Plagioclase microfabrics in a ductile shear zone from the Jotun Nappe,Norway

Gabbroic and anorthositic rocks from the Jotun Nappe are transected by small ductile shear zones in which a high-grade paragenesis and a new foliation are formed. Most plagioclase grains show evidence of plastic deformation, and have recrystallized by subgrain rotation and ‘bulge’ processes to fine-grained mylonite. During these processes a plagioclase grain-shape fabric was destroyed, and with increasing strain a pre-existing plagioclase crystal fabric was successively modified, enhanced and finally obliterated. This could be evidence of superplastic flow. Inverse pole figure analysis of the typical plagioclase crystal fabric in the shear zone indicates that (021) ⊥ 〈a〉 could be an operative slip system, and planes close to (132) could be possible slip planes.