Quartz fabrics in shear-zone mylonites: Evidence for a major imprint due to late strain increments

Abstract

Geometrical relations between quartz C-axis fabrics, textures, microstructures and macroscopic structural elements (foliation, lineation, folds…) in mylonitic shear zones suggest that the C-axis fabric mostly reflects the late-stage deformation history. Three examples of mylonitic thrust zones are presented: the Eastern Alps, where the direction of shearing inferred from the quartz fabric results from a late deformation oblique to the overall thrusting; the Caledonides nappes and the Himalayan Main Central Thrust zone, where, through a similar reasoning, the fabrics would also reflect late strain increments though the direction of shearing deduced from quartz fabric remains parallel to the overall thrusting direction. Hence, the sense of shear and the shear strain component deduced from the orientation of C-axis girdles relative to the finite strain ellipsoid axes are not simply related nor representative of the entire deformation history.