Quartz c-axis texture mapping of mylonitic metapelite with rod structures (Calabria, southern Italy): Clues for hidden shear flow direction

Abstract

This quantitative microstructural study deals with textures of quartz domains within a mylonitized metapelite collected near a thrust surface corresponding to the tectonic contact between two metamorphic units, which crop out in the Aspromonte Massif, southern Calabria (Italy). The sample investigated lacks a mesoscopic stretching lineation. Therefore, quartz c-axis fabrics were investigated in two mutually orthogonal thin sections (a) parallel to the quartz rod lineation and perpendicular to the foliation (YZ plane) and (b) perpendicular to the quartz rods and perpendicular to the foliation (XZ plane); the data were generated using classical (manual measurements of quartz c-axis using U-stage) and modern methods (Computer Integrated Polarization microscopy). Both these sections show oblique foliations at ca. 40° from the main shear plane, implying that the actual X direction (stretching lineation that is absent on the mesoscopic scale) must lie between these two sections. Quartz c-axis data from the YZ section when rotated by 90° are similar with those from the XZ section. Hence, the data from the two sections are merged. These data when rotated by an angle of 50° from the direction of quartz rod lineation, gives an asymmetrical pattern indicating top-to-the-North sense of shear. This was confirmed by investigating quartz c-axis patterns in a section striking NS and perpendicular to the foliation. Based on the study it is thus concluded that this method can be used to do kinematic analysis in rocks that are devoid of stretching lineations. Apart from the above, the advantages and disadvantages of the classical and modern methods of quartz c-axis analysis are discussed.