Striding-Athabasca mylonite zone: Complex Archean deep-crustal deformation in the East Athabasca mylonite triangle, northern Saskatchewan

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (8) ◽  
pp. 1287-1300 ◽  
Author(s):  
Simon Hanmer ◽  
Randy Parrish ◽  
Michael Williams ◽  
Chris Kopf
Keyword(s):  
Flow Pattern ◽  
Shear Zone ◽  
Crustal Deformation ◽  
Principal Axis ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Granulite Facies ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Tectonic Zone ◽  
Early Proterozoic ◽  
Lower Deck

The geophysically defined Snowbird tectonic zone is manifested in northernmost Saskatchewan as a deep-crustal, multistage mylonitic structure, the East Athabasca mylonite triangle. The triangle, located at the northeastern apex of a stiff, crustal-scale "lozenge," is composed of mid-Archean annealed mylonites and late Archean ribbon mylonites, formed during two granulite facies events (850–1000 °C, 1.0 GPa). The flow pattern in the mylonites is geometrically and kinematically complex, and corresponds to that expected adjacent to the apex of a stiff elliptical volume subjected to subhorizontal regional extension parallel to its principal axis. The late Archean mylonites are divided into an upper structural deck, entirely occupied by a dip-slip shear zone, and an underlying lower deck. The latter is divided into two upright conjugate strike-slip shear zones, separated by a low-strain septum, which deformed by progressive coaxial flow. The flow pattern in the mid-Archean mylonites is compatible with that of the late Archean mylonites, and suggests that the crustal-scale lozenge influenced deformation since the mid-Archean. In the interval ca. 2.62–2.60 Ga, deformation in the upper and lower decks evolved from a granulite facies pervasive regime to a more localized amphibolite facies regime. With further cooling, deformation was localized within very narrow greenschist mylonitic faults at the lateral limits of the lower deck. By the late Archean, the East Athabasca mylonite triangle was part of a deep-crustal, intracontinental shear zone. This segment of the Snowbird tectonic zone was not the site of an Early Proterozoic suture or orogen.

Proterozoic geological evolution of the northern Vestfold Hills, Antarctica

1991 ◽  
Vol 128 (4) ◽  
pp. 307-318 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. W. Passchier ◽  
R. F. Bekendam ◽  
J. D. Hoek ◽  
P. G. H. M. Dirks ◽  
H. de Boorder
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Structural Evolution ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Granulite Facies ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Amphibolite Facies ◽  
Tectonic Event ◽  
Vestfold Hills ◽  
Two Phases ◽  
Brittle Faulting

AbstractThe presence of polyphase shear zones transected by several suites of dolerite dykes in Archaean basement of the Vestfold Hills, East Antarctica, allows a detailed reconstruction of the local structural evolution. Archaean and early Proterozoic deformation at granulite facies conditions was followed by two phases of dolerite intrusion and mylonite generation in strike-slip zones at amphibolite facies conditions. A subsequent middle Proterozoic phase of brittle normal faulting led to the development of pseudotachylite, predating intrusion of the major swarm of dolerite dykes around 1250 Ma. During the later stages and following this event, pseudotachylite veins were reactivated as ductile, mylonitic thrusts under prograde conditions, culminating in amphibolite facies metamorphism around 1000–1100 Ma. This is possibly part of a large-scale tectonic event during which the Vestfold block was overthrust from the south. In a final phase of strike-slip deformation, several pulses of pseudotachylite-generating brittle faulting alternated with ductile reactivation of pseudotachylite.

The Cora Lake shear zone, Athabasca granulite terrane, an intraplate response to far-field orogenic processes during the amalgamation of Laurentia

2014 ◽  
Vol 51 (9) ◽  
pp. 877-901 ◽  
Author(s):  
S.P. Regan ◽  
M.L. Williams ◽  
S. Leslie ◽  
K.H. Mahan ◽  
M.J. Jercinovic ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shear Zone ◽  
Granulite Facies ◽  
Dyke Swarm ◽  
Tectonic Zone ◽  
Metamorphic Peak ◽  
Fine Grain ◽  
Planar Shear ◽  
Mafic Dyke Swarm ◽  
Dextral Shear ◽  
Regional Stresses

The Cora Lake shear zone (CLsz) is a 4–6 km wide localized high-strain zone that bisects the polydeformed Athabasca granulite terrane, northern Saskatchewan. It also coincides with the geophysical trace of the Snowbird tectonic zone. The CLsz represents a major lithotectonic and thermobarometric discontinuity within the exposure of >20 000 km2 of high-pressure granulites. Most rocks have a strong mineral lineation plunging moderately to the southwest. The Northwestern subdomain (hangingwall) is characterized by ca. 2.6 Ga plutonic rocks that contain an early, subhorizontal gneissic layering (ca. 2.57 Ga) that was overprinted by large amplitude folds and a partitioned, but pervasive, axial planar, dextral, shear fabric at ca. 1.9 Ga. Thermobarometry suggests metamorphic conditions of ∼0.9 GPa and ∼750 °C during both of the phases of tectonism. The footwall is predominantly underlain by the ca. 3.3–3.0 Ga Chipman tonalite, layers of intercalated mafic and felsic granulite, and the widespread 1.9 Ga Chipman mafic dyke swarm. Early subhorizontal layering in the footwall was also folded at ca. 1.9 Ga and transposed into a steeply dipping, northeast-striking axial planar shear fabric that corresponds with the metamorphic peak (1.1–1.2 GPa and 800–900 °C). These distinct domains were juxtaposed across the CLsz, which contains a gneissic foliation striking 231° and dipping moderately to steeply to the northwest. Abundant sinistral–normal kinematic indicators are consistent with the distinctly lower pressures to the northwest. The shear zone is characterized by very fine grain sizes, despite its high-temperature assemblages including clinopyroxene and garnet. Thermobarometry from the CLsz displays progressive decompression of reworked footwall rocks with increasing mylonitization. In situ monazite geochronology indicates shearing at 1.89–1.87 Ga shortly after the granulite facies metamorphic peak. The anomalous sinistral kinematics of the CLsz, bracketed in time between periods of dextral shearing, can be explained by changing regional stresses during alternating convergent tectonics to the west and to the southeast of the Athabasca granulite terrane.

scholarly journals The Proterozoic mobile belt in the Ammassalik region, South-East Greenland (Ammassalik mobile belt): an introduction and re-appraisal

1989 ◽  
Vol 146 ◽  
pp. 5-12
Author(s):  
B Chadwick ◽  
P.R Dawes ◽  
J.C Escher ◽  
C.R.L Friend ◽  
R.P Hall ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shear Zones ◽  
Granulite Facies ◽  
Mobile Belt ◽  
The South ◽  
Southern Limit ◽  
Late Archaean ◽  
Early Proterozoic ◽  
The North ◽  
Layer Cake ◽  
Dyke Swarms

The Ammassalik mobile belt is characterised by a regional layer cake structure of tectonically interleaved sheets of quartzo-feldspathic orthogneisses and supracrustal rocks. The sheets of supracrustal rocks are most abundant in the north of the belt and they include semi-pelitic kyanite-sillimanite gneisses, graphitic schists, marble, amphibolites and local peridotite. The sheets are regarded as parts of a disrupted supracrustal sequence, here termed the Siportoq supracrustal association. Preliminary isotopic age data suggest that most of the orthogneisses are late Archaean, although some have early Proterozoic ages. The Siportoq supracrustal association has yielded an early Proterozoic age. Amphibolite dyke swarms were emplaced at various stages in the evolution of the mobile belt. The Ammassalik belt has an ill-defined northern limit marked by heterogeneous retrogression of a granulite facies terrain up to 100 km wide. Most of the belt is at amphibolite facies, with its southern limit lying to the south of the area considered here. The structure in the south is dominated by nappes and shear zones dipping NE within a wide tract of late Archaean orthogneisses intruded by amphibolite dyke swarms with relatively well preserved primary characteristics. The structure in the north is characterised by more pervasive deformation which gave rise to complex sequences of thrusting and nappe development propagating from the north. Large domes were superimposed on the nappe pile, perhaps as buoyancy phenomena. The dioritic Ammassalik Intrusive Complex (c. 1885 Ma) with its granulite facies assemblages is regarded as a late kinematic phenomenon. Major post-tectonic complexes of granite, diorite and gabbro (c. 1580 Ma) were intruded at a high level well after the close of the tectonism in the Ammassalik mobile belt.

High–pressure granulite–facies metamorphism and anatexis of deep continental crust: new insights from the Cenozoic Ailaoshan–Red River shear zone, SE Asia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Haobo Wang ◽  
Shuyun Cao ◽  
Franz Neubauer ◽  
Junyu Li ◽  
Xuemei Cheng ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Phase Diagram ◽  
Shear Zone ◽  
Thermal Evolution ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Granulite Facies ◽  
Red River ◽  
Crustal Anatexis ◽  
Early Oligocene ◽  
Facies Metamorphism ◽  
T Path

<p>Studies of crustal anatexis have given valuable insights into the evolution of metamorphism–deformation and the tectonic processes at convergent plate margins during orogeny. The transition of metatexite to diatexite migmatite records crucial information about the tectono–thermal evolution and rheology of the deep crust. Along the Ailao Shan–Red River shear zone, metatexite migmatites, diatexite migmatites and leucogranites are widely distributed within the upper amphibolite and granulite facies zones of the Diancang Shan metamorphic complex. The high–pressure granulite–facies metamorphism with mineral assemblage comprising garnet + kyanite + K–feldspar + plagioclase + biotite + quartz + melt is first recognized from the patch metatexite migmatites in the complex. Detailed petrographic evidence and phase diagram reveal that the migmatite underwent nearly isothermal decompression metamorphism, presenting a clockwise P–T path. The peak metamorphic P–T conditions are constrained by phase diagram at ca. 11 kbar and 810 °C, and the amount of melt generated during heating is up to 18 mol%. The extraction and segregation of melts are evidenced by the presence of leucosomes within migmatites and leucogranite dikes, which record the melt flow network through the crust. Zircons and monazites from migmatites record the ages of the melting episode that began at ca. 36 Ma and lasted to ca. 20 Ma. All these results are in accord with orogenic crust thickening accompanied by pervasive anatexis during the Later Eocene to the early Oligocene in the Ailao Shan–Red River shear zone. Combined with available data related to the other continental–exhumed shear zone, we propose that the crustal anatexis has an important effect on the thermal–state of deep–seated shear zones, is thus controlling the rheological behavior of the lithosphere and plays the essential role in the initial localizing of shearing in the lower crust.</p>

Complex kinematics in a major ductile shear zone, NW Shetland: Evidence of ductile extrusion during Caledonian transpression

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Armitage ◽  
Robert Holdsworth ◽  
Robin Strachan ◽  
Thomas Zach ◽  
Diana Alvarez-Ruiz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shear Zone ◽  
Hanging Wall ◽  
Regional Scale ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
White Mica ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Amphibolite Facies ◽  
Lateral Extrusion ◽  
Shear Sense ◽  
Ductile Shear

<p>Ductile shear zones are heterogeneous areas of strain localisation which often display variation in strain geometry and combinations of coaxial and non-coaxial deformation. One such heterogeneous shear zone is the c. 2 km thick Uyea Shear Zone (USZ) in northwest Mainland Shetland (UK), which separates variably deformed Neoarchaean orthogneisses in its footwall from Neoproterozoic metasediments in its hanging wall (Fig. a). The USZ is characterised by decimetre-scale layers of dip-slip thrusting and extension, strike-slip sinistral and dextral shear senses and interleaved ultramylonitic coaxially deformed horizons. Within the zones of transition between shear sense layers, mineral lineations swing from foliation down-dip to foliation-parallel in kinematically compatible, anticlockwise/clockwise-rotations on a local and regional scale (Fig. b). Rb-Sr dating of white mica grains via laser ablation indicates a c. 440-425 Ma Caledonian age for dip-slip and strike-slip layers and an 800 Ma Neoproterozoic age for coaxial layers. Quartz opening angles and microstructures suggest an upper-greenschist to lower-amphibolite facies temperature for deformation. We propose that a Neoproterozoic, coaxial event is overprinted by Caledonian sinistral transpression under upper greenschist/lower amphibolite facies conditions. Interleaved kinematics and mineral lineation swings are attributed to result from differential flow rates resulting in vertical and lateral extrusion and indicate regional-scale sinistral transpression during the Caledonian orogeny in NW Shetland. This study highlights the importance of linking geochronology to microstructures in a poly-deformed terrane and is a rare example of a highly heterogeneous shear zone in which both vertical and lateral extrusion occurred during transpression.</p><p><img src="https://contentmanager.copernicus.org/fileStorageProxy.php?f=gepj.0cf6ef44e5ff57820599061/sdaolpUECMynit/12UGE&app=m&a=0&c=d96bb6db75eed0739f2a6ee90c9ad8fd&ct=x&pn=gepj.elif&d=1" alt=""></p>

Exhumation of the crustal-scale Gaoligong strike-slip shear belt in Southeast Asia

2021 ◽  
pp. jgs2021-038
Author(s):  
Yanlong Dong ◽  
Shuyun Cao ◽  
Franz Neubauer ◽  
Haobo Wang ◽  
Wenyuan Li ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Shear Zone ◽  
Early Cretaceous ◽  
Vertical Motion ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Western Boundary ◽  
The Tibetan Plateau ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Lateral Extrusion ◽  
Supplementary Material

Lateral extrusion of blocks is a well-known geological process during continent–continent collision, which always expresses by either brittle strike-slip faults or ductile shear zones. However, vertical motion along such fault systems remains poorly constrained. The Gaoligong shear zone (GLG-SZ) formed the western boundary of the Indochina block during the India–Eurasia collision, resulting in the exhumation of deep crustal rocks, including a large volume of syntectonic granites. Combined zircon U-Pb dating and 40Ar/39Ar thermochronology revealed that both the unfoliated and foliated granitic intrusions were emplaced during the Early Cretaceous (112–125 Ma), post-magmatic melting occurred from the Early Oligocene (ca. 35 Ma), and subsequent cooling during the Middle Miocene (ca. 13 Ma). The average emplacement depth of Early Cretaceous samples revealed that at least 15 km of hangingwall of the GLG-SZ must have been removed by vertical motion during shearing. Syn-shearing exhumation underlines the role of the lateral motion of the shear zone initiation by magma-assisted rheological weakening and exhumation at high ambient temperatures within the shear zone. A new model links magmatic channel flow underneath the Tibetan Plateau with magma intrusions and the high geothermal gradients along the shear belts, such as the GLG-SZ.Supplementary material:https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.5598365

Kinematic data on major Variscan strike-slip faults and shear zones in the Polish Sudetes, northeast Bohemian Massif

1997 ◽  
Vol 134 (5) ◽  
pp. 727-739 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. ALEKSANDROWSKI ◽  
R. KRYZA ◽  
S. MAZUR ◽  
J. ŻABA
Keyword(s):  
Shear Zone ◽  
Fault Zone ◽  
Bohemian Massif ◽  
Early Carboniferous ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Late Carboniferous ◽  
Late Devonian ◽  
The West ◽  
West Sudetes

The still highly disputable terrane boundaries in the Sudetic segment of the Variscan belt mostly seem to follow major strike-slip faults and shear zones. Their kinematics, expected to place important constraints on the regional structural models, is discussed in some detail. The most conspicuous is the WNW–ESE Intra-Sudetic Fault Zone, separating several different structural units of the West Sudetes. It showed ductile dextral activity and, probably, displacement magnitude of the order of tens to hundreds kilometres, during late Devonian(?) to early Carboniferous times. In the late Carboniferous (to early Permian?), the sense of motion on the Intra-Sudetic Fault was reversed in a semi-brittle to brittle regime, with the left-lateral offset on the fault amounting to single kilometres. The north–south trending Niemcza and north-east–southwest Skrzynka shear zones are left-lateral, ductile features in the eastern part of the West Sudetes. Similarly oriented (northeast–southwest to NNE–SSW) regional size shear zones of as yet undetermined kinematics were discovered in boreholes under Cenozoic cover in the eastern part of the Sudetic foreland (the Niedźwiedź and Nysa-Brzeg shear zones). One of these is expected to represent the northern continuation of the major Stare Mesto Shear Zone in the Czech Republic, separating the geologically different units of the West and East Sudetes. The Rudawy Janowickie Metamorphic Unit, assumed in some reconstructions to comprise a mostly strike-slip terrane boundary, is characterized by ductile fabric developed in a thrusting regime, modified by a superimposed normal-slip extensional deformation. Thrusting-related deformational fabric was locally reoriented prior to the extensional event and shows present-day strike-slip kinematics in one of the sub-units. The Sudetic Boundary Fault, although prominent in the recent structure and topography of the region, was not active as a Variscan strike-slip fault zone. The reported data emphasize the importance of syn-orogenic strike-slip tectonics in the Sudetes. The recognized shear sense is compatible with a strike-slip model of the northeast margin of the Bohemian Massif, in which the Kaczawa and Góry Sowie Units underwent late Devonian–early Carboniferous southeastward long-distance displacement along the Intra-Sudetic Fault Zone from their hypothetical original position within the Northern Phyllite Zone and the Mid-German Crystalline High of the German Variscides, respectively, and were juxtaposed with units of different provenance southwest of the fault. The Intra-Sudetic Fault Zone, together with the Elbe Fault Zone further south, were subsequently cut in the east and their eastern segments were displaced and removed by the younger, early to late Carboniferous, NNE–SSW trending, transpressional Moldanubian–Stare Mesto Shear Zone.

Metagabbronorite from DSDP hole 334: an example of high-temperature deformation and recrystallization near the Mid-Atlantic Ridge

1977 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 886-898 ◽  
Author(s):  
Herwart Helmstaedt ◽  
John M. Allen
Keyword(s):  
Shear Zone ◽  
Regional Metamorphism ◽  
Shear Zones ◽  
Granulite Facies ◽  
High Temperature Deformation ◽  
Temperature Deformation ◽  
Mid Atlantic Ridge ◽  
Magmatic History ◽  
Highly Strained ◽  
Zoned Plagioclase

Five gabbros and three peridotites from hole 334 were examined for postmagmatic deformational changes and metamorphic recrystallization. The condition of the gabbros ranges from unaltered, to slightly altered and deformed, to highly deformed and metamorphosed, the latter type being confined to narrow shear zones. Petrofabric studies and electron microprobe analyses of mineral phases of a foliated metagabbronorite from such a shear zone suggest the following post-magmatic history: (1) strong plastic deformation and anhydrous synkinematic recrystallization of igneous plagioclase (An90−85), clinopyroxene, and orthopyroxene to the granulite facies mineral assemblage of strongly zoned plagioclase (An80−65), diopside, and orthopyroxene; relics of the igneous minerals survived as highly strained porphyroclasts; (2) synkinematic growth of amphibole consisting of a patchy intergrowth of tremolite and actinolitic hornblende; the amphibole fabric is compatible with strain estimates by the centre-point method; (3) mainly static hydrous alteration — growth of (?) vermiculite and sericitization.Penetrative deformation probably initiated shortly after intrusion and took place during cooling of the rocks from approximately 800 °C to 300 °C. The bulk of the strain in the metagabbronorite of the shear zone predates the serpentinization of the peridotites. Many textural and fabric features in alpine-type gabbro–peridotite complexes that are ascribed to regional metamorphism and deformation during orogenic emplacement may originate shortly after intrusion near or at an accreting plate margin.

scholarly journals Extreme extension across Seram and Ambon, eastern Indonesia: evidence for Banda slab rollback

Solid Earth ◽  
2013 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 277-314 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. M. Pownall ◽  
R. Hall ◽  
I. M. Watkinson
Keyword(s):  
High Temperature ◽  
Shear Zone ◽  
Granulite Facies ◽  
Strike Slip ◽  
Geological Mapping ◽  
Detachment Faults ◽  
Banda Arc ◽  
Slab Rollback ◽  
Extreme Extension ◽  
High Temperature Metamorphism

Abstract. The island of Seram, which lies in the northern part of the 180°-curved Banda Arc, has previously been interpreted as a fold-and-thrust belt formed during arc-continent collision, which incorporates ophiolites intruded by granites thought to have been produced by anatexis within a metamorphic sole. However, new geological mapping and a re-examination of the field relations cause us to question this model. We instead propose that there is evidence for recent and rapid N–S extension that has caused the high-temperature exhumation of lherzolites beneath low-angle lithospheric detachment faults that induced high-temperature metamorphism and melting in overlying crustal rocks. These "Kobipoto Complex" migmatites include highly residual Al–Mg-rich garnet + cordierite + sillimanite + spinel + corundum granulites (exposed in the Kobipoto Mountains) which contain coexisting spinel + quartz, indicating that peak metamorphic temperatures likely approached 900 °C. Associated with these residual granulites are voluminous Mio-Pliocene granitic diatexites, or "cordierite granites", which crop out on Ambon, western Seram, and in the Kobipoto Mountains and incorporate abundant schlieren of spinel- and sillimanite-bearing residuum. Quaternary "ambonites" (cordierite + garnet dacites) emplaced on Ambon were also evidently sourced from the Kobipoto Complex migmatites as demonstrated by granulite-inherited xenoliths. Exhumation of the hot peridotites and granulite-facies Kobipoto Complex migmatites to shallower structural levels caused greenschist- to lower-amphibolite facies metapelites and amphibolites of the Tehoru Formation to be overprinted by sillimanite-grade metamorphism, migmatisation, and limited localised anatexis to form the Taunusa Complex. The extreme extension required to have driven Kobipoto Complex exhumation evidently occurred throughout Seram and along much of the northern Banda Arc. The lherzolites must have been juxtaposed against the crust at typical lithospheric mantle temperatures in order to account for such high-temperature metamorphism and therefore could not have been part of a cooled ophiolite. In central Seram, lenses of peridotites are incorporated with a major left-lateral strike-slip shear zone (the "Kawa Shear Zone"), demonstrating that strike-slip motions likely initiated shortly after the mantle had been partly exhumed by detachment faulting and that the main strike-slip faults may themselves be reactivated and steepened low-angle detachments. The geodynamic driver for mantle exhumation along the detachment faults and strike-slip faulting in central Seram is very likely the same; we interpret the extreme extension to be the result of eastward slab rollback into the Banda Embayment as outlined by the latest plate reconstructions for Banda Arc evolution.

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