Quartz veins deformed by diffusion creep-accommodated grain boundary sliding during a transient, high strain-rate event in the Southern Alps, New Zealand

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Abstract The crystallographic preferred orientations (CPOs) and microstructures of deformed quartz veins were measured for four samples in the hanging-wall of the Alpine Fault in the Southern Alps, New Zealand. Their deformation and exhumation has occurred since 4 Ma. The quartz veins have been ductilely sheared to finite shear-strains of 5–15 in late Cenozoic shear zones at 450±50 °C, 310±90 MPa and strain-rates between 2×10−11 and 2×10−9 s−1. The sheared veins have a polygonal microstructure with few subgrains and an average grain-size of ∼100 μm. The CPO of the veins is random to very weak within the shear zones. We suggest that dislocation creep accommodated initial shear deformation, at high stresses and strain-rates. The deformation must have created a strong CPO and concomitant dynamic recrystallization reduced the grain-size significantly. Dissipation of stresses during initial deformation lead to a stress and strain-rate drop required for a switch to diffusion creep-accommodated grain boundary sliding (GBS). Continued shearing accommodated by GBS destroyed the CPO. Post-deformational grain growth gave rise to a final polygonal microstructure with a similar grain size in veins and in the wall rocks. Analysis of existing experimental data suggest that this sequence of events is possible in the time available. Rates of all processes may have been enhanced by the presence of a water-rich fluid within the shear zones. These observations of naturally deformed rocks provide a model for the processes that may occur during short-lived deformation at transiently-high stresses at mid-crustal depths or deeper.