Dynamic recrystallization and fabric development during the simple shear deformation of ice

In situ observations of polycrystalline ice deformed in simple shear between −10 and −1°C are presented. This study illustrates the processes responsible for the deformation, the development of a preferred crystallographic orientation and the formation of a preferred dimensional orientation. Intracrystalline glide on the basal plane, accompanying grain rotations and dynamic recrystallization, helps to accommodate the large intragranular strains. These are the most important mechanisms for crystallographic reorientation and produce a stable fabric that favours glide on the basal plane. Localized kinks, developed in grains unfavourably oriented for easy glide, are unstable and are overprinted by dynamic recrystallization. Dynamic recrystallization is a strain softening process with nucleation occurring in the form of equiaxed grains that grow subparallel to pre-existing grain anisotropies and become elongate during deformation. Plots of grain axial ratio against orientation ( ) indicate a weak shape fabric which does not correspond to the theoretical foliation and elongation for the appropriate increment of shear strain. We argue that estimates of the strain magnitude made from orientation of elongate grains are unreliable in high temperature shear zones. These results are applicable to both geological and glacial shear environments.     

Simulation of fabric development in recrystallizing aggregates—I. Description of the model

A new computer simulation of the development of grain shape and crystallographic preferred orientations in dynamically recrystallizing aggregates is presented. This model is based on a uniform array of points, each of which represents a small area of crystal. This model combines homogeneous strains, simplified versions of the lattice rotations predicted by Taylor-Bishop-Hill theory, mobile grain boundaries and the nucleation of subgrains. It allows the progressive development of the fabrics and microstructures to be followed. The limitations of the simplifying assumptions used in this model are discussed.     

Domainal and fabric heterogeneities in the Cap de Creus quartz mylonites

A characteristic domainal configuration is reported for both micro-structures and c-axis fabrics in the Cap de Creus pure quartz mylonites as displayed in 50 samples from the centres of different shear zones. Three types of domains are found a, b and c. Each domain has a distinct c-axis orientation pattern. These three fabric elements, also labelled a, b and c make up the total fabric. c-axis fabrics are symmetric or asymmetric with respect to the main mylonitic foliation depending on the presence or absence of the b domain and its fabric element. The boundaries of the domains are parallel to the main mylonitic foliation. Two domain types, a and b display an internal foliation defined by preferred grain boundary alignment parallel to the direction of optical orientation within the domain. The internal foliations are oblique to the main mylonitic foliation in two different senses giving the sample a herring-bone appearance. These internal foliations are shown to be related to extensional crenulations. Domains are not produced by host-controlled recrystallization. The fabric elements and corresponding domains are the expression of kinematic heterogeneities on the scale of the thin section.     

Quartz ribbons in high grade granite gneiss: modifications of dynamically formed quartz c-axis preferred orientation by oriented grain growth

Quartz ribbons form a well-defined LS fabric in granitic gneisses sheared and metamorphosed in the upper-amphibolite facies. Boundaries of quartz grains are smooth and sub-perpendicular to ribbon walls, suggesting post-deformational growth, whereas c-axes display asymmetric girdle patterns consistent with the sense of shear indicated by mesoscopic fabrics. Subdivision of the microfabrics according to the proportion of ribbon length occupied by individual grains indicates that the c-axes of relatively short grains exhibit across-girdle pattern similar to that of the whole sample. Longer grains reproduce elements of the pattern of the short grains, suggesting that oriented grain growth occurred. Grain boundary mobility, which clearly ended in a post-deformational static regime, probably began during dynamic recrystallization. Owing to space limitations imposed by the feldspathic matrix, grain growth in the ribbons ceased before the initial dynamic fabric was erased. In summary, this study shows that the c-axes pattern of longer grains within quartz ribbons reproduces part of the dynamically formed pattern of the shorter grains, reflecting an oriented grain growth which concluded in a static episode, although possibly initiated in the dynamic regime.     

Emplacement kinematics of nepheline syenites from the Terrane Boundary Shear Zone of the Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt,west of Khariar,NW Orissa: Evidence from meso- and microstructures

Nepheline syenite plutons emplaced within the Terrane Boundary Shear Zone of the Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt west of Khariar in northwestern Orissa are marked by a well-developed magmatic fabric including magmatic foliation, mineral lineations, folds and S-C fabrics. The minerals in the plutons, namely microcline, orthoclase, albite, nepheline, hornblende, biotite and aegirine show, by and large, well-developed crystal faces and lack undulose extinction and dynamic recrystallization, suggesting a magmatic origin. The magmatic fabric of the plutons is concordant with a solid-state strain fabric of the surrounding mylonites that developed due to noncoaxial strain along the Terrane Boundary Shear Zone during thrusting of the Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt over the Bastar Craton. However, a small fraction of the minerals, more commonly from the periphery of the plutons, is overprinted by a solid state strain fabric similar to that of the host rock. This fabric is manifested by discrete shear fractures, along which the feldspars are deformed into ribbons, have undergone dynamic recrystallization and show undulose extinction and myrmekitic growth. The shear fractures and the magmatic foliations are mutually parallel to the C-fabric of the host mylonites. Coexistence of concordant solid state strain fabric and magmatic fabric has been interpreted as a transitional feature from magmatic state to subsolidus deformation of the plutons, while the nepheline syenite magma was solidifying from a crystal-melt mush state under a noncoaxial strain. This suggests the emplacement of the plutons synkinematic to thrusting along the Terrane Boundary Shear Zone. The isotopic data by earlier workers suggest emplacement of nepheline syenite at 1500 +3/−4Ma, lending support for thrusting of the mobile belt over the craton around that time.     

西藏南部若干变质橄榄岩体橄榄石的组构特征

藏南变质橄榄岩的橄榄石组构可划分为三个主要类型:[100]、[010]和[001]组构。橄榄石[100]组构反映洋壳下部—上地幔上部的高温粘性流变和高温塑性流变,橄榄石[010]和[001]组构基本上是构造侵位阶段陆壳中低温塑性流变结果。变质橄榄岩中橄榄石组构转化具有明显的规律性,在岩体变形过程中,总的显示由高温的[100]组构逐渐转化为低温的[001]、[010]组构。高温塑性流变组构影响和制约低温塑性流变组构的发育,叠加变形有利于橄榄石[100]极密的加强和[100]组构向[010]、[001]组构的转化。     

Texture and fabric studies across the Kishorn Nappe, near Kyle of Lochalsh, Western Scotland

The progressive development of mylonitic fabrics in a series of Torridonian sandstones and shales has been studied along traverses across the Kishorn Nappe. The fabrics developed have been investigated using the following techniques.

1. 1. Optical examination of thin sections.

2. 2. Measurements of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility.

3. 3. X-ray texture goniometry.

The results are used in support of a proposed deformation history of the area and the relative advantages of the techniques used are discussed.The early deformation was well lubricated with layer-parallel sliding and little internal deformation of the rocks, except for development, in the east, of a layer-parallel penetrative fabric with an extension direction to the ESE. This deformation produced a westward facing isoclinal anticline and a recumbent syncline in the Torridonian rocks which became at least partly decoupled from the basement.The important phases of fabric development post date this folding. In the west the sandstones developed a spaced, pressure solution cleavage, but in the east the grain shape fabric has been produced by both dislocation and diffusion processes. The shales reveal more details of the deformation episodes than do the sandstones and thus show different fabric intensities and orientations when measured by magnetic and X-ray techniques.The magnetic anisotropy technique of fabric analysis gives a rapid method of mapping the deformation domains formed by different deformation mechanisms and intensities. However, the rocks carry several magnetic components and these have different anisotropy tensors and different responses to deformation, also, measurements made at high fields (5 kOe) give magnitudes and orientations of the magnetic anisotropy tensor which are different from those made at low fields. It is concluded that it is not possible to relate variations in the magnitude and shape of the magnetic anisotropy ellipsoid quantitatively to the deformation.Chlorite and muscovite fabrics measured by X-ray techniques show variations in intensity and orientation similar to those of the magnetic anisotropy ellipsoid due to paramagnetic minerals. However, the data demonstrate the difficulty of correlating this fabric intensity with deformation intensity where there has been a change in deformation mechanisms with time and space.     

北疆阿巴宫-库尔提断裂带显微组构的运动学和动力学分析

研究了阿尔泰地区NW走向高角度冲断构造中主干的阿巴宫—库尔提断裂带。详细研究了断裂构造岩的变形构造和组构及其所显示的运动学和动力学特征。结果表明:存在早、晚更替且性质不同的变形显微构造。早期以糜棱岩中的韧性变形构造为主,发育有递进变形的不对称构造(压力影、旋转变斑晶、S—C构造等),是断裂中剪切变形运动指向的主要判据。晚期为脆性破裂构造,与早期变形组构具继承、叠加关系。研究了石英光轴的组构形式,证实存在:早期共轴纯剪变形的小圆环带组构和非共轴简单剪切变形中,呈递变关系的点极密—大圆环带—交叉大圆环带组构型式。对变形构造和组构所作的运动学和动力学分析结果表明:阿—库断裂带的形成和变形历史为:①地壳早期NE挤压收缩环境,形成劈理化带;②在持续NE向挤压作用下,大规模剪切、逆冲叠置,和地壳加厚,产生重熔岩浆和流体再分配效应,促使糜棱岩带形成和发展;③晚期地壳NE向挤压下,以垂直差异抬升和大量碎裂岩化高角度逆冲断裂的继承、叠加为特征。在区域大地构造的关系上:①、②对应于地槽褶皱、封闭的地槽体制(海西期),③对应于地洼体制(后海西期)。     

Construction of crossed girdles by superposing four subfabrics,each with a single maximum

Commonly, basal glide is the predominant deformation mechanism of quartz in tectonites. Therefore, local deformation is probably mostly progressive simple shear rotating the sheared domains as well as deforming them. If a tectonite body is constrained to be deformed irrotationally and approximately homogeneously throughout, it is necessarily traversed by closely spaced material surfaces that are approximately plane and orthogonal originally, and stay so through time. These surfaces act as internal boundaries and enforce cancellation of the rigid-body rotations of, in the general case, four distinct families of domains, with slip planes and directions mutually mirror-symmetric. The overall symmetry of the fabric is orthorhombic, with the mirror planes coinciding with the principal planes of strain. Certain grains with basal planes in favorable orientation for one of the four ideal simple shears could initiate the deformation, and because of the need for compatibility, entrain neighboring grains into a similar strain, making the surroundings of an initiating grain a shear zone. Compatibility also requires thec-axes of grains in a domain to be rotated progressively toward the direction of maximum shortening. If the original orientation of crystallographic axes was random, domains of one family thus acquire a fabric with a single maximum, and the four resulting fabrics with single maxima combine to form crossed-girdle patterns. Depending on the orientation of the average shear planes and slip directions in the four families, the crossed girdles can be of different types; most fabric types that have been observed in quartz tectonites can be obtained by superposition. Crossed-girdle fabrics with low symmetry result from non-coaxial strain histories.     

The simulation of fabric development during plastic deformation and its application to quartzite: the influence of deformation history

The effect of deformation history on the development of crystallographic preferred orientation in quartzities has been simulated using a computer program based on the Taylor-Bishop-Hill analysis. Model quartzities with different combinations of glide systems have been subjected to various coaxial and non-coaxial deformation histories. It is possible to obtain information from the fabrics that develop during simple histories; for example, the location of the axis of extension is generally associated with a pole free area on a c-axis plot, and progressive axial shortening, plane strain and axial shortening produce characteristic fabrics. In progressive simple shear the fabric skeleton becomes asymmetric relative to the sense of shear and a-axes preferentially align in the flow plane parallel to the flow direction. However, this example illustrates that the fabric orientation and characteristics are controlled by the kinematic framework and bear only an indirect relationship to the finite strain accumulated to that point in the history.The imprint of the closing stages of deformation limits to some degree the use of crystallographic fabrics as a tool for structural geologists, but in favourable circumstances data can be obtained concerning characteristics of the deformation history, on the scale of the hand-specimen, for the last part of this history.     

Advective heat transfer and fabric development in a shallow crustal intrusive granite — the case of Proterozoic Vellaturu granite,south India

Syntectonic plutons emplaced in shallow crust often contain intermediate-to low-temperature deformation microstructures but lack a high-temperature, subsolidus deformation fabric, although the relict magmatic fabric is preserved. The Proterozoic Vellaturu granite emplaced at the eastern margin of the northern Nallamalai fold belt, south India during the late phase of regional deformation has a common occurrence of intermediate-to low-temperature deformation fabric, superimposed over magmatic fabric with an internally complex pattern. But high-T subsolidus deformation microstructure and fabric are absent in this pluton. The main crystal plastic deformation and fluid enhanced reaction softening was concentrated along the margin of the granite body. Resulting granite mylonites show Y-maximum c-axis fabric in completely recrystallized quartz ribbonds, dynamic recrystallization of perthites, and myrmekite indicative of fabric development under intermediate temperature (∼ 500–400°C). The weakly-deformed interior shows myrmekite, feldspar microfracturing and limited bulging recrystallization of quartz. The abundance of prism subgrain boundaries is indicative of continuing deformation through low-temperature (∼ 300°C). The relative rates of cooling influenced by advective heat transfer and deformation of the pluton seem to control the overall subsolidus fabric development. The rapid advective heat transfer from the interior in the early stages of subsolidus cooling was followed by slow cooling through intermediate temperature window as a well-developed phyllosilicate rich mylonitic skin around the granite body slowed down conductive heat loss. Low-T crystal plastic deformation of quartz was effected at a late stage of cooling and deformation of the shallow crustal granite body emplaced within the greenschist facies Nallamlai rocks.     

Experimental shear zones and magnetic fabrics

Magnetic fabric analysis has been used as a non-destructive means of detecting petrofabric development during experimentally produced multi-stage, transpressive deformations in ‘shear zones’. Artificial, magnetic-bearing silicate sands and calcite sands, bonded with Portland cement, were deformed at room temperature and at 100 and 150 MPa confining pressure. The slip-rate for the shear zone walls was 0.73 × 10⁻⁴ mm s⁻¹ and the maximum shear strains were about 0.38, across zones that were initially about 5 mm thick. The magnetic fabric ellipsoid rapidly spins so that the maximum and intermediate susceptibilities tend to become parallel to the shear zone walls throughout the sheared zone. The ellipsoid becomes increasingly oblate with progressive deformation. However, in all cases, the anisotropy is strongly influenced by the pre-deformation magnetic fabric. During deformation the cement gel collapses so that cataclasis of the mineral grains is suppressed. In the quartz-feldspar aggregates the magnetite's alignment is accommodated by particulate flow (intergranular displacements) of the grains. In the calcite aggregates stronger magnetic fabrics develop due to plastic deformation of calcite grains as well as particulate flow. However, the calcite grain fabrics are somewhat linear (L ≥ S) whereas the magnetic fabrics are planar (S >L). The preferred dimensional orientations of magnetite are weak and it is possible that the magnetic fabrics are due to intragranular rearrangements of magnetic domains.The transpressive shear zones are much more efficient than axial-symmetric shortening in the increase of anisotropy of the magnetic fabrics, especially in the case of the calcite aggregates. This suggests that flow laws derived for axial-symmetric shortening experiments may not be appropriate for non-coaxial strain histories such as those of shear zones.     

鄂尔多斯盆地马家沟组准层状岩溶角砾岩特征及其成因*

鄂尔多斯盆地奥陶系马家沟组广泛发育岩溶角砾岩,结构特征复杂。近期研究发现,这些角砾岩的组构和分布特征难以能单纯地用经典的风化壳岩溶模式解释,各类角砾岩的成因机理值得进一步探究。文中基于大量岩心及薄片观察,对苏里格气田东区奥陶系马家沟组上组合不同层位角砾岩进行归纳和判识,明确其空间展布和序列结构特征,分析形成机理。研究发现: (1)根据成因与发育环境,苏格里气田东区奥陶系马家沟组上组合角砾岩可划分为5类,分别是近原地解离角砾岩(B1)、近地表堆积角砾岩(B2)、洞穴堆积角砾岩(B3)、洞顶(壁)碎裂角砾岩(B4)和坍塌角砾岩(B5),它们具有纵向多层叠置、横向可对比的“准层状”特征; (2)不同类型角砾岩的纵向配置和演化与周期性的向上变浅沉积序列和暴露溶蚀有关,共归纳为3种类型,即B1主发育型、B2-B3-B4组合发育型、B5主发育型; (3)准层状角砾岩形成于早成岩期,受控于古地貌起伏背景下的高频海平面变化,由暴露溶蚀透镜体横向迁移连片和纵向多旋回叠置而成。研究结果不仅有助于了解鄂尔多斯盆地马家沟组多样化的岩溶角砾岩特征与成因,也为白云岩早成岩期岩溶研究提供了新的素材。     

塔里木盆地苏盖特布拉克剖面寒武系第二统第三阶微生物岩结构类型*

塔里木盆地阿克苏地区寒武系第二统第三阶肖尔布拉克组主要由微生物白云岩组成,代表性的剖面在阿克苏市西南90 km处的苏盖特布拉克。由于成岩作用改造严重,对这套微生物碳酸盐岩的特征和形成环境的认识还存在很多分歧,制约了勘探工作。通过详细野外勘察和室内研究,将肖尔布拉克组微生物岩分为4种结构类型: 凝块结构、纹层结构、砂屑结构和骨架结构。首次对凝块结构和纹层结构进行了亚类型的划分,其中凝块结构可划分为蠕虫状、网状和斑点状3种亚类型,纹层结构可划分为致密纹层、短薄纹层、颗粒纹层以及单纹层、纹层组、复合纹层。肖Ⅰ段—肖Ⅲ段发育凝块石白云岩、凝块—层纹石白云岩和层纹石白云岩,肖Ⅳ段发育凝块石微生物丘,肖V段下部发育网状结构凝块石白云岩,肖V段上部发育砂屑白云岩和肾形菌骨架岩。白云石化作用、溶蚀作用、重结晶作用是改变肖尔布拉克组微生物岩结构最重要的成岩作用,且该组下部比上部遭受了更强的成岩作用改造;微生物岩结构对成岩作用改造的抵抗能力为: 砂屑结构>纹层结构>凝块结构。根据微生物岩结构,推测肖Ⅰ段—肖Ⅲ段形成于潮坪环境,肖Ⅳ段和肖V段下部形成于深水潮下环境,肖V段上部形成于浅水潮下环境。以上成果为认识塔里木盆地肖尔布拉克组微生物岩的平面分布规律和今后开展被成岩作用强烈改造的白云岩型微生物岩的研究提供了一个重要参考。     

Geometric consequences of ductile fabric development from brittle shear faults in mafic melt sheets: Evidence from the Sudbury Igneous Complex,Canada

Compared to felsic igneous rocks the genetic relationship between brittle and ductile fabric development and its influence on the geometry of deformed mafic melt sheets has received little attention in structural analyses. We explore these relationships using the Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC) as an example. The SIC is the relic of a layered impact melt sheet that was transformed into a fold basin, the Sudbury Basin, during Paleoproterozoic deformation at the southern margin of the Archean Superior Province. We studied brittle and ductile strain fabrics on the outcrop and map scales in the southern Sudbury Basin, notably in the Norite and Quartz Gabbro layers of the SIC. Here, deformation is heterogeneous and occurred under variable rheological conditions, evident by the development of brittle shear fractures, brittle-ductile shear zones and pervasive ductile strain. The mineral fabrics formed under low- to middle greenschist-facies metamorphism, whereby brittle deformation caused hydrolytic weakening and ductile fabric development. Principal strain axes inferred from all structural elements are collinear and point to a single deformation regime that led to thinning of SIC layers during progressive deformation. Ductile fabric development profoundly influenced the orientation of SIC material planes, such as lithological contacts and magmatic mineral fabrics. More specifically, these planar structural elements are steep where the SIC underwent large magnitudes of thinning, i.e., in the south limb of the Sudbury Basin. Here, the actual tilt component of material planes is likely smaller than its maximum total rotation (60°) inferred from inclined igneous layering in the Norite. Our field-based study shows that ductile fabric development from brittle faults can have a profound influence on the rotational components of primary material planes in deformed igneous melt sheets.     

Quantifying sample bias in clast fabric measurements

Sampling elongate clasts that protrude from a planar face for clast macro‐fabric analysis introduces a bias into reconstructed fabrics because clasts aligned perpendicular to the sampling face are over‐represented relative to those aligned parallel to the face. This study develops a probability‐based mathematical analysis to quantify sample bias for a variety of clast shapes and population fabrics, including isotropic, clustered and girdled fabric styles. Bias is expressed in terms of sample eigenvalues and eigenvectors relative to those of the parent population. Results indicate that sampling always has the effect of artificially drawing fabrics towards perpendicularity to the sampling face relative to the populations from which they are drawn. This rotation generally has the effect of artificially strengthening population fabrics, by up to 30% in the case of very weakly clustered or girdled populations. However, fabric strengthening is by no means universal and sampling alters different parent populations in different, sometimes complex, ways: the analysis in this paper identifies situations where sampling can strengthen or weaken parent fabrics, where it can rotate parent fabrics (by up to 90° in the case of a very weak population fabric), and where it can even change the style of a population fabric. For example, near‐isotropic population fabrics can appear clustered; weakly clustered and weakly girdled population fabrics can appear isotropic; weakly clustered population fabrics can appear weakly girdled; and girdled population fabrics can appear clustered. Overall, this analysis indicates that weakly orientated population fabrics are most susceptible to bias. Thus, a weakly clustered population fabric aligned parallel to a sample face is particularly susceptible to major sample bias in both fabric strength (artificially overestimated) and orientation (artificially rotated perpendicular to the face). Bias can be reduced either by sampling all the clasts from a cube‐shaped block of sediment excavated from the face, or by sampling equal numbers of clasts from the three orthogonal faces of the same sedimentary unit.     

Fabric development in shear zones: theoretical controls and observed phenomena

It is suggested that the kinematic framework controls the orientation of crystallographic fabrics developed in plastically deformed quartzites. Important directions in this framework are those of the instantaneous stretching axes, and the flow plane and flow direction if these can be uniquely defined. Rotation of the crystal axes takes place at any instant of time dependent on the orientation of the grain relative to the stretching axes. Because of this dependence the skeletal outline^* of a pattern of preferred orientation is sensitive to the closing stages of deformation. Thus fabrics measured in major movement zones cannot be related to early thrust or shear displacements without considering the effects of the geological history subsequent to those events.Nevertheless, asymmetric fabrics in movement zones may allow determination of the shear direction and sense of shear. Asymmetry in the intensity distribution is less susceptible to modification than asymmetry in the fabric skeleton, and may remain as a persistent measure of the sense of shear in mylonites subjected to coaxial deformation after non-coaxial events. However, fabric asymmetry need not always be related to the deformation history, and effects related to the population of initial grain-orientations must be considered, as well as the influence of recrystallization and grain growth.A problem of scale is involved in extrapolating the movement picture inferred from the behaviour of a few hundred crystal grains to larger dimensions. This question is also encountered when trying to specify deformation paths in mesoscopic shear zones. It is difficult to obtain simple shear experimentally because of the role discontinuities play in deformation. In certain cases in natural shear zones the quartz grains may be subjected to a coaxial deformation path while the bulk deformation is progressive simple shear. Caution must therefore be exercised when attempting to use quartz fabrics to infer characteristics of the bulk kinematics or movement picture applicable during deformation.     

Heterogeneous deformation and quartz crystallographic fabric transitions: natural examples from the moine thrust zone at the stack of glencoul,northern assynt

Quartz crystallographic fabric transitions in well-exposed mylonites immediately beneath the Moine Thrust at the Stack of Glencoul (NW Scotland) have been investigated by optical microscopy, X-ray texture goniometry and Orientation Distribution Function analysis. A progressive change is observed from asymmetrical kinked single girdle c-axis fabrics at 0.5 cm beneath the Moine Thrust, through asymmetrical Type I cross-girdle fabrics to symmetrical Type I cross-girdle fabrics at 30 cm beneath the thrust. This c-axis fabric transition is accompanied by a transition from asymmetrical single a-axis maximum fabrics (0.5 cm beneath the thrust) through asymmetrical two maxima fabrics to essentially symmetrical two maxima a-axis fabrics. ODF analysis of these S >L and L - S tectonites indicates that c-axis positions on the ‘leading edge’ of the fabric skeleton are related by a common (a) direction oriented within the XZ plane at a moderate angle to the lineation (X). In contrast, c-axis positions on the peripheral ‘trailing edge’ are related by a positive (r) rhomb pole oriented close to Z; (a) directions lying within this common rhomb plane progressively change through 180° in orientation traced around the c-axis fabric skeleton. Such contrasting ‘single crystal’ rhomb (a) preferred orientations on the ‘leading’ and ‘trailing’ edges of the fabric skeleton are interpreted as indicating localized (grain scale) plane strain and flattening deformation, respectively. They result in tectonites with essentially symmetrical c- and a-axis fabrics which display strongly asymmetrical positive (r) and negative (z) rhomb pole figures. The observed transition in quartz c- and a-axis fabrics is interpreted as indicating an increasing importance of non-coaxial plane-strain deformation as the Moine Thrust is approached. Even immediately (<1 cm) beneath the thrust, however, flow has still significantly departed from bulk simple shear and involved an important (heterogeneous) component of contemporaneous flattening deformation.     

Quartz fabric evidence for early Pan-African penetrative east-directed shearing in the Itremo Supracrustal Group of central Madagascar

ABSTRACT The Pan-African orogeny left a strong imprint on the basement rocks of Madagascar, which were metamorphosed up to granulite facies conditions. The supracrustal Itremo Group of central Madagascar, comprising quartzites, schists and carbonates of lower metamorphic grade, has to date been described as a folded sedimentary sequence. Despite their fine-grained 'sugary' appearance, most quartzites are plastically deformed tectonites. Quartzite microstructures are mainly of the elongate mosaic type, indicating significant grain boundary migration, and are compatible with dynamic recrystallization under lower amphibolite facies conditions. Consistent asymmetric quartz c -axis fabrics indicate a dominant top-to-the-east shear sense. Hence, the Itremo quartzites bear evidence for a major eastward-directed tectonic event of Pan-African age, possibly resulting from an early Pan-African thrust motion. Younger deformational events, responsible for localized mylonites with top-to-the-WSW sense of motion and N–S-trending folds and shear zones, were superimposed on this first fabric.     

Magnetic fabrics and rock magnetism of Proterozoic dike swarm from the southern São Francisco Craton, Minas Gerais State, Brazil

Magnetic fabric and rock magnetism studies were performed on 32 mafic dikes of a Proterozoic dike swarm from the southern São Francisco Craton (SFC; Minas Gerais State, SE Brazil). Magnetic anisotropies were determined by applying anisotropy of low-field magnetic susceptibility (AMS) and anisotropy of remanent magnetization (ARM). The latter was performed imposing both anhysteretic (total (AAR) and partial pAAR)) and isothermal remanence magnetizations (AIRM). Partial anhysteretic remanence anisotropy was performed based on remanent coercivity spectra from a pilot specimen of each site. In most sites, AMS is dominantly carried by ferromagnetic minerals, however, in some sites, the paramagnetic contribution exceeds 70% of bulk susceptibility. Rock magnetism and thin section analysis allow classifying the dikes as non-hydrothermalized and hydrothermalized. Magnetic measurement shows that the mean magnetic susceptibility is usually lower than 5×10⁻³ (SI). Ti-poor titanomagnetites up to pure magnetite pseudo-single-domain (PSD) grain sizes carry the majority of magnetic fabrics for non-hydrothermalized dikes whereas coarse to fine grained Ti-poor titanomagnetites carry the majority of magnetic fabrics for hydrothermalized dikes.Three primary AMS fabrics are recognized which are coaxial with ARM fabric, except for two dikes, from both non-hydrothermalized and hydrothermalized dikes. Normal AMS fabric surprisingly is not dominant (31%). The parallelism between AMS, pAAR_0–30, pAAR_30–60 and pAAR_60–90 fabrics in the hydrothermalized dikes indicates that magnetic grains formed due to late-stage crystallization or to remobilization of iron oxides due to hydrothermal alteration after dike emplacement have acquired a mimetic fabric coaxial with the primary fabric given by coarse-grained early crystallized Ti-poor titanomagnetites. This fabric is interpreted as magma flow in which the analysis of K_max inclination permitted the inference that the dikes were fed by horizontal or subhorizontal fluxes (K_max<30°). Intermediate AMS fabric is the most important (41%) in the investigated swarm. It is interpreted as due to vertical compaction of a static magma column with the minimum stress along the dike strike. ARM determinations for these sites also remained intermediate except for two dikes. In one of them, AIRM fabric resulted in normal AMS fabric while for the other AAR fabric resulted in inverse AMS fabric. A combination of AMS and ARM fabrics suggest that magmatic fabric for both dikes were overprinted by some late local event, probably related to Brasiliano orogenic processes after dike emplacement. InverseInverse AMS fabric is a minority (four dikes). ARM determinations also remained inverse suggesting a primary origin for inverse AMS fabric.