Occurrence and possible tectonic significance of high-pressure granulite fragments in the Tulemalu fault zone, District of Keewatin, N.W.T., Canada

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (12) ◽  
pp. 1950-1962 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Tella ◽  
K. E. Eade

Fragments of garnet–clinopyroxene granulite with corona textures in ductilely deformed lower-amphibolite-grade quartzofeldspathic granitoid gneiss are exposed within the northeast-trending Tulemalu fault zone. The mineral association of the fragments is garnet–clinopyroxene–plagioclase(An20–An22)–quartz–opaques–hornblende–biotite. Textural evidence suggests that hornblende and biotite are late overgrowth minerals. Garnet and clinopyroxene and (or) hornblende are separated by a narrow rim of plagioclase. Pressure–temperature estimates based on currently used geothermobarometers are of the order of 715–789 °C and 10.2–11.4 kbar (1 kbar = 100 MPa) for the garnet–clinopyroxene–plagioclase–quartz assemblage. The fragments are interpreted as relicts of deep-crustal materials, uplifted to higher levels probably as xenolithic rafts in a granitic melt along the fault zone during late Archean or Early Proterozoic ductile displacements. The growth of hornblende and the development of plagioclase reaction rims around garnet are believed to be due to isothermal decompression reactions during uplift.On the basis of limited geological data, paired gravity anomaly patterns, and aeromagnetic interpolation, the Tulemalu fault zone is postulated as representing the northeasterly extension of the Virgin River – Black Lake fault zones of Saskatchewan and represents an approximately 5 km wide ductile deformation zone that separates an Archean granulite terrane to the west from a relatively lower grade terrane composed of Archean supracrustal rocks to the east.

1994 ◽  
Vol 31 (7) ◽  
pp. 1146-1171 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Hanes ◽  
D. A. Archibald ◽  
M. Queen ◽  
E. Farrar

The Kapuskasing uplift (KU) in the Superior Province of the Canadian Shield has been interpreted as an oblique cross section through the Archean mid-crust. However, the time of juxtaposition of the granulites of the KU against the lower grade rocks of the Abitibi greenstone belt (AGB) along the Ivanhoe Lake fault zone is problematic. To constrain the postmetamorphic tectonothermal history of the KU, we have conducted 57 40Ar/39Ar step-heating analyses on mineral and rock samples collected in a transect across the southern KU and adjacent AGB. The age spectra record a complex thermal history. Amphiboles from the AGB in the footwall of the Ivanhoe Lake fault zone have ca. 2.66 Ga dates, similar to closure ages for amphiboles from farther east in the AGB. Amphibole dates of 2.46–2.52 Ga from the deepest structural levels of the KU place an upper limit on the time of major uplift of the granulites and their juxtaposition with the AGB. Biotite and muscovite dates from the transect cluster into three age groups. The presence in the deepest structural levels of the KU of biotite with 2.40–2.45 Ga dates indicates that significant uplift (15–20 km or more) of the granulites had occurred by this time. Micas with dates in the 2.25–2.30 Ga range are close to fault zones; these dates may indicate a ca. 2.30 Ga episode of fault reactivation. Feldspar, fault-related whole rocks, and some micas record events post 2.1 Ga. These correspond to the emplacement of mafic and lamprophyric dykes and fault reactivation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (10) ◽  
pp. 1139-1157 ◽  
Author(s):  
Francis Guay ◽  
Pierre Pilote ◽  
Réal Daigneault ◽  
Vicki McNicoll

The Malartic Lakeshore showing is a gold-bearing quartz vein system located within the major Rivière-Héva fault zone (RHFZ) of the southern Abitibi greenstone belt. This fault separates the 2702–2700 Ma felsic Héva Formation from the 2708 Ma mafic-ultramafic Dubuisson Formation. A swarm of thin diorite dykes with lamprophyric facies and gold-bearing quartz veins are present only on the Dubuisson side of the fault. The 30–70 cm thick gold quartz veins are boudinaged and folded. Veins are banded and associated with pyrite, chalcopyrite, galena, barite, and gold. The study area is characterized by a high degree of ductile deformation associated with the RHFZ and manifested by the southeast-trending “principal schistosity” (Sp). Stretching lineations plunge moderately to shallowly toward the southeast as a result of shortening followed by late directional shearing during a transpressive deformation. A sample from the Héva Formation yielded a zircon U–Pb age of 2698.2 ± 0.8 Ma, and a diorite dyke produced an age of 2694.3 ± 2.5 Ma. Quartz veins are crosscut by dykes, and both are affected by the Sp fabric, indicating an early emplacement with respect to the deformation. This situation contrasts with the orogenic gold veins found in association with major fault zones. A near-synvolcanic magmatic hydrothermal origin is proposed for this gold vein system. Because all subvertical units in the area are south facing, the presence of the older Dubuisson Formation over the younger Héva Formation is attributed to the RHFZ acting as a significant reverse or thrust fault.


Geophysics ◽  
1967 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 297-301 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. N. Domenico

A gravity profile was obtained from closely spaced readings along a traverse approximately nine miles in length across the San Andreas fault zone immediately south of Palmdale, California in the western Mojave Desert. Corrected gravity values show a slight but distinctive minimum associated with the fault zone which may be attributed to the reduced density of the shattered rock masses in the fault zone. The existence of this minimum suggests that major fault zones may be traced across terrain, on which surface expression of the fault does not exist, by successive profiles across the suspected position of the fault zone.


2006 ◽  
Vol 6 (6) ◽  
pp. 999-1006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Altınok ◽  
B. Alpar

Abstract. The long-term seismicity of the Marmara Sea region in northwestern Turkey is relatively well-recorded. Some large and some of the smaller events are clearly associated with fault zones known to be seismically active, which have distinct morphological expressions and have generated damaging earthquakes before and later. Some less common and moderate size earthquakes have occurred in the vicinity of the Marmara Islands in the west Marmara Sea. This paper presents an extended summary of the most important earthquakes that have occurred in 1265 and 1935 and have since been known as the Marmara Island earthquakes. The informative data and the approaches used have therefore the potential of documenting earthquake ruptures of fault segments and may extend the records kept on earthquakes far before known history, rock falls and abnormal sea waves observed during these events, thus improving hazard evaluations and the fundamental understanding of the process of an earthquake.


2019 ◽  
Vol 48 (3) ◽  
pp. 49-63
Author(s):  
Milena Georgirva ◽  
Tzvetomila Vladinova

Garnet–clinopyroxene–K-feldspar granulite occurs as a thick layer or boudin within the variegated rocks of the Chepelare shear zone in the Central Rhodope massif, Bulgaria. It consists of several domains: mesocratic homogeneous matrix (clinopyroxene–plagioclase–K-feldspar–quartz ± amphibole), porphyroblastic garnet, K-feldspar and clinopyroxene, and strongly foliated fine-grain bands (chloritized biotite–chlorite–prehnite–albite ± epidote). The origin and nature of the matrix mineral association is still unclear. The peak porphyroblast association forms at the expense of plagioclase from the matrix at higher pressure. The fine-grain deformation zones channel the lattermost fluid infiltration. The clinopyroxene-garnet and Zr-in-titanite thermometry give temperatures higher than 790–860 ºC at 2 GPa and, with thermodynamic modeling, suggests crystallization at ~1.8–2.1 GPa and temperature of ~850 ºC in HP granulite field for the porphyroblast granulite association.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carolyn Boulton ◽  
Marcel Mizera ◽  
Maartje Hamers ◽  
Inigo Müller ◽  
Martin Ziegler ◽  
...  

<p>The Hungaroa Fault Zone (HFZ), an inactive thrust fault along the Hikurangi Subduction Margin, accommodated large displacements (~4–10 km) at the onset of subduction in the early Miocene. Within a 40 m-wide high-strain fault core, calcareous mudstones and marls display evidence for mixed-mode viscous flow and brittle fracture, including: discrete faults; extensional veins containing stretched calcite fibers; shear veins with calcite slickenfibers; calcite foliation-boudinage structures; calcite pressure fringes; dark dissolution seams; stylolites; embayed calcite grains; and an anastomosing phyllosilicate foliation.</p><p>Multiple observations indicate a heterogeneous stress state within the fault core. Detailed optical and electron backscatter diffraction-based texture analysis of syntectonic calcite veins and isoclinally folded limestone layers within the fault core reveal that calcite grains have experienced intracrystalline plasticity and interface mobility, and local subgrain development and dynamic recrystallisation. The recrystallized grain size in two calcite veins of 6.0±3.9 µm (n=1339; 1SD; HFZ-H4-5.2m_A;) and 7.2±4.2µm (n=406; 1SD; HFZ-H4-19.9m) indicate high differential stresses (~76–134 MPa). Hydrothermal friction experiments on a foliated, calcareous mudstone yield a friction coefficient of μ≈0.35. Using this friction coefficient in the Mohr-Coulomb failure criterion yields a maximum differential stress of 55 MPa at 4 km depth, assuming a minimum principal stress equal to the vertical stress, an average sediment density of 2350 kg/m<sup>3</sup>, and hydrostatic pore fluid pressure. Interestingly, calcareous microfossils within the foliated mudstone matrix are undeformed. Moreover, calcite veins are oriented both parallel to and highly oblique to the foliation, indicating spatial and/or temporal variations in the maximum principle stress azimuth.</p><p>To further constrain HFZ deformation conditions, clumped isotope geothermometry was performed on six syntectonic calcite veins, yielding formation temperatures of 79.3±19.9°C (95% confidence interval). These temperatures are well below those at which dynamic recrystallisation of calcite is anticipated and exclude shear heating and the migration of hotter fluids as an explanation for dynamic recrystallisation of calcite at shallow crustal levels (<5 km depth).</p><p>Our results indicate that: (1) stresses are spatiotemporally heterogeneous in crustal fault zones containing mixtures of competent and incompetent minerals; (2) heterogeneous deformation mechanisms, including frictional sliding, pressure solution, dynamic recrystallization, and mixed-mode fracturing accommodate slip in shallow crustal fault zones; and (3) brittle fractures play a pivotal role in fault zone deformation by providing fluid pathways that promote fluid-enhanced recovery and dynamic recrystallisation in the deforming calcite at remarkably low temperatures. Together, field geology, microscopy, and clumped isotope geothermometry provide a powerful method for constraining the multiscale slip behavior of large-displacement fault zones.</p>


2007 ◽  
Vol 40 (4) ◽  
pp. 1586 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. Palyvos ◽  
D. Pantosti ◽  
L. Stamatopoulos ◽  
P. M. De Martini

In this communication we discuss reconnaissance geomorphological observations along the active Psathopyrgos and Rion-Patras (NE part) fault zones. These fault zones correspond to more or less complex rangefronts, the geomorphic characteristics of which provide hints on the details of the fault zone geometries, adding to the existing geological data in the bibliography. Aiming at the identification of locations suitable or potentially suitable for geomorphological and geological studies for the determination of fault slip rates in the Holocene, we describe cases of faulted Holocene landforms and associated surficial deposits. We also discuss problems involved in finding locations suitable for geological (paleoseismological) studies for the determination of the timing of recent earthquake ruptures, problems due to both man-made and natural causes.


2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (2) ◽  
pp. 561-567
Author(s):  
N. F. Vasilenko ◽  
A. S. Prytkov

In the northern Sakhalin Island, the tectonic activity of the fault zones is a potential threat to the industrial infrastructure of the petroleum fields. Recently, the background seismicity has increased at the Hokkaido‐Sakhalin fault that consists of several segments, including the Garomai active fault. In the studies of the regional deformation processes, it is important not only to analyze the seismic activity, but also to quantitatively assess the dynamics of deformation accumulation in the fault zones. In order to study the contemporary geodynamics of the Garomai fault, a local GPS/GLONASS network has been established in the area wherein trunk oil and gas pipelines are installed across the fault zone. Based on the annual periodic measurements taken in 2006–2016, we study the features of surface deformation and calculate the rates of displacements caused by the tectonic activity in the fault zone. During the survey period, no significant displacement of the fault wings was revealed. In the immediate vicinity of the fault zone, multidirectional horizontal displacements occur at a rate up to 1.6 mm/yr, and uplifting of the ground surface takes place at a rate of 3.4 mm/yr. This pattern of displacements is a reflection of local deformation processes in the fault zone. At the western wing of the fault, a maximum deformation rate amounts to 1110–6 per year. The fault is a boundary mark of a transition from lower deformation rates at the eastern wing to higher ones at the west wing. In contrast to the general regional compression setting that is typical of the northern Sakhalin Island, extension is currently dominant in the Garomai fault zone. The estimated rates of relative deformation in the vicinity of the Garomai fault give grounds to classify it as ‘hazardous’.


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