ALBERT

Notes: The Tres Arboles ductile fault zone in the Eastern Sierras Pampeanas, central Argentina, experienced multiple ductile deformation and faulting events that involved a variety of textural and reaction hardening and softening processes. Much of the fault zone is characterized by a (D2) ultramylonite, composed of fine-grained biotite + plagioclase, that lacks a well-defined preferred orientation. The D2 fabric consists of a strong network of intergrown and interlocking grains that show little textural evidence for dislocation or dissolution creep. These ultramylonites contain gneissic rock fragments and porphyroclasts of plagioclase, sillimanite and garnet inherited from the gneissic and migmatitic protolith (D1) of the hangingwall. The assemblage of garnet + sillimanite + biotite suggests that D1-related fabrics developed under upper amphibolite facies conditions, and the persistence of biotite + garnet + sillimanite + plagioclase suggests that the ultramylonite of D2 developed under middle amphibolite facies conditions. Greenschist facies, mylonitic shear bands (D3) locally overprint D2 ultramylonites. Fine-grained folia of muscovite + chlorite ± biotite truncate earlier biotite + plagioclase textures, and coarser-grained muscovite partially replaces relic sillimanite grains. Anorthite content of shear band (D3) plagioclase is c. An30, distinct from D1 and D2 plagioclase (c. An35). The anorthite content of D3 plagioclase is consistent with a pervasive grain boundary fluid that facilitated partial replacement of plagioclase by muscovite. Biotite is partially replaced by muscovite and/or chlorite, particularly in areas of inferred high strain. Quartz precipitated in porphyroclast pressure shadows and ribbons that help define the mylonitic fabric. All D3 reactions require the introduction of H+ and/or H2O, indicating an open system, and typically result in a volume decrease. Syntectonic D3 muscovite + quartz + chlorite preferentially grew in an orientation favourable for strain localization, which produced a strong textural softening. Strain localization occurred only where reactions progressed with the infiltration of aqueous fluids, on a scale of hundreds of micrometre. Local fracturing and microseismicity may have induced reactivation of the fault zone and the initial introduction of fluids. However, the predominant greenschist facies deformation (D3) along discrete shear bands was primarily a consequence of the localization of replacement reactions in a partially open system.

Notes: Two fundamentally different scales of element mobility have been identified in the upper-amphibolite-facies Hunts Brook fault zone of south-central Connecticut, USA. Field relations, mineral chemistry, and 80 bulk rock analyses provide overwhelming evidence that the blastomylonitic schists and gneisses of the fault zone were derived from the enclosing granodioritic Rope Ferry orthogneiss. Two-sample mass balance calculations between the Rope Ferry Gneiss and fault rocks strongly suggest that the Rope Ferry Gneiss was segregated into biotite-rich schists and quartz–plagioclase-rich gneisses through the centimetre-scale transfer of Si, Al, Ca, Na, Ba, and Zr from schists to gneisses. Three- and four-sample mass balance calculations provide convincing evidence that Al, Ca, Na, and Ba were lost and Si and K gained by the entire fault zone. Both scales of metasomatism have been identified at two localities separated by 20 km, implying that the metasomatic processes were pervasive throughout the fault zone.From the mass balance calculations, an apparent disparity in K mobility arises. K appears to be gained by the entire fault zone, but is immobile during the centimetre-scale segregation. This is because mass balance calculations can only detect differential element mobility. Differential element mobility requires that the mechanism of metasomatism produces chemical potential gradients. Therefore, the identification of differentially mobile elements provides insight into the mechanisms of metasomatism. The immobility of K during segregation of schists and gneisses implies that the segregation was not achieved through the extraction of partial melt. However, the element mobility is reconcilable with deformation-driven metamorphic differentiation. The gains of Si and K and losses of Ca, Na, Al, and Ba for the entire fault zone are also inconsistent with the intrusion or extraction of partial melt, but may reflect the infiltration of a metasomatizing aqueous fluid.

Notes: Several examples of deformation-induced myrmekite have been found in two amphibolite facies mylonites derived from granitic protoliths, namely a muscovite-poor S-C mylonite and a single foliation, muscovite-poor mylonitic gneiss. Back-scattered SEM and conventional optical microscopy show that in both rock types, syntectonic myrmekitic intergrowths of oligoclase and quartz formed on the two sides of K-feldspar grains that faced the local inferred incremental shortening direction for the mylonite. Myrmekite does not occur on the two ends of the grain that faced the incremental stretching direction.The replacement of K-feldspar by plagioclase and quartz results in a volume decrease and is favoured on high normal stress sites around the grains. We suggest that the ambient temperature, pressure and chemical activities were such that the replacement reaction was favoured, but the addition of extra strain energy along the high-pressure sides of the grains localized the reaction at these sites. This energy could arise from elastic strain, or strain associated with tangled dislocations or twin boundaries. The relative roles of stress and strain energy concentrations in driving the replacement reaction are not known, but both were probably important.

Notes: A sequence of at least three Al2SiO5-bearing mineral assemblages are preserved in successively overprinted ductile shear zones in the Willimantic window, Connecticut. The ductile deformation, localized at and near the boundary between the Putnam-Nashoba terrane and underlying Avalon terrane is characterized by a network of anastomozing shear zones that outline metre-scale tectonic blocks of migmatitic Kfs + Sil + Gt + Bi + Pg + Qtz + Ilm + Ru gneiss. These assemblages record Acadian or older metamorphic conditions of 6 kbar, 700d̀ C. Mylonitic gneisses in shear zones that define block margins were formed by reconstitution and recrystallization of the migmatitic gneiss. The reconstituted rocks exhibit relict Ky + St + Grt (+Pl + Bt + Qtz + Rt + Ilm) assemblages and require a minimum pressure for the Ky-Str grade metamorphism of 8.5 kbar. Kyanite in block margins is widely replaced by sillimanite, and locally by andalusite, during a period of post-Alleghanian ductile deformation. The interiors of blocks do not record this sequence of polymorphs. The pattern of reconstitution is accounted for by localization of strain along block margins within a regionally extensive terrane-bounding fault zone. Strain provided the activation energy for recrystallization and retrograde mineral reactions. The P-T conditions of post-Alleghanian ductile deformation evolved from 600d̀ C and 6 kbar to 550d̀ C and 3 kbar.The occurrence of Ky + Str-bearing assemblages, overprinting Acadian Kfs + Sil-bearing assemblages and subsequently overprinted by Alleghanian sillimanite- and andalusite-bearing assemblages, along with reset hornblende 40Ar/39 Ar mineral ages from Mississippian to Permian, requires a prograde Alleghanian metamorphism of rocks previously metamorphosed during the Acadian. Thus, mineral assemblages from gneisses in the Willimantic fault zone retain evidence of a protracted tectonothermal evolution that included high-grade Acadian orogenesis, tectonic loading resulting from Alleghanian collision of Avalon with North America, and tectonic exhumation in Permo-Triassic time. The c.3-kbar pressure decrease between prograde and retrograde Alleghanian metamorphic conditions corresponds to 10 km of crust that must have been tectonically excised from the base of the Putnam-Nashoba terrane cover sequence following Alleghanian orogenesis in south-eastern New England.

Notes: Abstract A pE-pH diagram for supercritical aqueous fluids at 500° C and 2 kb total pressure is calculated from thermodynamic data assuming ideal mixing of gas species. The experimental data on the stability of annite-phlogopite solid-solutions (Wones and Eugster 1965) and on the stability of aluminous biotite (Rutherford 1968) have been used to calculate the stability of these biotite solid solutions in sanidine, muscovite and Al2SiO5 bearing assemblages. The resulting pE-pH diagrams show that Al increases the stability field of annite more per atom than does Mg. However, the addition of Al to biotite does not increase the stability of annite in very acid and alkaline solutions. Environments sufficiently acid to render aluminous biotite metastable are probably not found in nature, but the mildly alkaline environments are attainable. At constant f O 2, f H 2 and $$f_{H_2 O} $$ the Al content of biotite is at a minimum in muscovite + sanidine bearing assemblages, and increases relatively rapidly with increases in pH in the sanidine field, and increases more slowly with decreases in pH through the muscovite and Al2SiO5 fields. These diagrams show that the composition of biotite solid-solutions containing more aluminum than ideal annite-phlogopite and coexisting with sanidine and magnetite cannot be used to infer intensive parameters (T f O 2, $$f_{H_2 O} $$ ) prevailing during the crystallization of the biotite, and that in no case can any biotite composition in muscovite or Al2SiO5 bearing assemblages be used to extract this information.