Rock Strength and Texture Evolution During Deformation in the Earth's Ductile Lithosphere: A Two‐Phase Thermodynamics Model

Abstract

AbstractBuilding upon the two‐phase and grain damage theory, we propose a new formulation allowing to track the evolution of phase mixing/segregation during ductile deformation of a two‐phased aggregate. Our model is based on a set of variables characterizing a rock texture: the mean grain sizes and the phase proportion. During ductile deformation, activation of different micromechanical processes impacts the aggregate texture. Dislocation and diffusion creep are the two main deformation processes considered. We only account for the effect of Zener pinning in slowing down grain growth and allow for active grain‐size reduction mechanisms in the diffusion creep domain. For this purpose, an equation is proposed to track the phase mixing evolution during ductile deformation. Numerical application using anorthite rheology shows that any grain reduction mechanisms that could be active in the diffusion creep regime requires a very high partition fraction in order to reach the grain size predicted by the feldspar piezometer. Application of this model to gabbroic composition, relevant for the ductile crust, demonstrates that the strong coupling between phases grain sizes and interface evolution results in steady‐state grain sizes far below the field boundary. This effect is coeval with an important increase of mixing between the two phases. In addition, accounting for the phase mixing results in a drop of the global aggregate stress during deformation. This model allows for further comparison of mylonitized textures evolution with natural shear zones at the local and regional scales.