The effect of cyclic operation of brittle and ductile deformation on the metamorphic assemblage in cataclasites and mylonites

Cataclasites and mylonites, and the brittle-ductile processes that produce them, were studied at exposures along the northern rim of the Grong culmination, a transverse basement antiform in the central Scandinavian Caledonides. The rock suite studied is composed of gneisses, mylonites, and cataclasites which have a granodioritic composition. The microstructure of the rocks appears to be the result of repeated alternations of brittle faulting (associated with hydrothermal mineral growth) and ductile deformation of the crystallization products. During brittle faulting K-feldspar-chlorite veins are formed, probably by incongruent pressure solution of micas. During plastic deformation of the rocks the mineral association is transformed to white mica and green biotite, according to the reaction. $$5 biotite + 3 white mica + 9 quartz + 4 H_2 O = 8 K - feldspar + 9 chlorite$$ During this reaction plagioclase is overgrown by mica and epidote, and K-feldspar crystals are replaced by albite. The reactions which involve K-feldspars are cyclic: K-feldspar that is generated in cracks tends to be removed by albitization during ductile deformation. It is concluded that the mylonites studied represent a movement zone in the Earth's crust in which seismic and aseismic slip alternated during a large part of the deformation history.