Porphyroblast inclusion-trail orientation data: eppure non son girate*!

Extensive examination of large numbers of spatially orientated thin sections of orientated samples from orogens of all ages around the world has demonstrated that porphyroblasts do not rotate relative to geographical coordinates during highly non-coaxial ductile deformation of the matrix subsequent to their growth. This has been demonstrated for all tectonic environments so far investigated. The work also has provided new insights and data on metamorphic, structural and tectonic processes including: (1) the intimate control of deformation partitioning on metamorphic reactions; (2) solutions to the lack of correlation between lineations that indicate the direction of movement within thrusts and shear zones, and relative plate motion; and (3) a possible technique for determining the direction of relative plate motion that caused orogenesis in ancient orogens.     

Shear sense

Investigation of microstructural relationships in major movement zones in metamorphic rocks, where the sense of displacement is known from regional geological relationships, indicates numerous problems with current concepts of shear-sense criteria and their application. The direction of apparent shearing commonly conflicts from one criterion to another (e.g. from the symmetry of quartz c -axis orientation diagrams to the asymmetry of extensional crenulation cleavages). This implies that interpretations of shear sense along foliations from some mesoscale and microscale criteria have been erroneous.
A new approach to interpreting shear sense, involving the use of strain fields, resolves conflicts in mesoscopic and microscopic criteria and provides a method for determining coherent shear-sense histories extending back before the last shearing event for 'any foliated metamorphic rock'. It also provides a powerful tool for determining the structural/metamorphic path that a rock has followed within an orogen. For determination of the shear sense on the last foliation developed in a rock, this approach uses geometries developed around competent heterogeneities such as quartz pebbles, pegmatite pods, veins, porphyroclasts, porphyroblasts and breccia clasts. A shear-sense history is derived by applying this approach to earlier foliations preserved within the heterogeneities and their strain shadows.     

Microstructural analysis of the classical spiral garnet porphyroblasts of south-east Vermont: evidence for non-rotation

New data strongly suggest that the classical spiral garnet porphyroblasts of south-east Vermont, USA, generally did not rotate, relative to geographical coordinates, throughout several stages of non-coaxial ductile deformation. The continuity of inclusion trails (S_i) in these porphyroblasts is commonly disrupted by planar to weakly arcuate discontinuities, consisting of truncations and differentiation zones where quartz–graphite S_i bend sharply into more graphitic S_i. Discontinuous, tight microfold hinges with relatively straight axial planes are also present. These microstructures form part of a complete morphological gradation between near-orthogonally arranged, discontinuous inclusion segments and smoothly curving, continuous S_i spirals. Some 2700 pitch measurements of well-developed inclusion discontinuities and discontinuous microfold axial planes were taken from several hundred vertically orientated thin sections of various strike, from specimens collected at 28 different locations around the Chester and Athens domes. The results indicate that the discontinuities have predominantly subvertical and subhorizontal orientations, irrespective of variations in the external foliation attitude, macrostructural geometry and apparent porphyroblast-matrix rotation angles. Combined with evidence for textural zoning, this supports the recent hypothesis that porphyroblasts grow incrementally during successive cycles of subvertical and subhorizontal crenulation cleavage development. Less common inclined discontinuities are interpreted as resulting from deflection of anastomosing matrix foliations around obliquely orientated crystal faces prior to inclusion. Most of the idioblastic garnet porphyroblasts have a preferred crystallographic orientation. Dimensionally elongate idioblasts also have a preferred shape orientation, with long axes orientated normal to the mica folia, within which epitaxial nucleation occurred. Truncations and differentiation zones result from the formation of differentiated crenulation cleavage seams against porphyroblast margins, in association with progressive and selective strain-induced dissolution of matrix minerals and locally also the porphyroblast margin. Non-rotation of porphyroblasts, relative to geographical coordinates, suggests that deformation at the microscale is heterogeneous and discontinuous in the presence of undeformed, relatively large and rigid heterogeneities, which cause the progressive shearing (rotational) component of deformation to partition around them. The spiral garnet porphyroblasts therefore preserve the most complete record of the complex, polyphase tectonic and metamorphic history experienced in this area, most of which was destroyed in the matrix by progressive foliation rotation and reactivation, together with recrystallization.     

Changes in Relative Plate Motion during the Isan Orogeny (1670-1500 Ma) and Implications for Pre-Rodinia Reconstructions

Foliation inflexion/intersection axes(FIAs)preserved within porphyroblasts that grew throughout Isan orogenesis reveal significant anticlockwise changes in the direction of bulk horizontal shortening between 1670 and 1500 Ma from NE-SW,N-S,E-W to NW-SE.This implies an anticlockwise shift in relative plate motion with time during the Isan orogeny.Dating monazite grains amongst the axial planar foliations defining three of the four FIAs enabled an age for the periods of relative plate motion that produced these structures to be determined.Averaging the ages from monazite grains defining each FIA set revealed 1649±12 Ma for NE-SW shortening,1645±7 Ma for N-S shortening,and 1591±10 Ma for that directed E-W.Inclusion trail asymmetries indicate shear senses of top to the SW for NW-SE FIAs and dominantly top to the N for E-W FIAs,reflecting thrusting towards the SW and N.No evidence for tectonism related to early NE-SW bulk horizontal shortening has previously been detected in the Mount Isa Inlier.Amalgamation of the Broken Hill and possibly the Gawler provinces with the Mount Isa province may have taken place during these periods of NE-SW and N-S-directed thrusting as the ages of tectonism are similar.Overlapping dates,tectonic,metamorphic,and metallogenic similarities between eastern Australia(Mount Isa and Broken Hill terranes)and the southwest part of Laurentia imply a most probable connection between both continental masses.Putting Australia in such position with respect to North America during the Late-Paleo-to-Mesoproterozoic time is consistent with the AUSWUS model of the Rodinia supercontinent.     

Tectono‐metamorphic history recorded in garnet porphyroblasts: insights from thermodynamic modelling and electron backscatter diffraction analysis of inclusion trails

In a Barrovian metamorphic sequence, garnetiferous mica schists document a heterogeneously developed superposition of sub‐orthogonal fabrics and multiple garnet growth episodes. In the variably deformed domains, four types of garnet porphyroblasts have been defined based on inclusion trail patterns. Modelled garnet zoning in the MnNCKFMASHTO system indicates a prograde evolution from 4–4.5 kbar and 490–510 °C to 5–6 kbar and 520–550 °C in the earliest subhorizontal fabric progressing towards 6.5–7.5 kbar and 560–590 °C in the subsequent subvertical foliation. This fabric is heterogeneously deformed into a shallow‐dipping retrograde foliation associated with garnet resorption. In situ electron backscatter diffraction measurements of ilmenite inclusions in individual garnet grains yield precise data on included planar and linear elements. Consistent orientations of internal foliations, lineations and foliation intersection axis sets indicate a superposition of three sub‐orthogonal foliation systems. Weak variations of internal records with increasing intensity of deformation suggest that a moderate buckling stage occurred, but apparent lack of porphyroblast rotation is interpreted as a result of dominant passive flow. Coupling the orientation of internal fabric sets with P–T estimates is used to complement the tectono‐metamorphic evolution of the thickened crust. We demonstrate that garnet porphyroblasts preserve features which reflect large‐scale tectonic processes in orogens.     

Unravelling the spirals: a serial thin-section study and three-dimensional computer-aided reconstruction of spiral-shaped inclusion trails in garnet porphyroblasts

Abstract Seventy-seven spatially orientated, serial thin sections cut from a single rock reveal changes in the geometry of spiral-shaped inclusion trails (SSITs) in garnet porphyroblasts. The observed SSITs are doubly curved, non-cylindrical surfaces, with total inclusion-trail curvature decreasing systematically from the cores to the rims of porphyroblasts. The three-dimensional geometry of the SSITs, reconstructed with the aid of computer graphics, shows that the orientations of spiral axes defined by the SSITs are not related in any expected nor predictable way to the main foliation in the matrix. This suggests continued deformation after or during the latest stages of porphyroblast growth, which has important implications for the use of SSITs as shear-sense indicators. Whether the formation of SSITs involves significant porphyroblast rotation with respect to a geographically fixed reference frame cannot be determined from the available data.     

De-bugging the 'millipede' porphyroblast microstructure: a serial thin-section study and 3-D computer animation

ABSTRACT Seventy-five spatially orientated, serial thin sections cut from a single rock containing ‘millipede’ porphyroblast microstructure from the Robertson River Metamorphics, Australia, reveal the three-dimensional (3-D) geometry of oppositely concave microfolds (OCMs) that define the microstructure. Electronic animations showing progressive serial sections of the 3-D microstructure are made available via the World Wide Web. The OCM amplitudes decrease regularly from a maximum in near-central sections to a minimum in near-marginal sections, whereas the OCM interlimb angles increase regularly from a minimum in near-central sections to a maximum in near-marginal sections. These observations illustrate that the OCMs are noncylindrical surfaces with culminations located in near-central sections. Because the porphyroblast cores appear to have been present before significant development of the syn-OCM foliation, all of the OCMs were formed by heterogeneous extension around these cores. The overall geometry of the OCMs described here reflects the strain state, and cannot be used to constrain deformation paths.     

False metamorphic events inferred from misinterpretation of microstructural evidence and P–T data

Geometrical relationships involving inclusions and partial inclusions in metamorphic microstructures can be inadequate for inferring an order of crystallization and hence a metamorphic reaction. Unique spatial and/or chemical relationships need to be defined for mineral inclusions, in the context of a reference paragenesis, commonly the matrix assemblage. Corona microstructures are reliable indicators of metamorphic reactions, but require considerable care when used to infer reactions or changes in P–T conditions, owing to kinetic problems, as well as to changes in the effective reaction volume during changes across relatively broad P–T stability fields of assemblages. Mineral equilibria models, most commonly implemented through P–T pseudosections, may allow the order in which different minerals become stable along a given P–T path to be inferred. However, the order in which two minerals become stable may be different from the order in which two grains of these minerals nucleate. Furthermore, such diagrams cannot make predictions about which minerals will form porphyroblasts and which minerals will form inclusions in porphyroblasts. An evaluation of three examples from the Australian Proterozoic shows that modelling, in combination with inclusion‐host relationships, is a powerful tool for understanding the metamorphic evolution of a rock, but involves considerable uncertainty.     

White mica 40Ar/39Ar age spectra and the timing of multiple episodes of high‐P metamorphic mineral growth in the Cycladic eclogite–blueschist belt,Syros, Aegean Sea,Greece

New geochronology from Syros in the Cycladic eclogite–blueschist belt, Aegean Sea, Greece, shows that ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology consistently dates microstructural events in metamorphic rocks. We demonstrate that the age spectra depend on microstructure in a predictable and systematic way. Ages can be inferred by applying the method of asymptotes and limits to data from the step ‐ heating experiments. The results are consistent with previously published estimates for the timing of a sequence of distinct and discrete episodes of high ‐ P metamorphic mineral growth observed regionally across this belt. Arrhenius plots from these experiments imply that phengitic white mica is highly retentive of argon, and therefore (if these data can be extrapolated to the natural environment) the ages can be interpreted as recording the timing of episodic deformation and metamorphism. Porphyroblastic growth begins: (i) for omphacite – jadeite–eclogite facies parageneses at c. 53 Ma; and (ii) for garnet – glaucophane facies parageneses at c. 47 Ma. The Kini Shear Zone started as an extensional post ‐ epidote–albite‐transitional–blueschist facies shear zone that had completed operation by c. 31 Ma. The scatter in ages is due to the effect of deformation, recrystallization and multiple growth events in shear zones that continued operating for 3 – 6 million years from the start of each episode.