always thicker in the oligoclase. Because of Si,Al order, only elastic glide pseudotwins are possible in low albite. In oligoclase glide pseudotwins may be mechanically stable (metastable relative to Si,Al order) and may deviate only slightly from true twins. Pseudotwins develop first in the oligoclase, propagate dynamically by jumping across the intervening albite lamellae, extend lengthways and thicken sideways and finally coalesce. They are stabilized by diffusion-controlled inversion of Si,Al order giving rise to true twins described in a companion paper.