Melt-enhanced strain localization and phase mixing in a large-scale mantle shear zone (Ronda peridotite, Spain)

Abstract

Abstract. Strain localization in upper-mantle shear zones by grain size reduction and the activation of grain-size-sensitive deformation mechanisms is closely linked to phase mixing. With its mylonitic grain size (50–100 µm) and well-mixed phase assemblage, the kilometer-scale shear zone at the northwestern boundary of the Ronda peridotite is, in this respect, no exception. In transects across the high-strain mylonitic into the low-strain tectonitic part of this shear zone, the following four dominant microstructural domains were identified: (1) olivine-rich matrix, (2) mixed matrix, (3) neoblast tails of clinopyroxene porphyroclasts, and (4) neoblast tails of orthopyroxene porphyroclasts. In these domains, phase mixing and its impact on strain localization were investigated by a combination of microstructural (optical microscopy), textural (EBSD), and geochemical (EPMA) analysis. The dominant microstructural domain of all samples is the mixed matrix composed of olivine, orthopyroxene, and clinopyroxene. Its homogenous distribution of interstitial pyroxenes contradicts mechanical mixing. Instead, extensive phase mixing under near-steady-state conditions is documented by the constant grain size and by phase boundary percentages > 60 % for the entire mylonitic unit and all the microstructural domains. Lobate phase boundaries, homogenous phase mixing, and secondary-phase distribution, as well as continuous geochemical trends that are independent of the microstructural domain, point to a reaction-driven, metasomatic formation of the mixed matrix and pyroxene porphyroclast tails in the entire shear zone. An OH-bearing metasomatism by small fractions of evolved melts is indicated by amphibole abundance in pyroxene neoblast tails, olivine B-type-crystallographic-preferred orientations (CPOs), and the microstructural consistency of the garnet–spinel (grt–spl) mylonites from both major peridotite massifs of the Gibraltar arc, Ronda, and Beni Bousera (Morocco). The established syn-deformational temperature of 800–900 ∘C at 1.95–2.00 GPa suggests that the metasomatism did not reset the equilibrium temperatures. Consistent geochemistry and phase assemblage in mylonites and tectonites but a change from equiaxial (tectonites) to wedge-shaped pyroxenes aligned parallel to the foliation (mylonites) point to a pre- to syn-deformational metasomatism, with the potential annealing of the tectonites. For the mylonitic mixed matrix, wedge-shaped pyroxenes, and neoblast tail formation in pyroxene porphyroclast stress shadows point to the activity of incongruent dissolution–precipitation creep. Apart from the dissolution–precipitation creep, strong CPOs of all major phases (ol, opx, and cpx) suggest dislocation creep as being the major deformation mechanism in the entire shear zone.