Fabric development in brittle-to-ductile shear zones

Brittle-to-ductile shear zones from two separate geological settings are shown to have nucleated on zones of predominantly brittle deformation. The shear zones are not simply foliated cataclasites, since they contain abundant evidence of dynamic recrystallization of constituent minerals. A small quartz diorite lens in the Borrego Springs shear zone, southern California, contains centimeter-scale cataclasite zones that exhibit a gradual transition into foliated rock. Alteration of magnesiohornblende to actinolite, feldspar to white mica plus quartz, and biotite to chlorite, produced elongate minerals that define the foliation. During the later stages of deformation, intracrystalline slip and dynamic recrystallization of quartz and feldspar were important deformation mechanisms.The widespread occurrence of mineralized dilatant cracks predated the development of meter-to-decimeter-scale ductile shear zones in the Striped Rock granite, southern Virginia. Again, important deformation mechanisms in the final stages of deformation were intracrystalline slip and dynamic recrystallization of quartz.In both field areas the role of fluids has been important from the onset of brittle deformation. Fluids may have enhanced early fracturing in addition to causing the alteration and hydrolytic weakening of host rock minerals and the introduction of new mineral species. Each of these processes is thought to have contributed to the later localization of crystal plastic deformation in the rocks.