Mid-crustal reactivation processes linked to frictional melting and deep void development during seismogenic slip: examples from the Lewisian Complex, NW Scotland

Abstract

Exhumed examples of ancient fault voids formed during seismic slip at depths >10 km are well preserved in the Assynt Terrane of the Lewisian Complex, NW Scotland. They are interpreted to have formed during regional Mesoproterozoic ( c. 1.55 Ga; ‘Assyntian’) strike-slip faulting. Deformation is characterized by sinistral reactivation of pre-existing NW–SE-trending features including intrusive contacts of ( c. 2.4 Ga) mafic dykes and Paleoproterozoic ductile shear zone fabrics ( c. 1.75 Ga). Reactivation occurred at palaeodepths of 10–15 km, where frictional–viscous deformation synchronous with co-seismic frictional melting led to cycles of millimetre- to decimetre-scale cavity dilation and collapse. Although individual melt-generating slip surfaces may have become rapidly welded, faulting was able to repeatedly localize along adjacent pre-existing planar anisotropies favourably oriented for slip, leading to the creation of a mesh of foliation-parallel melt generation surfaces linked by foliation-perpendicular dilational voids. The latter features are filled by chaotic clast-supported wall rock collapse breccias, localized injected frictional melts and hydrothermal mineralization. The fills act as natural props, holding cavities open and preserving them as long-term, pipe-like fluid flow conduits. These exhumed features are likely to be typical of multi-rupture seismogenic fault systems formed by direct reactivation of pre-existing basement structures.