Mazatzal–Labradorian-age (1.7–1.6 Ga) ductile deformation of the South Range Sudbury impact structure at the Thayer Lindsley mine, Ontario

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (12) ◽  
pp. 1491-1505 ◽  
Author(s):  
J Bailey ◽  
B Lafrance ◽  
A M McDonald ◽  
J S Fedorowich ◽  
S Kamo ◽  
...  

The Thayer Lindsley mine is located in the South Range of the Sudbury impact structure, near the contact between the 1.85 Ga Sudbury Igneous Complex (SIC) and the Paleoproterozoic Southern Province. Ni–Cu ore zones at the mine are strongly deformed within a southeast-dipping, lower amphibolite-grade shear zone, which offsets the contact between the SIC and Southern Province rocks. Numerous shear sense indicators, including shear bands, drag folds, and δ- and σ-type rotated porphyroclasts, consistently indicate south-over-north, reverse, dip-slip movement parallel to the mineral stretching lineation in the shear zone. The attitude, slip direction, and metamorphic grade of the shear zone are similar to those of the regional northeast-striking South Range Shear Zone that formed during post-impact, northwest-directed ductile contraction of the Sudbury impact structure. The South Range Shear Zone is generally interpreted as a ca. 1.9–1.8 Ga Penokean structure. Anhedral brown titanite grains from the Thayer Lindsley shear zone yield a mean 207Pb/206Pb Penokean age of 1815 ± 15 Ma. These grains are mantled by younger, syntectonic, colourless titanite, which have a mean 207Pb/206Pb age of 1658 ± 68 Ma. This younger age suggests that the South Range and Thayer Lindsley shear zones may have formed during a 1.7–1.6 Ga collisional tectonic event that is recorded along the southeast margin of Laurentia from the southwest USA. (Mazatzal Orogeny), through the mid-continent to Wisconsin, and as far northeast as Labrador (Labradorian Orogeny). 40Ar/39Ar analyses indicate post-tectonic thermal resetting of biotite occurred at 1477 ± 8 Ma during felsic plutonism across the Sudbury area.

1995 ◽  
Vol 132 (2) ◽  
pp. 151-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. J. Carson ◽  
P. G. H. M. Dirks ◽  
M. Hand ◽  
J. P. Sims ◽  
C. J. L. Wilson

AbstractMeta-sediments in the Larsemann Hills that preserve a coherent stratigraphy, form a cover sequence deposited upon basement of mafic–felsic granulite. Their outcrop pattern defines a 10 kilometre wide east–west trending synclinal trough structure in which basement–cover contacts differ in the north and the south, suggesting tectonic interleaving during a prograde, D1 thickening event. Subsequent conditions reached low-medium pressure granulite grade, and structures can be divided into two groups, D2 and D3, each defined by a unique lineation direction and shear sense. D2 structures which are associated with the dominant gneissic foliation in much of the Larsemann Hills, contain a moderately east-plunging lineation indicative of west-directed thrusting. D2 comprises a colinear fold sequence that evolved from early intrafolial folds to late upright folds. D3 structures are associated with a high-strain zone, to the south of the Larsemann Hills, where S3 is the dominant gneissic layering and folds sequences resemble D2 folding. Outside the D3 high-strain zone occurs a low-strain D3 window, preserving low-strain D3 structures (minor shear bands and upright folds) that partly re-orient D2 structures. All structures are truncated by a series of planar pegmatites and parallel D4 mylonite zones, recording extensional dextral displacements.D2 assemblages include coexisting garnet–orthopyroxene pairs recording peak conditions of ∼ 7 kbar and ∼ 780°C. Subsequent retrograde decompression textures partly evolved during both D2 and D3 when conditions of ∼ 4–5 kbar and ∼ 750°C were attained. This is followed by D4 shear zones which formed around 3 kbar and ∼ 550°C.It is tempting to combine D2–4 structures in one tectonic cycle involving prograde thrusting and thickening followed by retrograde extension and uplift. The available geochronological data, however, present a number of interpretations. For example, D2 was possibly associated with a clockwise P–T path at medium pressures around ∼ 1000 Ma, by correlation with similar structures developed in the Rauer Group, whilst D3 and D4 events occurred in response to extension and heating at low pressures at ∼ 550 Ma, associated with the emplacement of numerous granitoid bodies. Thus, decompression textures typical for the Larsemann Hills granulites maybe the combined effect of two separate events.


2012 ◽  
Vol 2012 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Quanlin Hou ◽  
Hongyuan Zhang ◽  
Qing Liu ◽  
Jun Li ◽  
Yudong Wu

A previous study of the Dabie area has been supposed that a strong extensional event happened between the Yangtze and North China blocks. The entire extensional system is divided into the Northern Dabie metamorphic complex belt and the south extensional tectonic System according to geological and geochemical characteristics in our study. The Xiaotian-Mozitan shear zone in the north boundary of the north system is a thrust detachment, showing upper block sliding to the NNE, with a displacement of more than 56 km. However, in the south system, the shearing direction along the Shuihou-Wuhe and Taihu-Mamiao shear zones is tending towards SSE, whereas that along the Susong-Qingshuihe shear zone tending towards SW, with a displacement of about 12 km. Flinn index results of both the north and south extensional systems indicate that there is a shear mechanism transition from pure to simple, implying that the extensional event in the south tectonic system could be related to a magma intrusion in the Northern Dabie metamorphic complex belt. Two 40Ar-39Ar ages of mylonite rocks in the above mentioned shear zones yielded, separately, ~190 Ma and ~124 Ma, referring to a cooling age of ultrahigh-pressure rocks and an extensional era later.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wanli Gao ◽  
Zongxiu Wang

<p><strong><img src="https://contentmanager.copernicus.org/fileStorageProxy.php?f=gepj.67d6c7216eff55356050161/sdaolpUECMynit/12UGE&app=m&a=0&c=5572aca4b392eef83f52919e1be673e9&ct=x&pn=gepj.elif&d=1" alt="">Abstract</strong>:The Zongwulong tectonic belt (ZTB) is located between the northern Qaidam tectonic belt and the south Qilian orogenic belt and contains Late Paleozoic and Early- Middle Triassic strata. Structural features and geochronology of Zongwulong ductile shear zone have key implications for the tectonic property of the ZTB. This study integrated field structure, microscopic structure and <sup>40</sup>Ar/<sup>39</sup>Ar laser probe analysis. The shear zone strikes ~NEE-SWW and dips at a high angle, with a NWW-SEE trending and WE stretching lineation, indicating the shear zone as a thrust- slip shear ductile shear. The asymmetric folds, rotating porphyroclast,structural lens and crenulation cleavage can be seen in the field. Mica fish, S − C fabrics, σ type quartz porphyroclastic and quartz wire drawing structure can also be observed under microscope, indicating that the strike- slip- related ductile deformation and mylonitization occurred under low- grade greenschist facies conditions at temperatures of <em>300° C − 400° C</em>.  The highly deformed<br>mylonite schist yielded <sup>40</sup>Ar/<sup>39</sup>Ar ages <em>(245.8±1.7)Ma </em>and <em>(238.5±2.6)</em>Ma for muscovite and biotite, respectively, indicating that the shear deformation occurred during the Early- Mid Triassic. Combined with comprehensive analysis of regional geology and petrology, the authors hold that the age of ductile shear deformation represents the time of Triassic orogeny in the ZTB. The oroginic activity was probably related to the oblique collision between the South Qilian block and the Oulongbuluke block after the closure of the northermost Paleo-Tethys ocean.</p>


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew S. Tarling ◽  
Steven A. F. Smith ◽  
James M. Scott ◽  
Jeremy S. Rooney ◽  
Cecilia Viti ◽  
...  

Abstract. Deciphering the internal structural and composition of large serpentinite-dominated shear zones will lead to an improved understanding of the rheology of the lithosphere in a range of tectonic settings. The Livingstone Fault in New Zealand is a > 1000 km long terrane-bounding structure that separates the basal portions (peridotite; serpentinised peridotite; metagabbros) of the Dun Mountain Ophiolite Belt from quartzofeldspathic schists of the Caples or Aspiring Terranes. Field and microstructural observations from eleven localities along a strike length of c. 140 km show that the Livingstone Fault is a steeply-dipping, serpentinite-dominated shear zone tens to several hundreds of metres wide. The bulk shear zone has a pervasive scaly fabric that wraps around fractured and faulted pods of massive serpentinite, rodingite and partially metasomatised quartzofeldspathic schist up to a few tens of metres long. S-C fabrics and lineations in the shear zone consistently indicate a steep Caples-side-up (i.e. east-side-up) shear sense, with significant local dispersion in kinematics where the shear zone fabrics wrap around pods. The scaly fabric is dominated (> 98 vol %) by fine-grained (≪ 10 μm) fibrous chrysotile and lizardite/polygonal serpentine, but infrequent (


1993 ◽  
Vol 30 (7) ◽  
pp. 1338-1354 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mel R. Stauffer ◽  
John F. Lewry

Needle Falls Shear Zone is the southern part of a major northeast-trending ductile shear system within the Paleoproterozoic Trans-Hudson Orogen in Saskatchewan. Throughout its exposed length of ~400 km, the shear zone separates reworked Archean continental crust and infolded Paleoproterozoic supracrustals of the Cree Lake Zone, to the northwest, from mainly juvenile Paleoproterozoic arc terrains and granitoid plutons of the Reindeer Zone, to the southeast. It also defines the northwest margin of the ca. 1855 Ma Wathaman Batholith, which forms the main protolith to shear zone mylonites. Although not precisely dated, available age constraints suggest that the shear zone formed between ca. 1855 and 1800 Ma, toward the end of peak thermotectonism in this part of the orogen.In the Needle Falls study area, shear zone mylonites exhibit varied, sequentially developed, ductile to brittle fabric features, including C–S fabrics, winged porphyroclasts (especially delta type), small-scale compressional and extensional microfaults ranging from thin ductile shear zones to late brittle faults, early isoclinal and sheath folds, later asymmetric folds related to compressional microfaults, and variably rotated and (or) folded quartz veins. All ductile shear-sense indicators suggest dextral displacement, as do most later ductile–brittle transition and brittle features. In conjunction with a gently north–northeast-plunging extension lineation, such data indicate oblique east-side-up dextral movement across the shear zone. However, preexisting structures in country rock protoliths rotate into the shear zone in a sense contrary to that predicted by ideal dextral simple shear, a feature thought to reflect significant flattening across the shear zone. Other ductile to brittle fabric elements in the mylonites are consistent with general noncoaxial strain, rather than ideal simple shear. Amount of displacement cannot be measured but indirect estimates suggest approximately 40 ± 20 km.The Needle Falls Shear Zone is too small and has developed too late in regional tectonic history to be considered a crustal suture. Rather, it is interpreted as either a late-tectonic oblique collisional structure or as the result of counterclockwise oroclinal rotation of the southern part of the orogen.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Christoph Schrank

<p>About 50 years ago, John Ramsay and colleagues established the thorough foundation for the field-scale observational and mathematical description of the structures, deformation, and kinematics in ductile shear zones. Since then, these probably most important instabilities of the ductile lithosphere enjoyed an almost explosive growth in scientific attention. It is perhaps fair to say that this tremendous research effort featured four main themes:</p><p> </p><p>[1] The historic scientific nucleus – quantification of shear-zone geometry, strain and associated kinematic history from field observations</p><p> </p><p>[2] Qualitative and quantitative analysis of microphysical deformation mechanisms in the field and the laboratory</p><p> </p><p>[3] Shear-zone rheology</p><p> </p><p>[4] The development of physically consistent mathematical models for shear zones, mainly using continuum mechanics.</p><p> </p><p>In concert, these four cornerstones of shear-zone research enabled tremendous progress in our understanding of why and how ductile shear zones form. So, what are some of the outstanding problems?</p><p> </p><p>A truly comprehensive model for ductile shear zones must account for the vast range of length and time scales involved, each easily covering ten orders of magnitude, as well as the associated intimate coupling between thermal, hydraulic, mechanical, and chemical processes. The multi-scale and multi-physics nature of ductile shear zones generates scientific challenges for all four research themes named above. This presentation is dedicated to highlighting exciting challenges in themes 2, and 3 and 4.</p><p> </p><p>In the microanalytical arena [2], the nano-scale is an exciting new frontier, especially when it comes to the interplay between metamorphism and ductile deformation. The nano-frontier can be tackled with new synchrotron methods. I showcase some applications to fossil shear-zone samples and discuss opportunities for in-situ experiments. In the domain of rheology [3], I present some simple experiments with strain-softening materials and field observations that support the notion: transient rheological behaviour is very important for shear localisation. In the modelling domain [4], some recent examples for the intriguing physical consequences predicted by new multi-physics and cross-scale coupling terms in ductile localisation problems are illustrated.</p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Salim Birkan Bayrak ◽  
Işıl Nur Güraslan ◽  
Alp Ünal ◽  
Ömer Kamacı ◽  
Şafak Altunkaynak ◽  
...  

<p>Marmara granitoid (47 Ma) is a representative example of the Eocene post-collisional magmatism which produced several granitic plutons in NW Anatolia, Turkey. It is a W-E trending sill-like magmatic body which was concordantly emplaced into the metamorphic basement rocks of Erdek Complex and Saraylar Marble. The granitoid is represented by deformed granodiorite which displays well-developed lineation and foliation in meso-scale defined by the elongation of mica and feldspar crystals and recrystallization of quartz however, in some places, magmatic textures are preserved. Deformed granodiorite is broadly cut by aplitic and pegmatitic dikes and contains mafic enclaves which display the same deformation indicators with the main granitoid.</p><p>Microstructural analysis shows that the solid-state deformation of the Marmara granitoid is classified as ductile deformation with high temperatures and ductile-to-brittle deformation with relatively lower temperatures. Evidence for the ductile deformation of the granitoid is represented by chessboard extinction of quartz, grain boundary migration (GBM) and subgrain rotation recrystallisation (SGR) which exhibits that the deformation temperature changed from 600 <sup>o</sup>C to 400<sup>o</sup>C. Bulging recrystallization (BLG), grain size reduction of amphibole, biotite and plagioclases and microcracks on plagioclases were considered as overlying ductile-to-brittle deformation signatures which develop between 300-<250 <sup>o</sup>C temperatures.</p><p>All of these field and micro-structural data collectively suggest that the shear sense indicators such as micafish structures and δ type mantled porphyroclasts displayed stair-steppings pointing out to a right lateral movement, indicating that the structural evolution and deformation history of Marmara granitoid was controlled by a dextral shear zone.</p>


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timothy Armitage ◽  
Robert Holdsworth ◽  
Robin Strachan ◽  
Thomas Zach ◽  
Diana Alvarez-Ruiz ◽  
...  

<p>Ductile shear zones are heterogeneous areas of strain localisation which often display variation in strain geometry and combinations of coaxial and non-coaxial deformation. One such heterogeneous shear zone is the c. 2 km thick Uyea Shear Zone (USZ) in northwest Mainland Shetland (UK), which separates variably deformed Neoarchaean orthogneisses in its footwall from Neoproterozoic metasediments in its hanging wall (Fig. a). The USZ is characterised by decimetre-scale layers of dip-slip thrusting and extension, strike-slip sinistral and dextral shear senses and interleaved ultramylonitic coaxially deformed horizons. Within the zones of transition between shear sense layers, mineral lineations swing from foliation down-dip to foliation-parallel in kinematically compatible, anticlockwise/clockwise-rotations on a local and regional scale (Fig. b). Rb-Sr dating of white mica grains via laser ablation indicates a c. 440-425 Ma Caledonian age for dip-slip and strike-slip layers and an 800 Ma Neoproterozoic age for coaxial layers. Quartz opening angles and microstructures suggest an upper-greenschist to lower-amphibolite facies temperature for deformation. We propose that a Neoproterozoic, coaxial event is overprinted by Caledonian sinistral transpression under upper greenschist/lower amphibolite facies conditions. Interleaved kinematics and mineral lineation swings are attributed to result from differential flow rates resulting in vertical and lateral extrusion and indicate regional-scale sinistral transpression during the Caledonian orogeny in NW Shetland. This study highlights the importance of linking geochronology to microstructures in a poly-deformed terrane and is a rare example of a highly heterogeneous shear zone in which both vertical and lateral extrusion occurred during transpression.</p><p><img src="https://contentmanager.copernicus.org/fileStorageProxy.php?f=gepj.0cf6ef44e5ff57820599061/sdaolpUECMynit/12UGE&app=m&a=0&c=d96bb6db75eed0739f2a6ee90c9ad8fd&ct=x&pn=gepj.elif&d=1" alt=""></p>


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Arnab Roy ◽  
Nandan Roy ◽  
Puspendu Saha ◽  
Nibir Mandal

<p>Development of brittle and brittle-ductile shear zones involve partitioning of large shear strains in bands, called C-shear bands (C-SB) nearly parallel to the shear zone boundaries. Our present work aims to provide a comprehensive understanding of the rheological factors in controlling such SB growth in meter scale natural brittle- ductile shear zones observed in in Singbhum and Chotonagpur mobile belts.  The shear zones show C- SB at an angle of 0°- 5° with the shear zone boundary. We used analogue models, based on Coulomb and Viscoplastic rheology to reproduce them in experimental conditions.</p><p>These models produce dominantly Riedel (R) shear bands. We show a transition from R-shearing in conjugate to single sets at angles of ~15<sup>o</sup> by changing model materials. However, none of the analogue models produced C-SB, as observed in the field. To reconcile the experimental and field findings, numeral models have been used to better constrain the geometrical and rheological parameters. We simulate model shear zones replicating those observed in the field, which display two distinct zones: drag zone where the viscous strains dominate  and the core zone, where both viscous and plastic strains come into play.  Numerical model results suggest the formation of  C- SB for a specific rheological condition. We also show varying shear band patterns as a function of the thickness ratio between drag and core zones.</p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 178 (6) ◽  
pp. 437-458 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jerome Ganne ◽  
Jean-Michel Bertrand ◽  
Serge Fudral ◽  
Didier Marquer ◽  
Olivier Vidal

Abstract The basement domes of the central part of western Alps may result either from a multistage tectonic evolution with a dominant horizontal shortening component, an extensional behaviour, or both. The Ambin massif belongs to the “Briançonnais” domain and is located within the HP metamorphic zone. It was chosen for a reappraisal of the tectonic evolution of the Internal Alps in its western segment. Structural investigations have shown that Alpine HP rocks were exhumed in three successive stages. The D1 stage was roughly coeval with the observed peak metamorphic conditions and corresponds to a non-coaxial regime with dominant horizontal shortening and north movement direction. Petrological observations and P-T estimates show that the exhumation process was initiated during D1, the corresponding mechanism being still poorly understood. The D2 stage took place under low-blueschist facies conditions and culminated under greenschist facies conditions. It developed a retrogressive foliation and pervasive shear-zones at all scales that locally define major tectonic contacts. D2 shear zones show a top-to-east movement direction and correspond actually to large-scale detachment faults responsible for the juxtaposition of less metamorphic units above the Ambin basement and thus to a large part of the exhumation of HP rocks toward the surface. D2 shear zones were subsequently deformed by D3 open folds, large antiforms (e.g. the Ambin dome) and associated brittle-ductile D3 shear-bands. The D1 to D3 P-T conditions and P-T path of the blueschists occurring in the deepest part of the Ambin dome, was estimated by using the multi-equilibrium thermobarometric method of the Tweeq and Thermocalc softwares. Peak pressure conditions, estimated at about 14–16 Kb, 500oC, are followed by a nearly-isothermal decompression that occurred concurrently with the major D1–D2 change in the ductile deformation regime. Eastwards, the Schistes Lustrés units exhibit a similar geometry on top of the Gran Paradiso dome but exhibit opposite D2 movement direction. Lower-grade units are lying above higher-grade units, the shear zones occurring in between being similar to Ambin’s D2 detachments. Thus at regional scale, the D2 detachments seem to form together with the Ambin shear-zones, a network of conjugate detachments. Such a pattern suggests that the exhumation history is mostly controlled by a D2+D3 crustal-scale vertical shortening resulting in the thinning of the previous tectonic pile formed during D1. The slab-break off hypothesis may explain such an extensional behaviour within the western Pennine domain. It is suggested that the thermo-mechanical rebound of the residual European slab initiated between 35 and 32 Ma the fast exhumation of the previously thickened orogenic wedge (stack of D1 HP slices). It was immediately followed by a collapse of the wedge that may correspond to the E-W Oligocene extensional event responsible for the opening of rifts in the West European platform.


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