Microstructures associated with cataclasites and mylonites in the Red River shear zone in the Diancang Shan block, Yunnan Province, China show evidence for both reaction hardening and softening at ...lower greenschist facies metamorphic conditions. The earliest fault-rocks derived from Triassic porphyritic orthogneiss protoliths are cataclasites. Brittle fractures and crushed grains are cemented by newly precipitated quartz. These cataclasites are subsequently overprinted by mylonitic fabrics. Truncations and embayments of relic feldspars and biotites show that these protolith minerals have been dissolved and incompletely replaced by muscovite, chlorite, and quartz. Both K-feldspar and plagioclase porphyroclasts are truncated by muscovite alone, suggesting locally metasomatic reactions of the form: 3K-feldspar+2H+=muscovite+6SiO2(aq)+2K+. Such reactions produce muscovite folia and fish, and quartz bands and ribbons. Muscovite and quartz are much weaker than the reactant feldspars and these reactions result in reaction softening. Moreover, the muscovite tends to align in contiguous bands that constitute textural softening. These mineral and textural modifications occurred at constant temperature and drove the transition from brittle to viscous deformation and the shift in deformation mechanism from cataclasis to dissolution–precipitation and reaction creep. These mylonitic rocks so produced are cut by K-feldspar veins that interrupt the mylonitic fabric. The veins add K-feldspar to the assemblage and these structures constitute both reaction and textural hardening. Finally these veins are boudinaged by continued viscous deformation in the mylonitic matrix, thus defining a late ductile strain event. Together these overprinting textures and microstructures demonstrate several oscillations between brittle and viscous deformation, all at lower greenschist facies conditions where only frictional behavior is predicted by experiments. The overlap of the depths of greenschist facies conditions with the base of the crustal seismic zone suggests that the implied oscillations in strain rate may have been related to the earthquake cycle.
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► Brittle and ductile fault rocks in the Red River shear zone are described. ► Repeated oscillations from brittle to viscous deformation occur. ► Oscillations are identified by truncations of one style of deformation by another. ► The oscillations are probably related to the earthquake cycle.
To understand the similarity and diversity of serpentinization processes in different rock systems, gabbroic rocks recovered from IODP Site U1415 at the Hess Deep Rift were examined and compared with ...peridotites from the adjacent ODP Site 895. Textural observations, micro-Raman spectroscopic analyses and electron microprobe analyses indicated that most of the olivine-replacing serpentine in the gabbroic rocks lack the mixing with brucite, which is common in peridotites. At least three stages of serpentinization are observable in the gabbroic rocks; each generation is characterized by different submicroscopic mixtures or solid solutions of sheet silicates: 1) Mg-Fe2+ lizardite+ferri-lizardite+chlorite, 2) Mg-Fe2+ lizardite+ferri-lizardite, and 3) Mg-Fe2+ lizardite+ferri-lizardite+saponite. The first and third generations of serpentine and mixed minerals are relatively Fe-rich, whereas the second generation is Fe-poor and associated with abundant magnetite and pyrrhotite. The major difference between the alteration of gabbroic and peridotitic systems is probably best explained by the iron content and modal abundance of primary olivine and by rock-dominated fluid compositions with a high silica activity due to the alteration of plagioclase in gabbroic rocks. The mineralogical variations between the reported three generations of mixed sheet silicates in gabbroic rocks can be ascribed to variations of silica and/or oxygen activities in the associated fluids under decreasing temperature conditions. The abrupt increase of magnetite crystallization during serpentinization in gabbroic rocks could be caused by oxidation at a relatively high SiO2 activity without the olivine-serpentine-brucite buffering assemblage.
•Serpentinization is compared between gabbros and peridotites from the Hess Deep Rift.•Serpentine is associated with abundant magnetite and no brucite in the gabbros.•At least three stages of serpentinization are observable in the gabbroic rocks.•Lizardite formed with variable mixtures or solid solutions of other sheet silicates.•The observations can be explained by the variations of silica and oxygen activities.
Aluminous spinel, corundum and diaspore are reported from intensely altered parts of primitive troctolites recovered from IODP Site U1415 at the Hess Deep Rift. The spinel is green-colored, has an ...irregular shape, has low Cr concentrations, and is so distinct from primary igneous chromite. Corundum and diaspore occur mainly at the rims of green spinel grains with a texture suggesting a sequential replacement of spinel by corundum, and then corundum by diaspore. The green spinel is associated with anorthite and pargasite, which is overgrown by tremolite that forms coronitic aggregates with chlorite around olivine. These petrographic observations are supported by pressure–temperature pseudosections, which predict spinel + pargasite stability field, and tremolite/hornblende + chlorite field at lower temperature conditions. From these pseudosections and simplified system phase diagrams, estimated formation temperature conditions calculated at 2 kbar are 650–750 °C for spinel + pargasite, 410–690 °C for tremolite/hornblende + chlorite, 400–710 °C for corundum, and <400 °C for diaspore. Because the aluminous spinel occurs in the domains that were previously occupied by magmatic plagioclase, and because spinel-bearing rocks characteristically have high Al
2
O
3
/CaO and Al
2
O
3
/SiO
2
ratios, it is likely that the stabilization of spinel was caused by the loss of Ca
2+
and SiO
2
(aq) in high-temperature hydrothermal fluids. The results of this study suggest that (1) the concentrations of aluminous phases in the lower oceanic crust are presently underestimated, and (2) chemical modification of the lower oceanic crust due to high-temperature hydrothermal metasomatic reactions could be common near spreading axes.
We report a new sampling strategy for collecting representative samples of drill core. By splitting the core with a diamond saw into working and archive halves, the saw cuttings constitute a ..."channel" sample, the best subsample from which to obtain an average mineralogical and geochemical composition of a core. We apply this procedure to sampling core of the lower oceanic crust in the Hess Deep obtained during Expedition 345 of the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program (now International Ocean Discovery Program).
A suite of slate samples collected along a 2 km transect crossing the Lishan fault in central Taiwan were evaluated to assess the role of ductile deformation in natural graphitization at lower ...greenschist facies metamorphic conditions. The process of natural aromatization, or graphitization, of an organic precursor is well established as a thermally driven process; however, experimental studies have shown that the energy provided by deformation can substantially reduce the activation energy required for graphitization. This study provides a natural example of deformation‐induced graphitization. A strain gradient approaching the Lishan fault was established by scanning electron microscope imaging and X‐ray diffraction analysis of phyllosilicates and quartz that showed an increase in the strength of slaty cleavage development via dissolution‐precipitation processes. Thermal conditions were constrained to be near isothermal using calcite‐dolomite geothermometry. Raman spectroscopic results from carbonaceous material, including D1‐full width‐at‐half‐maximum (FWHM), G‐FWHM, Raman band separation (RBS), and a lesser‐known vibrational mode B2g‐FWHM, showed robust linear trends across the same sampling transect. However, the G‐FWHM parameter showed a trend opposite of that expected from thermally driven graphitization. The Raman results are interpreted to reflect a strain‐driven reduction in graphite crystallite size (decrease in G‐FWHM) but improvement in structural ordering in individual coherent domains. A multiple linear regression with an R2 value of 0.92 predicts the graphite D1‐FWHM values from the XRD‐derived ratio of muscovite populations and muscovite microstrain, demonstrating the concomitant recrystallization of silicates and carbonaceous material across the strain gradient, despite the disparate processes accommodating the deformation. This study demonstrates the role of deformation in natural graphitization and provides a new perspective on the use of graphite as a geothermometer in strongly deformed greenschist facies rocks.
Zircon grains in granites from Avalonian and Ganderian rocks in southern New England host brittle internal structures that are interpreted here to show the host rocks to be allochthonous. Significant ...among these structures are inherited cores that are commonly fractured and even dismembered. This intense fracturing is interpreted as reflecting an important cataclastic event. The maximum age of fracturing is constrained to be younger than the age of the youngest broken magmatic core: 360 ± 4 Ma. The minimum age must be older than the oldest zircon rim that heals these fractures: that is, Early Permian. The occurrence of cataclastic zircon requires that these rocks were relatively cold (i.e. in the upper crust) during the Carboniferous and therefore were not involved in the pervasive high-grade Acadian metamorphism. The present map pattern of inter-tonguing high-grade and low-grade slices of peri-Gondwanan rocks shows that they were assembled by crustal-scale tectonic wedging. The consequent thickening ultimately led to anatexis in the lower slices during the Permian. Thus, evidence for cataclasis of zircon grains from the Avalon and Gander terranes of southern New England suggests that these peri-Gondwanan terranes remained outboard of Laurentia during the well-documented Early Devonian Acadian orogeny and were first fully accreted to North America during the Alleghanian (Permian) orogeny.
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•The core of inherited Devonian zircon from Permian granites are fractured•Fractured cores indicate Carboniferous cataclasis at low metamorphic grade•Rocks hosting these granites are high-grade Devonian metamorphics•These observations support an argument for Carboniferous tectonic wedging
Three-quarters of the oceanic crust formed at fast-spreading ridges is composed of plutonic rocks whose mineral assemblages, textures and compositions record the history of melt transport and ...crystallization between the mantle and the sea floor. Despite the importance of these rocks, sampling them in situ is extremely challenging owing to the overlying dykes and lavas. This means that models for understanding the formation of the lower crust are based largely on geophysical studies and ancient analogues (ophiolites) that did not form at typical mid-ocean ridges. Here we describe cored intervals of primitive, modally layered gabbroic rocks from the lower plutonic crust formed at a fast-spreading ridge, sampled by the Integrated Ocean Drilling Program at the Hess Deep rift. Centimetre-scale, modally layered rocks, some of which have a strong layering-parallel foliation, confirm a long-held belief that such rocks are a key constituent of the lower oceanic crust formed at fast-spreading ridges. Geochemical analysis of these primitive lower plutonic rocks--in combination with previous geochemical data for shallow-level plutonic rocks, sheeted dykes and lavas--provides the most completely constrained estimate of the bulk composition of fast-spreading oceanic crust so far. Simple crystallization models using this bulk crustal composition as the parental melt accurately predict the bulk composition of both the lavas and the plutonic rocks. However, the recovered plutonic rocks show early crystallization of orthopyroxene, which is not predicted by current models of melt extraction from the mantle and mid-ocean-ridge basalt differentiation. The simplest explanation of this observation is that compositionally diverse melts are extracted from the mantle and partly crystallize before mixing to produce the more homogeneous magmas that erupt.
The extrusion tectonic model for the southeastern margin of the Himalayan orogeny links the crustal shear activity along the Red River Shear Zone (RRSZ) to the opening of the South China Sea (SCS). ...The Day Nui Con Voi (DNCV) metamorphic massif in northern Vietnam strikes NW-SE, is bounded by the RRSZ to the south and continues along the strike where it meets the SCS. The DNCV is thus a critical area to document thermotectonic history in order to advance our understanding of the tectonic evolution of Indochina extrusion and its relationship to the opening of the SCS. Our new
40
Ar/
39
Ar data combined with microstructural and petrological analyses constrained the timing of the left-lateral shearing of the RRSZ and revealed the thermal evolution of the DNCV metamorphic massif. Three ductile deformation events were observed. D
1
formed NNW-SSE striking upright folds under granulite to upper amphibolite facies conditions. D
2
was a horizontal to sub-horizontal folding event that occurred at amphibolite facies conditions. D
3
was a doming event that formed NW-SE striking up-right folds bounded by left-lateral shearing mylonite belts along the two limbs. The S/C fabrics were defined by muscovite fish, quartz + albite + K-feldspar aggregates, and muscovite folia. The D
3
doming event exhumed the DNCV metamorphic massif from amphibolite facies conditions to the lower greenschist facies conditions. The
40
Ar/
39
Ar ages obtained from amphibole (∼26 Ma), phlogopite (∼25 Ma), muscovites (∼24-23 Ma), biotite (∼25-23 Ma), and K-feldspars (∼25-22 Ma) from different structural domains of the DNCV metamorphic massif indicated a rapid exhumation ∼26–22 Ma. We interpreted this as the time period for the D
3
event, with the onset of left-lateral shearing occurring around 24 Ma based on ages obtained from syn-kinematic muscovites. This age was much younger than the initiation of sea-floor spreading of the SCS (since 32 Ma) but coincided with the age for the ridge jump event in the SCS. Based on these new data, we proposed that extrusion tectonism cannot be the cause for the initial opening of the SCS. Rather, the extrusion of the Indochina block was temporally correlative with the southward ridge jump event of the already opened SCS.
U–Pb ages for zircon and titanite from a granodioritic gneiss in the Glastonbury Complex, Connecticut, have been determined using both isotope dilution thermal ionization mass spectrometry (TIMS) and ...the sensitive high resolution ion microprobe (SHRIMP). Zircons occur in three morphologic populations: (1) equant to stubby, multifaceted, colorless, (2) prismatic, dark brown, with numerous cracks, and (3) elongate, prismatic, light tan to colorless. Cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging of the three populations shows simple concentric oscillatory zoning. The zircon TIMS age weighted average of
207Pb/
206Pb ages from Group 3 grains—450.5±1.6 Ma (MSWD=1.11) and SHRIMP age composite of
206Pb/
238 U age data from all three groups—448.2±2.7 Ma (MSWD=1.3), are interpreted to suggest a relatively simple crystallization history. Titanite from the granodioritic gneiss occurs as both brown and colorless varieties. Scanning electron microscope backscatter (BSE) images of brown grains show multiple cross-cutting oscillatory zones of variable brightness and dark overgrowths. Colorless grains are unzoned or contain subtle wispy or very faint oscillatory zoning. Electron microprobe analysis (EMPA) clearly distinguishes the two populations. Brown grains contain relatively high concentrations of Fe
2O
3, Ce
2O
3 (up to ∼1.5 wt.%), Nb
2O
5, and Zr. Cerium concentration is positively correlated with total REE+Y concentration, which together can exceed 3.5 wt.%. Oscillatory zoning in brown titanite is correlated with variations in REE concentrations. In contrast, colorless titanite (both as discrete grains and overgrowths on brown titanite) contains lower concentrations of Y, REE, Fe
2O
3, and Zr, but somewhat higher Al
2O
3 and Nb
2O
5. Uranium concentrations and Th/U discriminate between brown grains (typically 200–400 ppm U; all analyses but one have Th/U between about 0.8 and 2) and colorless grains (10–60 ppm U; Th/U of 0–0.17). In contrast to the zircon U–Pb age results, SHRIMP U–Pb data from titanite indicate multiple growth episodes. In brown grains, oscillatory zoned cores formed at 443±6 Ma, whereas white (in BSE) cross-cutting zones are 425±9 Ma. Colorless grains and overgrowths on brown grains yield an age of 265±8 Ma (using the Total Pb method) or 265±5 Ma (using the weighted average of the
206Pb/
238U ages). However, EMPA chemical data identify zoning that suggests that this colorless titanite may preserve three growth events. Oscillatory zoned portions of brown titanite grains are igneous in origin; white cross-cutting zones probably formed during a previously unrecognized event that caused partial dissolution of earlier titanite and reprecipitation of a slightly younger generation of brown titanite. Colorless titanite replaced and grew over the magmatic titanite during the Permian Alleghanian orogeny. These isotopic data indicate that titanite, like zircon, can contain multiple age components. Coupling SHRIMP microanalysis with EMPA and SEM results on dated zones as presented in this study is an efficient and effective technique to extract additional chronologic data to reveal the complexities of igneous crystallization and metamorphic growth.
A combination of modal estimates from powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) experiments and argon isotopic data shows that muscovite 40Ar/39Ar total gas age correlates with muscovite composition near the ...retrograde Bald Mountain shear zone (BMSZ) in Claremont, New Hampshire, and that the shear zone was active at ∼245 Ma. Petrologic study demonstrates that chemical disequilibrium is preserved in muscovite grains in these samples. The recognition of this preservation is critical to the interpretation of the 40Ar/39Ar step-heating experiments, which never produce age plateaus and yield spectra with steps that range in age by ∼20 Ma. Petrographic, compositional, and crystallographic data all indicate that the age spectra reflect dissolution of metastable Na-rich muscovite and precipitation of stable Na-poor muscovite associated with deformation in the BMSZ.Comparison of whole rock and muscovite concentrate XRD patterns from individual samples demonstrates that the mineral separation process can fractionate these muscovite populations. Therefore, four muscovite concentrates of varying magnetic susceptibility were prepared from a single hand sample, analyzed by XRD, and dated. These four splits define a mixing line that resolves end-member ages of 244.5 ± 4.2 Ma and 302.5 ± 12.5 Ma (1σ). Although the ages are imprecise, the petrologically supported conclusion that these schists preserve two discrete ages is distinct from an interpretation that the spectra reflect cooling through closure at ∼270 Ma, as might be concluded in the absence of petrologic characterization. The XRD results also demonstrate that, even well above anchizone conditions, petrologic information relevant to 40Ar/39Ar dating is observable in subtle variations in the crystallography of muscovite grains.
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