the structural state of the former lower continental crust in calabria s italy in the northern serre s italy a continuous section through a former lower continental crust is exposed schenk 1984 1985 these granulite facies rocks have not been penetratively deformed during their uplift to higher crustal levels therefore they allow to study the structural state of the lower continental crust most rockforming minerals among them ortho and clinopyroxene and cordierite show recrystallization structures quarz basal subgrain boundaries are developed in lower levels of the lower crust and disappear toward higher levels in addition to dimensional orientations of the rockforming minerals the preferred crystallographic orientations of plagioclases cordierite amphibole pyroxenes and rarely quartz reflect the strain orientation of the prograde high t deformation during this deformation the stretching direction was constant nne ssw throughout the exposed lower crustal section shear indicators are rare this points to the fact that deformation has been homogeneous and coaxial flattening there is only a small variation in orientation and strength of textures throughout the exposed lower crust therefore neighbouring layers of different composition rather than different deformation might serve as seismic reflectors in the former lower crust

age of amphibolitic metamorphism in the ophiolitic unit of the morais allochthon portugal implications for early hercynian orogenesis in the iberian massif structurally lower portions of the allochthonous morais complex are comprised of an ophiolitic unit exposed in two contrasting structural units separated by a ductile thrust fault the lower unit is dominated by variably foliated amphibolite whereas the upper unit is largely comprised of metaperidotite and metagabbro most of the ophiolitic unit has recrystallized synkinematically under amphibolite facies metamorphic conditions c 500 c and 5 kbar amphiboles formed during this metamorphism are typically magnesio hornblende an amphibole concentrate from the lower structural unit records a 39 ar 40 ar plateau age of 397 3 4 ma an amphibole concentrate from the upper structural unit displays an internally discordant 39 ar 40 ar age spectrum corresponding to a total gas age of 431 1 27 3 ma gas fractions evolved from each amphibole concentrate at intermediate and high experimental temperatures are characterized by similar apparent k ca ratios and yield well defined 36 ar 40 ar v 39 ar 40 ar isotope correlations which result in similar ages of 384 2 5 2 and 392 4 7 3 ma these are considered to be more reliable than the plateau ages and are interpreted as dating the last cooling through those temperatures required for intracrystalline retention of argon within constituent amphibole grains the associated tectonothermal event represented a first stage of hercynian orogenesis in the iberian massif it was probably related to oceanic closure and associated obduction of granulitic eclogitic massifs which at present structurally overlie the ophiolitic unit

metamorphism and deformation along the emplacement thrust of the samail ophiolite oman abstract the base of the samail ophiolite is a metamorphic shear zone that provides key information about ophiolite emplacement the classic exposure of this metamorphic sole at wadi tayin consists of a few meters of garnet clinopyroxene mafic gneiss and 80 m of upper amphibolite facies mafic and quartzose tectonite overlying 150 m of lower amphibolite facies mafic and sedimentary schist the sole is bounded by faults but is internally coherent peak metamorphic temperatures decrease exponentially from 825 c at the top of the sole to 500 c at its base as documented by changes in grain size hornblende composition the disappearance of chlorite and epidote garnet clinopyroxene element partitioning and garnet hornblende partitioning the inverted peak temperature gradient decreases from 4000 c km in the upper 50 m to 100 c km in the lower 150 m contrary to earlier reports greenschist facies tectonites are not present at wadi tayin although the entire sole underwent greenschist facies retrogression driven by the influx of fluids from the overlying peridotite or underlying carbonate calculations based on an amphibolite constitutive relation reveal that although the section represents a lithologic continuum the lower 200 m of the sole is a relatively undeformed block whereas the uppermost 25 m represent material initially separated by tens to a couple of hundreds of kilometers and now integrated into a single column

subduction kinematics and dynamic constraints the kinematics of subduction zones shows a variety of settings that can provide clues for dynamic understandings two reference frames are used here to describe the simple 2d kinematics of subduction zones in the first the upper plate is assumed fixed whereas in the second frame upper and lower plates move relative to the mantle relative to a fixed point in the upper plate u the transient subduction hinge h can converge diverge or be stationary similarly the lower plate l can converge diverge or be stationary the subduction rate vs is given by the velocity of the hinge h minus the velocity of the lower plate l vs vh vl the subduction rate 1 increases when h diverges and 2 decreases when h converges combining the different movements at least 14 kinematic settings can be distinguished along the subduction zones variable settings can coexist even along a single subduction zone as shown for the 5 different cases occurring along the apennines subduction zone apart from few exceptions the subduction hinge converges toward the upper plate more frequently along e or ne directed subduction zone whereas it mainly diverges from the upper plate along w directed subduction zones accompanying backarc extension before collision orogen growth occurs mostly at the expenses of the upper plate shortening along e ne directed subduction zones whereas the accretionary prism of w directed subduction zones increases at the expenses of the shallow layers of the lower plate the convergence shortening ratio is 1 along e or ne directed subduction zones whereas it is 1 along accretionary prisms of w directed subduction zones backarc spreading forms in two settings along the w directed subduction zones it is determined by the hinge divergence relative to the upper plate minus the volume of the accretionary prism or in case of scarce or no accretion minus the volume of the asthenospheric intrusion at the subduction hinge since the volume of the accretionary prism is proportional to the depth of the decollement plane the backarc rifting is inversely proportional to the depth of the decollement on the other hand along e or ne directed subduction zones few backarc basins form e g aegean andaman and can be explained by the velocity gradient within the hangingwall lithosphere separated into two plates when referring to the mantle the kinematics of subduction zones can be computed either in the deep or in the shallow hotspot reference frames the subduction hinge is mostly stationary being the slab anchored to the mantle along w directed subduction zones whereas it moves w or sw ward along e or ne directed subduction zones surprisingly along e or ne directed subduction zones the slab moves out of the mantle i e the slab slips relative to the mantle opposite to the subduction direction kinematically this subduction occurs because the upper plate overrides the lower plate pushing it down into the mantle as an example the hellenic slab moves out relative to the mantle i e sw ward opposite to its subduction direction both in the deep and shallow hotspot reference frames in the shallow hotspot reference frame upper and lower plates move westward relative to the mantle along all subduction zones this kinematic observation casts serious doubts on the slab negative buoyancy as the primary driving mechanism of subduction and plate motions w directed subduction zones rather provide about 2 3 times larger volumes of lithosphere re entering into the mantle and the slab is pushed down this opposite behavior is consistent with the down dip extension seismicity along e ne directed subduction zones and the frequent down dip compression along the w directed subduction zones subduction kinematics shows that plate velocity is not dictated by the rate of subduction along the w directed subduction zones the rate of subduction is rather controlled i by the hinge migration due to the slab interaction with the easterly trending horizontal mantle wind along the global tectonic mainstream ii by the far field plate velocities and iii by the value of negative buoyancy of the slab relative to the country mantle alternatively e ne nne directed subduction zones have rates of sinking chiefly determined i by the far field velocity of plates and ii by the value of negative buoyancy of the slab relative to the country mantle along this type of subduction the subduction hinge generally advances e ne ward toward the upper plate decreasing the subduction rate but it moves w sw ward relative to the mantle all this indicates that subduction zones have different origin as a function of their geographic polarity and the subduction process is more a passive feature rather than being the driving mechanism of plate motions a rotational component combined with mantle density and viscosity anisotropies seems more plausible for generating the global tuning in the asymmetry of subduction zones

shear wave velocities anisotropy and splitting in high grade mylonites shear wave velocities have been measured for 10 high grade granulite and upper amphibolite facies mylonites from the snowbird tectonic zone canada at various pressures up to 600 mpa in order to explore the kinematic significance of shear wave splitting in the lower crust at 600 mpa vs anisotropy ranges from 11 in amphibolitic mylonites to 2 in granulite facies pyroxene bearing and tonalitic mylonites hornblende bearing granitic mylonites display intermediate vs anisotropy 6 7 vs anisotropy is lower than vp anisotropy in hornblende rich mylonites whereas vs anisotropy is higher than vp anisotropy in feldspar rich mafic tonalitic granitic and diatexitic mylonites shear wave splitting is pronounced in rocks displaying strong s wave anisotropy in most of the high grade mylonites studied the polarization direction of the first arrival vs1 corresponds to the extension lineation x when propagation is parallel to y perpendicular to lineation and parallel to foliation or to the y direction when propagation is parallel to x for all other propagation directions the polarization direction of vs1 is oblique to the x y and z directions therefore it may be difficult to infer the structural implications of shear wave splitting in lower continental crustal shear zones if one does not know 1 the orientation of the propagation and fast vibration directions with respect to in situ lineation and foliation and 2 the lattice preferred orientation of in situ rock forming minerals

magmatic fabric acquisition mechanisms in a syenite results of a combined anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility and image analysis study the structural significance of the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility ams and acquisition mechanisms of silicate and ferrimagnetic mineral fabrics are investigated in the archean lebel syenite intrusion ontario canada bulk mineral subfabrics are determined by intercept counting of mineral phases in classified digital images of thin sections cut parallel to the principal planes of the magnetic fabric ellipsoids of the samples intensities shapes and principal direction orientations of the resulting intercept ellipsoids are generally similar to the corresponding ams ellipsoids differences are due mainly to bimodal distribution of mineral fabrics observed on foliation planes of some samples showing pre full crystallization textures and structural overprinting in samples deformed after crystallization subfabrics of clinopyroxene and magnetite in samples showing pre full crystallization microstructure are investigated by measuring inertia tensors of individual grain shapes the resulting inertia tensor ellipsoids indicate that magnetic fabrics in these rocks are strongly correlated to the shape preferred orientation of magnetite which is similar to the overall petrofabric of the samples crystal size distributions of clinopyroxene and magnetite indicate that they formed during in situ crystallization and that magnetite probably appeared late in the crystallization and flow history of the magma analysis of preferred orientations of these grains suggests that the petrofabrics of the samples were acquired during flow with strongly interacting grains analogous to a logjam in a river the final characteristics of the ams and silicate petrofabric are the end points of a continuous crystallization and flow history in the magma rather than transient late features

seismic anisotropy and shear wave splitting in lower crustal and upper mantle rocks from the ivrea zone experimental and calculated data to quantify the relationships between anisotropy s wave splitting and tectonics we determined the seismic properties of lower crustal and upper mantle rocks outcropping in the ivrea zone northern italy we obtained p and s wave seismic velocities by laboratory direct velocity measurements and or by calculations based on the modal compositions of the rocks the lattice preferred orientations lpos and the single crystal stiffness coefficients measured p and s wave velocities 6 0 7 5 km s 1 and 3 6 4 2 km s 1 are typical of the lower crust the p wave anisotropy is in the range 0 10 shear wave birefringence is in the range 0 0 0 6 km s 1 with typical values between 0 0 and 0 2 km s 1 in many cases the birefringence is clearly related to fabric elements foliation lineation mafic rocks such as anorthosite or pyroxene bearing gabbros exhibit low p wave anisotropies 5 and low shear wave birefringences less than 0 1 km s 1 in contrast the seismic properties of felsic rocks such as biotite bearing gneisses and mafic rocks such as amphibolites display high vp anisotropy 10 and strong birefringence 0 3 km s 1 biotite and amphibole preferred orientations clearly control seismic anisotropy and particularly shear wave splitting in these rocks maximum splitting is observed in directions parallel to the foliation with the fast split shear wave polarized parallel to the foliation plane to have an overview of the seismic properties of this lower crustal section at a broader scale we calculated from our data the anisotropic seismic properties of several hypothetical samples that are perhaps more representative of the regional anisotropy than each sample individually for instance the average lower crustal sample displays an anisotropy of 5 5 for p waves and a birefringence around 0 14 km s 1 for s waves propagating parallel to the foliation we observe little splitting for waves propagating at high angle to the foliation

dynamic recrystallization processes in plagioclase porphyroclasts abstract recrystallization processes in plagioclase porpyroclasts were studied in samples from an anorthositic gabbro of the jotun complex south norwegian caledonides the deformation took place at a temperature of approximately 700 c and at pressures below 900 mpa two populations of plagioclase porphyroclasts can be distinguished based on microstructural observations the crystallographic orientation and grain shapes for the two populations are interpreted as soft and hard orientations of the dominant slip system 010 001 with respect to the kinematic reference system the orientations of porphyroclasts and recrystallized grains were measured with a u stage microscope analysis of misorientations between porphyroclasts and adjacent recrystallized grains yields different results for the two types of porphyroclasts in type 1 porphyroclasts soft orientation the misorientation is inferred to be caused by subgrain rotation due to the activation of the 010 001 slip system resulting in a host control orientation relationship whereas in type 2 porphyroclasts hard orientation no dominant misorientation relationship could be identified the slip systems of the dislocations inferred from transmission electron microscopy tem analysis correspond well with the results of the u stage misorientation analysis in type 2 porphyroclasts hard orientation micro fracturing was observed in the tem whereas microfractures are absent in type 1 porphyroclasts soft orientation micro fracturing is likely to be the mechanism for nucleation of new grains in type 2 porphyroclasts resulting in a no host control orientation relationship between porphyroclasts and recrystallized grains

processes controlling the shrinkage of porphyroclasts in gabbroic shear zones abstract this paper presents microstructural and geochemical data on amphibole and clinopyroxene porphyroclasts collected in amphibolite facies ultramylonites of the ivrea verbano zone italy the well rounded porphyroclasts show a concentration of defects including 100 twins stacking faults free dislocations subgrains and microcracks within their rims that indicate stress concentrations localised deformation within the margins of porphyroclasts increases reaction kinetics and supports amphibole clinopyroxene replacement reactions and heterogeneous plagioclase nucleation in addition to microcracking and or subgrain rotation these metamorphic reactions lead to a marginal grain size reduction and the shrinkage of porphyroclasts in order to correlate the defect concentration at the rim of porphyroclasts with stresses a finite element inclusion matrix model is used it depends on the degree of bonding between inclusion and matrix whether strong stress concentrations within the rim of the inclusion occur for well coupled two phase systems shear stresses within the rim of the inclusion can reach a magnitude many times the magnitude of the matrix stresses marginal stress concentrations do not evolve if inclusion and matrix are decoupled this may indicate that mechanically decoupled porphyroclasts can survive to very large strains

strain softening and microstructural evolution of anorthite aggregates and quartz anorthite layered composites deformed in torsion torsion experiments of anorthite an aggregates and layered composites with equal volume fractions of quartz qtz and an were performed in a gas medium apparatus at a confining pressure of 400 mpa temperatures from 1373 to 1473 k and twist rates from 1 0 x 10 4 to 3 0 x 10 4 rad s dense specimens were fabricated from an glass and qtz crystalline powder using hot isostatic pressing hip techniques both an aggregates and qtz an layered composites show a continuous strain weakening from a peak stress at gamma 0 2 0 3 to gamma 3 2 and steady state flow has not reached under the experimental conditions the weakening is even more pronounced in the layered composites than the monolithic aggregates suggesting channeling or localization of flow into the weak material between strong layers the sheared an specimens developed pervasively c s c structures which are similar to those observed in natural ductile shear zones tem and electron backscattering diffraction ebsd fabric analyses suggest that grain boundary migration recrystallization accommodated dislocation creep with 010 100 as the dominant slip system was operating in the an the strain softening may be due to the development of crystallographic preferred orientation cpo the operation of dynamic recrystallization and the formation of extremely fine grained recrystallized material in the narrow c shear bands c 2004 elsevier b v all rights reserved

ultra high temperature and subsolidus shear zones examples from the poe mountain anorthosite wyoming abstract ultra high temperature shear zones formed with interstitial melts present during the emplacement of the poe mountain anorthosite wyoming the shear zones are characterized by coarse grained plagioclase with flat extinction and rare deformation microstructures dissected grain microstructures suggest that plagioclase underwent recrystallization by fast grain boundary migration orthopyroxene crystallized from interstitial melts as strain free foliation parallel tablet grains plagioclase has a magmatic petrofabric characterized by poles to 010 normal to the shear foliation and 100 parallel to the foliation and movement direction poles to 001 have a broad distribution with a point maximum roughly parallel to the foliation and normal to the movement direction orthopyroxene petrofabrics result from oriented growth parallel to the shear foliation 100 defines a point maximum perpendicular to the shear foliation and 010 and 001 have great circle distributions approximately parallel to the shear foliation microstructures of the ultra high temperature shear zones contrast with those of granulite grade shear zones cutting across the intrusion the granulite grade shear zones initiated as fractures which evolved into shear zones by dynamic recrystallization deformed primary plagioclase and orthopyroxene recrystallized by grain boundary rotation into smaller polygonal grains

subduction zones observations and geodynamic models abstract this review of subduction and geodynamic models is organized around three central questions 1 why is subduction asymmetric 2 are subducted slabs strong or weak 3 how do subducted slabs interact with phase transformations changes in mantle rheology and possibly chemical boundaries in the mantle based on laboratory measurements of the temperature dependence of olivine one would conclude that the core of a subducting slab is at least 10 000 times more viscous than ambient mantle however there are a number of complementary but independent observations that suggest that slabs are much weaker than this slabs undergo significant deformation in the upper mantle and may thicken to twice their original width by the time they reach the base of the transition zone the lack of a clear correlation between the observed dip angle of deep slabs and plate velocity rate of trench migration and slab age in modern subduction zones is consistent with hypothesis that subduction is a time dependent phenomenon both tank and numerical convection experiments with plates conclude that subduction is not a steady phenomenon but that slabs bend thicken stretch and change dip through time this is at odds with the assumptions used in steady state slab thermal models where slab deformation is not considered

evidence for regional dauphine twinning in quartz from the santa rosa mylonite zone in southern california a neutron diffraction study preferred orientation in granitic mylonites from the santa rosa mylonite zone in southern california is investigated with time of flight neutron diffraction quartz and biotite display strong preferred orientation whereas feldspar alignment is weak for quartz a c axis maximum in the intermediate fabric direction is consistent with dynamic recrystallization pole figures for positive and negative rhombs such as rz 10 11 and zz 01 11 are distinct over a wide region suggesting that the pattern reflects tectonic deformation and was not

dislocation generation slip systems and dynamic recrystallization in experimentally deformed plagioclase single crystals abstract three samples of gem quality plagioclase crystals of an60 were experimentally deformed at 900 c 1 gpa confining pressure and strain rates of 7 5 8 7 10 7 s 1 the starting material is effectively dislocation free so that all observed defects were introduced during the experiments two samples were shortened normal to one of the principal slip planes 010 corresponding to a hard orientation and one sample was deformed with a schmid factor of 0 45 for the principal slip system 001 010 corresponding to a soft orientation several slip systems were activated in the soft sample dislocations of the 001 010 and 110 001 system are about equally abundant whereas 110 111 and 101 in 131 to 242 are less common in the soft sample plastic deformation is pervasive and deformation bands are abundant in the hard samples the plastic deformation is concentrated in rims along the sample boundaries deformation bands and shear fractures are common twinning occurs in close association with fracturing and the processes are clearly interrelated glissile dislocations of all observed slip systems are associated with fractures and deformation bands indicating that deformation bands and fractures are important sites of dislocation generation grain boundaries of tiny defect free grains in healed fracture zones have migrated subsequent to fracturing these grains represent former fragments of the fracture process and may act as nuclei for new grains during dynamic recrystallization nucleation via small fragments can explain a non host controlled orientation of recrystallized grains in plagioclase and possibly in other silicate materials which have been plastically deformed near the semi brittle to plastic transition

plagioclase preferred orientation by tof neutron diffraction and sem ebsd abstract the lattice preferred orientation lpo of an anorthosite composed of andesine sampled from a highly deformed anorthositic mylonite grenville province quebec was measured by tof neutron diffraction and sem ebsd the quantitative texture analysis of neutron data was accomplished by using the rietveld texture analysis with the wimv algorithm implemented in the program package materials analysis using diffraction maud the texture calculations of the ebsd data were performed by using the program beartex analyses from neutron and electron diffraction data gave similar results if ebsd data are smoothed to account for grain statistics the principal pole figures show 010 roughly parallel to the rock foliation 001 poles exhibiting a low angle 25 to the pole to foliation and 100 poles close to the y direction perpendicular to the lineation and foliation pole the 100 crystallographic direction shows a maximum in the lineation direction 010 directions concentrate near the foliation pole the geological deformation conditions and the constructed pole figure patterns indicate that the preferred orientation could be attributed to intracrystalline slip dominantly on 010 with 100 as slip direction elastic properties calculated by averaging document weak anisotropy that has implications for the seismic structure of the lower crust

deformation mechanisms and reaction of hornblende examples from the bergell tonalite central alps abstract hornblendes in the bergell tonalite begin to crystallize relatively early during the crystallization history of the pluton and become resorbed during the late stages of crystallization during the crystallization of the magma deformation commences by magmatic flow in this stage the hornblendes behave as rigid particles in a viscous matrix melt the rotation and alignment of hornblende as elongate rigid particles have produced a strong preferred orientation of both particle long axes and crystallographic directions with progressive solidification of the melt there is a gradual transition from magmatic flow to solid state deformation in the bergell tonalite the crystallographic and shape preferred orientation that have developed during solid state deformation are identical to those of magmatic flow this identical fabric development during solid state and magmatic flow deformation can be explained by the same deformation mechanism that has prevailed in hornblends during both deformation periods i e hornblendes have always acted as rigid particles in a viscous matrix tem observations show no evidence for intracrystalline plasticity in hornblende grains the modal abundance of hornblende decreases progressively with increasing solid state deformation to yield more biotite epidote and quartz small hornblende matrix grains form by cataclastic processes the observed changes in grain size shape and abundance of hornblende occur mainly by fracturing dissolution and reaction so that the solid state deformation of the tonalite is a complex process to which fracturing dissolution of hornblende and metamorphic reactions all contribute the relationship between deformation and reaction represents an example of incongruous pressure solution or diffusive mass transfer involving reaction it is inferred that generally hornblende does not appear to deform significantly by intracrystalline plasticity at temperatures below 650 750 c in the presence of an aqueous fluid crystal plasticity could become dominant at higher temperatures and or lower aqueous fluid activities

evidence from the oman ophiolite for active mantle upwelling beneath a fast spreading ridge it is commonly accepted that as oceanic lithosphere cools it slides away from the spreading centre under its own weight1 it has been suggested2 5 that even at the spreading axis this process controls the dynamics causing asthenospheric mantle material to rise passively before being dragged away from the ridge by the overlying lithosphere alternatively the upwelling of the asthenosphere at the ridge might be active caused by the buoyancy of partial melt6 10 or of the less dense peridotite left behind by such melting11 12 at slow spreading ridges bull s eye gravity anomalies13 14 have been interpreted as suggesting focused accre tion and hence active mantle diapirs at fast spreading ridges however these anomalies are weaker and less clearly three dimensional15 which may reflect passive mantle upwelling16 here we show that structural data from the oman ophiolite which is thought to have been created at a fast spreading ridge17 18 are consistent with active mantle upwelling beneath the ridge and not with models of passive flow the absence of well marked bull s eye anomalies at fast spreading ridges may be explained by their relatively constant crustal thickness and near isostatic equilibrium

fabric development in a middle devonian intraoceanic subduction regime the careon ophiolite northwest spain abstract a middle devonian suprasubduction zone ophiolite the careon unit northwest spain displays amphibolite facies ductile deformation fabrics related to the onset of the rheic ocean closure two different fabrics an early high t foliation and a subsequent lower t foliation each of which characterized by distinct deformation mechanisms have been identified in two distinct crustal scale shear zones of the same ophiolitic thrust sheet combined quantitative texture analysis by electron backscattered diffraction and time of flight neutron diffraction were carried out on the shear zones and correlated with micro and macrostructural data the results indicate that the regional lineation and shear zone kinematics east west top to the east represent fabrics developed essentially during the intraoceanic subduction of the rheic ocean and their orientation may be considered a reference vector for convergence models in this part of the variscan belt

crystallographic preferred orientation development by dissolution precipitation creep abstract crystallographic preferred orientations cpos in deformed rocks are commonly interpreted as resulting from crystal plastic deformation mechanisms where deformation is achieved by the movement of dislocations in this paper we investigate the possibility of cpo development by dissolution precipitation creep or pressure solution a numerical model is presented which simulates the development of a grain aggregate that deforms by reaction controlled dissolution precipitation creep grains are simulated as rectangular boxes that change their shape by growth or dissolution of their surfaces depending on the normal stresses acting on the individual surfaces grains can also rotate due to an applied vorticity for non coaxial deformation and if they have a non equidimensional shape for each strain increment stress that is applied to the grains is the same for all grains while individual grains deform and rotate by different amounts a variety of cpos develop at moderate strains depending on the reaction rates of the different crystal surfaces and type of deformation uni axial shortening plane strain pure shear and simple shear the modelling results confirm that dissolution precipitation creep may play a role in cpo development in rocks

sense of shear in high temperature movement zones from the fabric asymmetry of plagioclase feldspars abstract a new method for determining the sense of shear in plagioclase bearing tectonites from the 010 orientation of plagioclase feldspar is presented the method is based on the asymmetry of the 010 plane with respect to the structural frame foliation and lineation and the dominant activity of the 010 slip plane in the high temperature plasticity of plagioclase feldspar using examples from the zabargad gneisses red sea the method is applied to plagioclases of an25 an45 and compared with other methods of shear sense determination quartz c axis fabrics and microstructural criteria

great earthquakes and slab pull interaction between seismic coupling and plate slab coupling great earthquakes the few largest earthquakes that account for most of the earth s seismic energy release have occurred at only a few subduction zones around the world strong locking or seismic coupling of the interface between plates at certain subduction zones is often invoked to explain these great earthquakes although past studies have correlated strong seismic coupling with a compressional stress environment that is characterized by back arc compression and caused by trenchward motion of the overriding plate the consequences of this compressional environment for the tectonic forces that drive global plate motions are not yet clear to examine these consequences we compared subduction zone earthquake magnitudes to tectonically constrained estimates of the degree to which each slab transmits its excess weight as a direct pull force on a subducting plate at seismically uncoupled subduction zones that generate only moderate sized earthquakes we find that slabs must transmit nearly their entire upper mantle weight as a pull force on the subducting plate at seismically coupled subduction zones that produce great earthquakes however we find that slabs must be nearly completely detached from their subducting plates this suggests that slabs subducting in a compressional environment experience stress induced weakening that prevents the effective transmission of the slab pull force convergent mantle flow above a descending slab that becomes decoupled from its surface plate may induce additional surface compression that further locks the subduction zone and leads to additional slab decoupling and detachment the resulting redistribution of plate driving forces may be responsible for rapid changes in plate motion c 2003 elsevier b v all rights reserved

petrofabrics and seismic properties of garnet peridotite from the uhp sulu terrane china implications for olivine deformation mechanism in a cold and dry subducting continental slab abstract lattice preferred orientations lpo of olivine diopside enstatite and garnet from the zhimafang garnet peridotite body in the sulu ultrahigh pressure uhp metamorphic terrane china were measured using the electron backscatter diffraction ebsd technique the peridotite was captured from a mantle wedge immediately adjacent the subducted yangtze slab and then experienced the uhp metamorphism at 750 950 c and 4 7 gpa the olivine lpo is characterized by the 001 axis close to the stretching lineation and the 100 plane subparallel to the foliation indicating the prevailing of 100 001 slip enstatite lpo displays the dominance of 100 001 slip diopside developed complex lpo patterns that are difficult to explain using a single slip system of 100 001 garnet is almost randomly oriented due to its low volume fractions cubic symmetry and the presence of numerous slip systems calculated seismic properties of the peridotite yield a maximum p wave velocity normal to the foliation and a minimum along the foliation with anisotropy up to 8 in strongly sheared samples the s wave velocity pattern is complex but the fast polarization plane generally normal to the foliation the inferred shear sense from the olivine lpo is top to se in contrary to exhumation induced top to nw thrusting recorded in the quartz lpo implying that the olivine lpo formed at early uhp metamorphic conditions the olivine crystals have relatively low water contents 141 475 h 106 si indicating a fluid deficient environment for the lpo formation the present study suggests that a combination of low temperature and uhp plays a much more important role than the water content to promote the activation of 100 001 slip in olivine

preferred orientation of anorthite deformed experimentally in newtonian creep abstract synthetic anorthite aggregates were deformed in a paterson gas deformation apparatus at confining pressures up to 400 mpa in torsion and axial compression at temperatures between 950 c and 1200 c samples deformed in torsion under newtonian creep display development of texture or crystallographic preferred orientation as documented with synchrotron x ray diffraction measurements complex diffraction patterns were deconvoluted with the rietveld method to obtain quantitative texture information torsion samples deformed up to shear strains of 4 and samples deformed in compression at higher stresses to total strains of 0 3 develop clear textures texture and shape preferred orientation spo of torsion samples display a monoclinic pattern with an asymmetry inclined against the sense of shear consistent with polycrystal plasticity simulations that assume the deformation is accomplished by dislocation glide these results show that a material deforming in linear viscous creep can develop a strong texture in striking contrast to the paradigm that the presence of a texture precludes low stress newtonian behavior our observations show that the presence or absence of crystallographic preferred orientation is not sufficient to uniquely infer the dominant rheological mechanical regime as sometimes applied for interpretation of seismic anisotropy in the earth

dynamic recrystallization in deformed plagioclase during progressive shear deformation grain size reduction of plagioclase accompanied with progressive ductile deformation was investigated in a centimeter scale small shear zone collected from the hatagawa shear zone northeast japan the angle between the foliation and the shear zone boundary decreases from the margin to the center of the shear zone indicating an increase of shear strain toward the center the volume fraction of fine plagioclase grains xpl diameter 15 m increases with progressive shear strain the value of xpl increases steeply from 30 to 60 between the angles 23 and 20 and then it gradually increases from 60 to 90 toward 0 the fine plagioclase grains have a variable dislocation density and a crystallographic preferred orientation suggesting that recrystallization accommodated dislocation creep transmission electron microscopy tem observations revealed that strain induced grain boundary bulging occurred along the grain boundaries of plagioclase porphyroclasts thus the grain size of plagioclase was reduced by strain induced grain boundary bulging the kinetic theory of dynamic recrystallization approximately predicts the formation of the above mentioned xpl curve and suggests that the inflection point of xpl at 23 20 is probably due to site saturation in which all of the original grain boundaries are covered by the recrystallized grains the kinetic theory of dynamic recrystallization also gives a physical basis for the classification of mylonite on the basis of the volume fraction of fine grains

seismic network evaluation through simulation an application to the italian national seismic network abstract a properly organized seismic network is a valuable tool for monitoring seismic zones and assessing seismic hazards in this paper we propose a new method seismic network evaluation through simulation snes to evaluate the performance of hypocenter location of a seismic network the snes method gives as a function of magnitude hypocentral depth and confidence level the spatial distribution of the number of active stations in the location procedure and their relative azimuthal gaps along with confidence intervals in hypocentral parameters the application of the snes method also permits evaluation of the magnitude of completeness m c the background noise levels at the stations and assessment of the appropriateness of the velocity model used in location routine italy sits on a tectonically active plate boundary at the convergence of the eurasian and african lithospheric plates and has a high level of seismicity in this paper we apply the snes method to the italian national seismic network rete sismica nazionale centralizzata dell istituto nazionale di geofisica e vulcanologia rsnc ingv which has monitored italian seismicity since the early 1980s following the destructive 1980 irpinia earthquake in recent years the rsnc ingv has grown significantly in fact in february 2010 it received signals from 305 seismic stations 258 with wideband three component sensors we constructed snes maps for magnitudes of 1 5 2 2 5 and 3 fixing the hypocentral depth at 10 km and the confidence level at 95 through the application of the snes method we show that the rsnc ingv provides the best monitoring coverage in the apennine mountains with errors that for m 2 are less than 2 and 4 km for epicenter and hypocentral depth respectively at m 2 5 this seismic network is capable of constraining earthquake hypocenters to depths of about 150 km for most of the italian peninsula this seismic network provides a threshold of completeness down to m 2 for almost the entire italian territory

rapid emplacement of young oceanic lithosphere argon geochronology of the oman ophiolite 40 ar 39 ar dates of emplacement related metamorphic rocks beneath the samail ophiolite in oman show that cooling to

feldspar fabrics in a greenschist facies albite rich mylonite from electron backscatter diffraction abstract the current database of plagioclase cpos in naturally deformed rocks is small and is not supported by cpos from experimentally deformed rocks or by numerical modelling so that the current understanding of plagioclase cpos is limited electron backscatter diffraction ebsd has the potential of measuring the full crystallographic orientation of small domains of any crystalline material including plagioclase we generate and test a file of the relative electron diffraction intensities for lattice planes in the albite structure this enables rapid and accurate individual orientation measurements of albite using ebsd ebsd is used to collect 360 data points from 7 areas across a 2 cm by 1 mm pure albite band in a greenschist facies albite mylonite from a gabbro protolith the cpos are unlike any published the a b and c axes of albite are not symmetrically distributed with respect to the kinematic axes of deformation and do not possess an internal monoclinic or orthorhombic symmetry there is some microstructural evidence for the operation of dislocation creep although this interpretation conflicts with the generally held view that crystal plastic deformation does not occur in plagioclase below about 500 c an alternative mechanism is one of granular flow accommodated by solution transfer however this mechanism would be expected to give a random cpo for either mechanism we need to explain the triclinic nature of the cpo it is possible that the cpo represents the modification by deformation of a pre existing cpo probably defined by a small number of original plagioclase grains

the influence of three dimensional grain size distributions on the rheology of polyphase rocks abstract in this study the relation between the deformational behaviour of two phase rocks and the grain size distributions of the constituent phases is investigated samples of hot isostatically pressed 50 50 volume percent mixtures of calcite and anhydrite were experimentally deformed in a triaxial apparatus at a temperature of 500 c a confining pressure of 300 mpa and a strain rate of 2 10 5 s 1 for calcite and anhydrite these are the deformational conditions for dislocation and diffusion creep respectively and for a grain size of 8 m these are the conditions of the equiviscous point it was found that samples from different batches of the synthetic material while having an identical average two dimensional grain size displayed significantly different rheological behaviour the ensuing full analysis revealed that the volumetric three dimensional grain size distributions of the different phases and the different batches varied significantly since the anhydrite is in the transition between the dislocation and the grain size sensitive diffusion creep regime the deformational behaviour of the bulk depends critically on the grain size distribution of the anhydrite phase the usefulness of the concept of an average grain size is discussed

centrifuge modeling of laterally loaded pile groups in improved soft clay abstracta series of centrifuge tests were performed to investigate the behavior of laterally loaded pile groups in improved and unimproved soft clay the soil profile consisted of four lightly overconsolidated clay layers overlying a dense layer of sand the pile groups had a symmetrical layout consisting of 2 2 piles spaced at 3 0 and 7 0 pile diameters d after improving the soft clay in situ using simulated cement deep soil mixing cdsm pile foundations were driven into the improved ground centrifuge tests revealed that cdsm is an effective method to increase the lateral resistance of pile foundations the lateral resistance of the improved pile group at 7d spacing increased by 157 due to pile soil pile interactions the lateral resistance in the 3d pile group increased by only 112 in both improved and unimproved pile groups with 3d spacing the leading row of piles carried larger loads and bending moments than the trailing row of piles no group interaction effects were observed in all pile g

on the relationships between slab dip back arc stress upper plate absolute motion and crustal nature in subduction zones 1 statistical analysis of modern oceanic subduction zone parameters such as the age of a downgoing plate or the absolute plate motions is performed in order to investigate which parameter controls the dip of a slab and conversely what the influence of slab geometry is on upper plate behavior for that purpose parameters have been determined from global databases along 159 transects from all subduction zones that are not perturbed by nearby collision or ridge plateau seamount subduction on the basis of tomographic images slabs that penetrate through or lie on the 670 km discontinuity are also identified the results of the statistical analysis are as follows 1 back arc stress correlates with slab dip i e back arc spreading is observed for deep dips deeper than 125 km larger than 50 whereas back arc shortening occurs only for deep dips less than 30 2 slab dip correlates with absolute motion of the overriding plate the correlation is even better when the slab lies on or even more penetrates through the 670 km discontinuity 3 slabs dip more steeply by about 20 on average beneath oceanic overriding plates than beneath continental ones 4 slabs dip more steeply on average by about 10 near edges 5 slab dip does not correlate with the magnitude of slab pull the age of subducting lithosphere at the trench the thermal regime of the subducting lithosphere the convergence rate or the subduction polarity east versus west the present study provides evidence that the upper plate absolute motion plays an important role on slab dip as well as on upper plate strain retreating overriding plates are often oceanic ones and thus may partially explain the steeper slab dips beneath oceanic upper plates one can infer that low slab dips correlate well with compression in continental advancing upper plates whereas steep dips are often associated with extension in oceanic retreating upper plates excess weight of old slabs is often counterbalanced by other forces probably asthenospheric in origin such as lateral mantle flow near slab edges or anchor forces to determine slab dip

amphibole and lower crustal seismic properties abstract measurements of seismic anisotropy frequently offer insights of the deformation kinematics in situ within the earth in the continental crust seismic anisotropy is commonly ascribed to regionally aligned lattice preferred orientation lpo of mica crystals however determinations of composition suggest that the deep continental crust contains rather little mica in this contribution the role of amphibole a far more plausible constituent especially for deep continental crust of basic composition is assessed a field analogue approach is adopted where the lpo are measured correlated with the strain state of the rocks and used to calculate the seismic properties the seismic properties may be up scaled through the specimen using the modal proportions of the constituent mineral phases to examine the role of composition in controlling the intensity of seismic anisotropy seismic properties are computed using an array of modal compositions so called rock recipes the case history comes from the central block of the lewisian of nw scotland where a regional basic dyke swarm the scourie dykes is locally deformed within amphibolite facies shear zones conditions that are representative of the deep crust shear strain profiles across a 100 m wide shear zone using deflected banding in the host gneisses yield values of 0

shearing during progressive retrogression in granitoids abrupt grain size reduction of quartz at the plastic brittle transition for feldspar the kashio shear zone chubu district japan affects the southeast margins of the ryoke granitic plutons as well as the ryoke metasedimentary rocks and is truncated by the median tectonic line near the shear zone centre coarse quartz grains within the granitic rocks have been dynamically recrystallized to quartz aggregates towards the pluton margins the grain size data show an abrupt reduction from various sizes 59 148 m to a steady state size around 35 m at approximately 400 m from the boundary of the granitic plutons without any tectonic boundary such as a fault being present this abrupt grain size reduction accompanies brittle deformation in feldspar that overprints earlier plastic deformation and develops strong mylonitic fabrics in contrast feldspar away from the pluton margins contains only weak microstructural evidence for plastic deformation and still locally preserves magmatic polycrystal structures amongst the inhomogeneously recrystallized quartz grains these features combined with an isochronological study suggest that the kashio shear zone began at high temperature 450 c as a ductile event that affected relatively wide regions in the ryoke granitic plutons before rapid cooling by ca 70 ma at this latter stage strong mylonitization at lower temperatures 300 c in a semiductile regime occurred in a narrow zone towards the shear zone centre here recrystallized quartz aggregates reached a steady state grain size by ca 60 ma that is cooling within the granitic plutons resulted in strain localization with the abrupt grain size reduction of quartz aggregates correlating with the plastic brittle transition of feldspar

effect of mechanical interactions on the development of shape preferred orientations a two dimensional experimental approach abstract modifications in the development of preferred orientations of rigid particles due to mechanical interactions between particles are studied experimentally in two dimensions experiments in both pure shear and simple shear were performed and the results analysed using an easy and fast new automatic method for increased concentration of rigid particles the rotation of individual particles may be slowed down or even stopped due to collisions or disturbance of the flow in the matrix caused by neighbours in coaxial flow the fabric intensity is consequently reduced in simple shear flow the fabric evolution is no longer cyclic the intensity is on average weaker and the fabric axis rotates asymptotically toward the shear plane in the case of preferred orientations of particles having a low aspect ratio 2 5 the fabric rotates through the shear plane then undergoes a reverse rotation and rotates toward the shear plane again in the light of these experimental results we emphasize that quantification of finite strain based on such fabrics may lead to significant underestimates and calculated values should be taken as minimum estimates the kinematic significance of concentrated rigid particle preferred orientations in rocks is modified by interactions between particles techniques for qualitative or quantitative kinematic analysis may become unreliable for simple shear flows the concentrated population fabrics show an angular behaviour close to that of passive markers they tend to align parallel to the shear plane in simple shear flow