Emplacement Deformation Research Articles

Implication of deformation fabrics of schist-migmatite-gneiss and granite in understanding regional tectonics: Eastern Dharwar Craton (EDC), India

Structural fabrics of schist belt, gneiss, migmatites and younger granitoids are different. Various morphology of migmatites is recognized for the first time in the southern part of EDC along with gneiss. The younger granite plutons are examined from northern through central to southern part of EDC. The paleosome-dominated portions of migmatite were possibly formed from low degree partial melting of older rocks and identified as metatexites. Whereas, the neosome dominated parts were developed by complete melting and marked as diatexites. There is a link between diatexite and granite in the southern part, which is chracterized as catazone segment. The four sub-types of metatexites are observed (viz, patch, dilatant, net and stromatic). The diatexites are dominated by two major structures (viz, schollen or raft and schlieren). Gneisses show lit-per-lit as well as fold and leucocratic material flow features. The litho-structural variation from north to south connotes systematic changes from epizone through mesozone to catazone. The qualitative study of mineral content and textural aspects from rocks at different localities suggest preserved portions of different parts of a pressure–temperature path. However, exact quantification should be possible after thermo-barometry and pseudo section study. The present contribution focuses on documentation of classic representative outcrops and petrographic features of gneissic and migmatitic rocks of EDC. It is observed that the six (6) major ductile deformation stages of Kenoran orogeny implies ductile signature before granite plutonism. Subsequently post granite emplacement deformation phenomenon indicates a transition from ductile to brittle regime and entrance into Hudsonian orogeny.

The low-grade Canal de las Montañas Shear Zone and its role in the tectonic emplacement of the Sarmiento Ophiolitic Complex and Late Cretaceous Patagonian Andes orogeny, Chile

The Canal de las Montañas Shear Zone (CMSZ), southern Patagonian Andes (51–52°S), is a low-grade mylonite belt generated from felsic ignimbritic, pelitic and basaltic protoliths of the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous Rocas Verdes basin. The different types of rock fabrics across the CMSZ are thought to be associated with relatively intermediate and high strain conditions, characterized by the development of a narrow western belt of S–C´-type mylonites and phyllonites interpreted as the metamorphic sole thrust of the Sarmiento Ophiolitic Complex. Highly strained rocks of the CMSZ display a reverse, continent-ward tectonic transport, with a minor dextral component of shearing. Transitional pumpellyite–actinolite and upper greenschist facies metamorphic conditions at ca. 5–6kbar and 230–260°C indicate that the primary shearing event occurred in a subduction zone setting. In-situ 40Ar/39Ar laserprobe chronology yielded ages of ca. 85Ma on syntectonic phengite which are interpreted as representing cooling synchronous with mica crystallization during the main compressive deformational event. The 78–81Ma U–Pb zircon crystallization ages of cross-cutting plutonic and hypabyssal rocks and 40Ar/39Ar amphibole age of ca.79Ma from lamprophyric dikes within the fold-thrust belt constrain an upper age limit of the ophiolite tectonic emplacement deformation.

Analogue and numerical modelling of shape fabrics: application to strain and flow determination in magmas

We summarise numerical and analogue models of shape fabrics, and discuss their applicability to the shape preferred orientation of crystals in magmas. Analyses of flow direction and finite strain recorded during the emplacement of partially crystallised magmas often employ the analytical and numerical solutions of the Jeffery's model, which describe the movement of noninteracting ellipsoidal particles immersed in a Newtonian fluid. Crystallising magmas, however, are considered as dynamic fluid systems in which particles nucleate and grow. Crystallisation during magma deformation leads to mechanical interactions between crystals whose shape distribution is not necessarily homogeneous and constant during emplacement deformation. Experiments carried out in both monoparticle and multiparticle systems show that shape fabrics begin to develop early in the deformation history and evolve according to the theoretical models for low-strain regimes. At large strains and increasing crystal content, the heterogeneous size distribution of natural crystals and contact interactions tend to generate steady-state fabrics with a lineation closely parallel to the direction of the magmatic flow. This effect has been observed in all threedimensional experiments with particles of similar size and for strain regimes of high vorticity. On the other hand, studies of feldspar megacryst sub-fabrics in porphyritic granites suggest that these record a significant part of the strain history. Thus, the fabric ellipsoid for megacrysts evolves closer to the strain ellipsoid than for smaller markers. This behaviour results from the fact that the matrix forms of the melt and smaller crystals behave like a continuous medium relative to the megacrysts. Consequently, in the absence of these markers, and because the fabric intensities of smaller particles such as biotite are stable and lower than predicted by the theory, finite strain remains indeterminate. In that case, strain quantification and geometry of the flow requires the addition of external constraints based on other structural approaches.