Pseudotachylyte and Fluid Alteration at Seismogenic Depths (Glacier Lakes and Granite Pass Faults, Central Sierra Nevada, USA)

Abstract

We present evidence for ancient seismicity in the form of tectonic pseudotachylyte and coeval, cyclic hydrothermal alteration, and cataclasis along fault zones exhumed from 2.4 to 6.0 km in the central Sierra Nevada, CA. The Glacier Lakes fault (GLF) and Granite Pass fault (GPF) are exhumed left-lateral to left-lateral oblique, strike-slip faults with up to 125 m of left-lateral separation exposed in Mesozoic granite and granodiorite plutons. Precipitation of epidote along fault slip-surfaces, chloritization of biotite, saussurite and sericite alteration of plagioclase, and quartz- and-calcite filled veins are present in the GLF and GPF zones. One difficulty encountered in studying exhumed fault zones is providing convincing evidence for a frictional melt origin of pseudotachylyte. Rocks in the field may preserve convincing evidence for frictional melt (i.e., aphanitic, dark, injection structures) that are later shown to be related to cataclasis or injection of hydrothermal fluids. Another challenge results from the low preservation potential of several of the microscopic features that are convincing evidence of a frictional melt origin (microlites, amygdules, and glassy matrix). Here we test the usefulness of grain shape and nearest neighbor distribution analysis of pseudotachylyte and cataclasites from the GLF and GPF to discriminate between these fault rocks and to determine a frictional melt origin for pseudotachylyte. Fabric analyses of the clasts within the pseudotachylytes examined are more circular and exhibit a random nearest neighbor clast distribution relative to adjacent cataclasites. With increased comminution and melting the mean clast circularity increases and the nearest neighbor distances approach a random distribution. We conclude that this observed pattern can be applied to other fault zones as an indicator of a frictional melt origin for fault-related rocks. Mutually cross-cutting zones of hydrothermal alteration and calcite deformation twins constrain the ambient temperature conditions in the fault zone to between 170 and 320 °C during pseudotachylyte formation. Based on previous thermochronologic studies, the temperature conditions of the country rock during faulting were between 110 and 220 °C. The overlapping to elevated temperatures in the fault zone can be explained by: (1) infiltration of hydrothermal fluids into the fault zone; or (2) residual elevated temperatures as a result of frictional heating in the fault zone during seismic slip.