STRAIN LOCALIZATION PROCESSES IN THE UPPER MANTLE SECTION OF AN OCEANIC PALEOTRANSFORM FAULT, BOGOTA PENINSULA SHEAR ZONE, NEW CALEDONIA

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasileios Chatzaras ◽  
◽  
Seth C. Kruckenberg ◽  
Sarah Titus ◽  
Basil Tikoff ◽  
...  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elisa Ferrari ◽  
Arianna Secchiari ◽  
Alessandra Montanini ◽  
Dominique Cluzel

<p>Pyroxenites constitute the major form of heterogeneity in the upper mantle. Their occurrence in supra-subduction zone settings is mostly testified by veins and layers in refractory ophiolitic peridotites, where they represent a crucial witness of melt migration in the forearc/subarc environment [1,2]. The New Caledonia ophiolite hosts one of the largest forearc mantle section worldwide, providing a unique perspective into upper mantle processes. The sequence is dominated by ultra-depleted harzburgites [3], locally overlain by mafic-ultramafic cumulates [4,5,6]. The harzburgites are highly refractory residues that register a multi-phase evolution, including fluid-assisted melting in a forearc environment and contamination by fluid- and melt inputs triggered by Eocene subduction [1]. Pyroxenitic rocks intruding the harzburgites are only known in the Bogota peninsula shear zone, which records HT deformation along a paleotransform fault [7]. In this contribution, we report a comprehensive petrological and geochemical characterization on a new set of pyroxenites from this locality. The pyroxenites (~5-15 cm-thick) generally cut the peridotite foliation at variable angles, but concordant, locally boudinaged, layers also occur. Pyroxenite textures range from cumulitic to porphyroclastic or granoblastic-polygonal. The studied samples mostly consist of amphibole-bearing (5-44 vol.%) websterites, with variable amounts of orthopyroxene (27-67 vol.%) and almost constant clinopyroxene contents (~ 25-29 vol.%). Minor olivine-bearing orthopyroxenites are also present. Accessory phases include high-Ca (An= 82-86 mol%) plagioclase, Cr-rich spinel (Cr# = 50-61), sulfides and, occasionally, apatite. Pyroxenes displays high Mg# (Mg# Opx= 91-92; Mg# Cpx= 84-93), coupled with low Al2O3 contents (0.97-1.92 wt% and 1-2.42 wt% for orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene, respectively). Amphibole is high Mg# edenite. Application of conventional pyroxene thermometry yield equilibration temperatures ranging between 930-1040°C, comparable to the enclosing harzburgites (~ 950°C), whereas amphibole-plagioclase geothermometer provides lower temperatures (~ 800°C). Bulk rock composition of the websterites show variable Mg# (82-91) and REE concentrations ranging between 1 to 10 times chondritic values. They are characterized by flat to LREE-depleted (LaN/SmN 0.28-0.92) patterns, coupled to weak MREE-HREE fractionation (GdN/YbN = 1.73-1.92) and Eu negative anomalies. By contrast, orthopyroxenites display notably lower concentrations (0.1≤REE≤1 chondrite abundances). As a whole, clinopyroxene REE patterns of the websterites mirror bulk rocks at higher absolute values. Putative melts in equilibrium with clinopyroxene indicate strongly enriched compositions (up to 300 times chondritic values) coupled to variable LREE-HREE fractionation (LaN/LuN = 3-19) and flat to fractionated HREE (GdN/LuN 1-2). Such enriched liquids, which show some analogies with pre-obduction adakite-like dikes [8], have never been recorded in the MTZ cumulitic sequence of the New Caledonia ophiolite and shed new light on the magmatic activity in the early stage of subduction. </p><p>[1] Varfalvy, Canad Mineral, 1997, 35 (2), 543-570.<br>[2] Berly et al., J. Petrol., 2006, 47(8), 1531-1555.<br>[3] Secchiari et al., Geosc. Front., 2020, 11(1), 37–55. [4]. <br>[4] Marchesi et al., Chem. Geol., 2009, 266, 171-186.<br>[5] Pirard et al., J. Petrol., 2013, 54, 1759–1792.<br>[6] Secchiari et al., Contrib. Mineral. Petrol., 2018, 173(8), 66.<br>[7] Chatzaras et al., Geology, 2020, 48 (6): 569–573.<br>[8] Cluzel et al., Terra Nova, 2006, 6, 395–402.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasileios Chatzaras ◽  
Basil Tikoff ◽  
Seth C. Kruckenberg ◽  
Sarah J. Titus ◽  
Christian Teyssier ◽  
...  

<p>Mantle earthquakes that occur deeper than the 600 °C isotherm in oceanic transform faults indicate seismic rupturing at conditions where viscous deformation (bulk ductile behavior) is dominant.  However, direct geological evidence of earthquake-related deformation at ambient upper mantle conditions is rare, impeding our understanding of earthquake dynamics in plate-boundary fault systems.  The Bogota Peninsula Shear Zone (BPSZ), New Caledonia, is an ancient oceanic transform fault exhumed from upper mantle depths.  Ductile structures in the BPSZ formed at temperatures > 800 °C and microstructures indicate that differential stress varies spatially and temporally.  Spatial variation is observed as an increase in differential stress with strain toward localized zones of high strain; stress increases from 6–14 MPa in coarse grained tectonites to 11–22 MPa within 1–2 km wide mylonite zones.  Temporal stress variation is observed by the formation of micro-deformation zones that seem to have brittle precursors, are filled with fine-grained recrystallized olivine grains and crosscut the background fabrics in the harzburgites that host them.  The micro-deformation zones are not restricted to the mylonite zones, but rather are located throughout the BPSZ, having affected the protomylonites and the coarse grained tectonites.  The micro-deformation zones record stresses of 22–81 MPa that are 2–6 times higher than the background, steady-state stresses in the surrounding mantle rocks.  We interpret the observed spatial and temporal variations in microstructures and stresses in the upper mantle to demonstrate the influence of seismic events in the upper part of the oceanic transform fault system.  We attribute the increase in stress with strain to be the result of imposed localization induced by downward propagation of the seismic rupture into the underlying mantle.  The micro-deformation zones could result from brittle fractures caused by earthquake-related deformation in the mantle section of the transform fault, which are in turn overprinted by ductile deformation.</p><p> </p><p>Synthesizing the spatial and temporal variations in stresses and microstructures in the Bogota Peninsula Shear Zone we propose a conceptual model where brittle fracturing and shearing take place during coseismic rupture at increased stress, ductile flow at decaying stress is concentrated in the micro-deformation zones during postseismic relaxation, and uniformly distributed creep at low stress occurs in the host-rocks of the micro-deformation zones during interseismic deformation.  The critical result from the studied paleotransform zone is that the fine-grained micro-deformation zones and the mylonites do not represent weak zones.  Instead, they form by dislocation creep at transient high-stress deformation during the seismic cycle.  The spatial distribution of the micro-deformation zones also suggests that repeated stress cycles in oceanic transform faults may not localize strain in pre-existing shear zones but disperse strain across the structure.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Vasileios Chatzaras ◽  
◽  
Basil Tikoff ◽  
Seth C. Kruckenberg ◽  
Sarah Titus ◽  
...  

Petrology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 114-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghodrat Torabi ◽  
Shoji Arai ◽  
Tomoaki Morishita ◽  
Akihiro Tamura

2003 ◽  
Vol 40 (9) ◽  
pp. 1203-1218 ◽  
Author(s):  
David W Eaton ◽  
Jacqueline Hope

The Great Slave Lake shear zone (GSLsz) exposes lower crustal rocks analogous to deep-seated segments of modern strike-slip fault zones, such as the San Andreas fault. Extending for 1300 km beneath the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin to the southern margin of the Slave Province, the GSLsz produces one of the most prominent linear magnetic anomalies in Canada. From May to October 1999, 13 three-component portable broadband seismograph stations were deployed in a 150-km profile across a buried segment of the shear zone to investigate its lithospheric structure. Splitting analysis of core-refracted teleseismic shear waves reveals an average fast-polarization direction (N49°E ± 19°) that is approximately parallel to the shear zone. Individual stations near the axis of the shear zone show more northerly splitting directions, which we attribute to interference between regional anisotropy in the upper mantle (fast axis ~N60°E) and crustal anisotropy within the shear zone (fast axis ~N30°E). At the location of our profile, the shear zone is characterized by a 10-mGal axial gravity high with a wavelength of 30 km, superimposed on a longer wavelength 12-mGal low. This gravity signature is consistent with the basic features of the crustal model derived from receiver-function analysis: a Moho that dips inward toward the shear-zone axis and a mid-crustal zone with high S-wave velocity (ΔVs = 0.6 ± 0.2 km/s). The axial gravity high may be related to uplift of deeper crustal material within the shear zone, or protolith-dependent compositional differences between the shear zone and surrounding wall rocks.


Solid Earth ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 489-511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francesca Prando ◽  
Luca Menegon ◽  
Mark Anderson ◽  
Barbara Marchesini ◽  
Jussi Mattila ◽  
...  

Abstract. The microstructural record of fault rocks active at the brittle–ductile transition zone (BDTZ) may retain information on the rheological parameters driving the switch in deformation mode and on the role of stress and fluid pressure in controlling different fault slip behaviours. In this study we analysed the deformation microstructures of the strike-slip fault zone BFZ045 in Olkiluoto (SW Finland), located in the site of a deep geological repository for nuclear waste. We combined microstructural analysis, electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD), and mineral chemistry data to reconstruct the variations in pressure, temperature, fluid pressure, and differential stress that mediated deformation and strain localization along BFZ045 across the BDTZ. BFZ045 exhibits a mixed ductile–brittle deformation, with a narrow (<20 cm thick) brittle fault core with cataclasites and pseudotachylytes that overprint a wider (60–100 cm thick) quartz-rich mylonite. Mylonitic deformation took place at 400–500 ∘C and 3–4 kbar, typical of the greenschist facies metamorphism at the base of the seismogenic crust. We used the recrystallized grain size piezometry for quartz to document a progressive increase in differential stress, from ca. 50 to ca. 120 MPa, towards the shear zone centre during mylonitization and strain localization. Syn-kinematic quartz veins formed along the mylonitic foliation due to transiently high pore fluid pressure (up to lithostatic value). The overprint of the veins by dynamic recrystallization and mylonitic creep is further evidence of the occurrence of brittle events under overall ductile conditions. We propose a conceptual model in which the ductile–brittle deformation cycle was controlled by transient oscillations in fluid pressure and progressively higher differential stress, possibly occurring in a narrowing shear zone deforming towards the peak strength of the crust at the BDTZ.


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