Impact of solid second phases on deformation mechanisms of naturally deformed salt rocks (Kuh-e-Namak,Dashti, Iran) and rheological stratification of the Hormuz Salt Formation

Viscosity contrasts displayed in flow structures of a mountain namakier (Kuh-e-Namak - Dashti), between ‘weak’ second phase bearing rock salt and ‘strong’ pure rock salt types are studied for deformation mechanisms using detailed quantitative microstructural study. While the solid inclusions rich (“dirty”) rock salts contain disaggregated siltstone and dolomite interlayers, “clean” salts reveal microscopic hematite and remnants of abundant fluid inclusions in non-recrystallized cores of porphyroclasts. Although the flow in both, the recrystallized “dirty” and “clean” salt types is accommodated by combined mechanisms of pressure-solution creep (PS), grain boundary sliding (GBS), transgranular microcracking and dislocation creep accommodated grain boundary migration (GBM), their viscosity contrasts observed in the field outcrops are explained by: 1) enhanced ductility of “dirty” salts due to increased diffusion rates along the solid inclusion-halite contacts than along halite–halite contacts, and 2) slow rates of intergranular diffusion due to dissolved iron and inhibited dislocation creep due to hematite inclusions for “clean” salt types Rheological contrasts inferred by microstructural analysis between both salt rock classes apply in general for the “dirty” salt forming Lower Hormuz and the “clean” salt forming the Upper Hormuz of the Hormuz Formation and imply strain rate gradients or decoupling along horizons of mobilized salt types of different composition and microstructure.     

Development of schistosity by dissolution–crystallization in a Californian serpentinite gouge

To understand the behaviour and deformation mechanisms of serpentinites in the seismogenic zone we study the deformation macro- and microstructures of serpentinites along the Santa Ynez Fault in the San Andreas System. At the outcrop scale, deformation is localized in a gouge zone that shows three different structures: (1) micrometric undeformed fragments (clasts) of the previously serpentinized peridotite, (2) localized shear planes (Y and R) and (3) a penetrative schistosity (S). Observations under SEM and TEM reveal that the schistosity corresponds to serpentine fibres, parallel to each other, and whose orientation varies as they wrap around clasts. TEM micro-textures indicate that these long fibres result from continuous syntectonic growth rather than from reorientation of pre-existing fibres implying a slow transfer process that occurs at short distances. We propose a dissolution–diffusion–crystallization process for the formation of the schistosity that corresponds to a low strain-rate creeping process of deformation that can be effective in aseismic fault segments.     

压溶角砾岩及其与铀成矿的关系

压溶角砾岩出现征构造带的较深部位并与构造角砾岩伴生,它是碳酸盐岩石构造破碎的一种特殊型式。压溶角砾岩由不同方向的缝合线发育而成,胶结物主要是碳酸盐岩的不溶残余物。碳酸盐岩中的铀含量主要与不溶残余物有关。在压溶作用发育过程中,岩层中的铀被活化、渗滤,在有利的物化环境中被炭、泥等吸附而富集,也可与其它成矿作用叠加而成矿。     

Analysis of solution lineations in pebbles: Kinematical vs. dynamical approaches

Solution lineations in conglomerates, resulting from indentation of non-soluble grains of the matrix into the surface of soluble pebbles, make up a morphological and genetic continuum with gradual transition between orthogonal stylolites, oblique slickolites and parallel striations. The distributions of incidence angles of matrix grains have been analyzed in individual pebbles in order to discern their kinematical or dynamical meaning. As a general rule, they fit theoretical models of flow trajectories determined by the bulk strain (kinematical hypothesis). In contrast, they are not consistent with dynamical hypotheses based upon relationships with stress vectors. In particular, they do not fit the model of frictional sliding, which would give rise to a sharp discontinuity between slickolites parallel to the maximum principal stress σ₁ and true striations parallel to the resolved shear stress τ. Therefore, solution lineations all around a pebble cannot be considered as an analogue of multiple fault slip data, and they should not be generally analysed by methods of stress inversion based upon Bott's principle. Under certain conditions (high pebble solubility; active pressure-solution processes able to accommodate the strain rate; earlier cementation), the solution lineations tend to be parallel to each other and to the maximum shortening/compression axis. They therefore assume a double kinematical and dynanical meaning, and the deformation involves maximum volume reduction.     

低级变质沉积岩区压溶作用在褶皱变形中的意义

拉卡兰褶皱带中,发育于Ballarat-Bandigo冲断带中的低级变质砂、泥岩的宏观构造以间离劈理和人字形褶皱为特征,而且劈理在褶皱中呈扇形发育。劈理和褶皱的几何关系分析显示:劈理和褶皱的形成为压溶作用、压扁作用、弯曲作用和被动旋转共同作用的结果,而褶皱砂、泥岩中变形构造则以与压溶作用和再沉淀过程有关的显微构造为其典型特征。Fry法进行的全岩应变测量显示,褶皱砂岩的内部应变相当低(X/Z=1.40—1.83),褶皱应变格局给出变形机制的信息包括:缩短过程中的压扁作用和压溶作用、褶皱过程中由弯滑导致的层平行剪应变、以及褶皱后期发育阶段内弧区强烈的压溶作用。宏观构造、显散构造以及应变特征多方面信息证明:低级变质的沉积岩在褶皱变形过程中,压溶作用为一重要的变形机制。应变分解显示在30％—50％的总地壳水平缩短量下,弯曲导致的缩短最为14％—36％,压扁导致的缩短量为3％—14％,压溶导致的缩短量为8％—26％,而且压溶作用主要发生在褶皱内弧区。