Johann F.A. Diener

Brittle-viscous deformation, slow slip, and tremor

Geophysical observations have illuminated a spectrum of fault slip styles from continuous aseismic sliding to fast earthquake slip. We study exhumed intercalated lenses of oceanic crust and sedimentary rocks, deformed to high shear strains. Deformation was partitioned between fractured, rigid blocks, with lengths of tens to hundreds of meters, and surrounding metapelites characterized by interconnected phyllosilicate networks. Under inferred conditions of low effective stress at temperatures > 500 ◦ C, locally and transiently elevated shear strain rate in phyllosilicates deforming by dislocation creep can reach those needed for transient slow slip. Concurrently, increased matrix strain rate likely stimulates brittle failure in rigid lenses. The ubiquitous presence of quartz veins and microfractures within rigid material provides evidence for brittle deformation occurring coincident with viscous shearing flow. We suggest that geophysically observed tremor and slow slip may be a manifestation of strain partitioning, where deformation is accommodated viscously in a matrix enveloping rigid lenses.

The influence of melting and melt drainage on crustal rheology during orogenesis

Partial melting significantly weakens crustal rocks by introducing a low-viscosity liquid phase. However, near-concomitant melt drainage can remove this weak phase, potentially reversing the rheological effects such that the strength of a specific lithology depends on when the prograde pressure-temperature path intersects a melting reaction, how much melt is produced, and how long this melt is retained before it is lost. Phase equilibria and mixed rheology modeling of typical metapelite and metagreywacke compositions indicate that these rocks undergo continuous but pulsed melt production during prograde metamorphism. Depending on whether melt removal is continuous or episodic, and assuming geological strain rates, the lithologies can retain a very low strength less than 1 MPa or transiently strengthen to ∼5 MPa following melt loss. Lithologies undergoing episodic melt loss can therefore cycle between being relatively weak and relatively strong components within a composite crustal section. Melt production, retention, and weakening in the middle to lower crust as a whole is more sustained during heating and melt production, consistent with geodynamic inferences of weak, melt-bearing lower crust. However, the long-term consequence of melting and melt loss is a 50–400% increase in the strength of residual lithologies. The strengthening is more pronounced in metapelite than metagreywacke and is achieved through a combination of dehydration and the removal of the weak mica framework coupled to increased proportions of strong feldspars and garnet. Despite prolonged weakness, melting and melt loss therefore ultimately result in a dry and elastic lower crust.

Details of the gabbro‐to‐eclogite transition determined from microtextures and calculated chemical potential relationships

Permian-aged metagabbros from the eclogite type-locality in the eastern European Alps were partially to completely transformed to eclogite during Eoalpine intracontinental subduction. Microtextures developed along a preserved fluid infiltration and reaction front in the gabbros record the incipient gabbro-to-eclogite transition, allowing the details of the eclogitization process to be investigated. Original, anorthite-rich igneous plagioclase is pervasively replaced by fine-grained intergrowths of clinozoisite, kyanite and Na-rich plagioclase. Where plagioclase was in contact with igneous orthopyroxene, 100–200 μm thick bimineralic coronae of symplectic kyanite and diopsidic clinopyroxene form along the edges of the grains. The rims of igneous orthopyroxene develop a complementary bimineralic corona of diopsidic clinopyroxene and garnet. Igneous clinopyroxene does not show any breakdown textures; however, jadeite content gradually increases towards the rims. In addition, exsolution lamellae inherited from the igneous clinopyroxene become progressively more jadeitic as eclogitization proceeds. Given that the igneous plagioclase is pervasively replaced by clinozoisite, kyanite and Na-rich plagioclase, whereas kyanite–diopside symplectites are confined to narrow rim zones, we suggest that the development of these textures was controlled by the (im)mobility of different elements on different length scales. The presence of hydrous minerals in the core of anhydrous plagioclase indicates that H2O diffusivity occurred on a mm-scale. By contrast, the size of the anhydrous diopside–kyanite and diopside–garnet symplectites indicate that Fe–Mg–Ca–Na diffusivity was limited to a 10s of μm scale. Chemical potential relations calculated in the idealized NCASH chemical system show that the clinozoisite–kyanite–albite intergrowths formed due to an increase of μH2O to plagioclase, whereas all other elements remained effectively immobile on the scale of this texture. Fluid conditions indicated by this texture span from virtually dry conditions (aH2O∼0.15) to H2O-saturation, and therefore does not imply that the rocks were ever fluid-saturated. Calculations in the CMAS and NCFMAS systems show that the gabbro-to-eclogite transition is characterized by the growth of garnet, diopsidic clinopyroxene and kyanite due to diffusion of Ca (+ Na) and Mg (+ Fe) along a μCaO (+ Na2O)–μMgO (+ FeO) chemical potential gradient developed between orthopyroxene and plagioclase compositional domains. The anhydrous nature of the textures indicate that the gabbro-to-eclogite transition is not driven by hydration; however, increased μH2O acts as a catalyst that increases diffusivity of all elements and rates of dissolution–precipitation, allowing the overstepped metamorphic reactions to occur. Our results show that crustal eclogite formation requires low H2O content, confirming that true eclogites are dry rocks.

Mineral equilibria constraints on open-system melting in metamafic compositions

Handling editor: Richard White Abstract The recent development of activity–composition relations for mineral and melt phases in high-grade metamafic rocks allows mineral equilibria tools to be used to further aid our understanding of partial melting and the mineralogical consequences of melt segregation in these rocks. We show that bulk compositional data from natural amphibolites cover a wide compositional range, with particular variability in the content and ratios of Ca, Na and K indicating that low-grade metasomatic alteration can substantially alter the igneous protolith chemistry and potentially affect the volume and composition of melt generated. Mineral equilibria calculations for five samples that span the compositional variability in our data set indicate that melting occurs primarily via the fluid-absent breakdown of amphibole+quartz to produce a pressure-sensitive peritectic assemblage of augite, orthopyroxene and/or garnet. The introduction of orthopyroxene at the onset of the amphibolite-to-granulite-facies transition at lower pressure results in an increased rate of melt production until quartz is typically exhausted, and this is similarly seen for the introduction of garnet at higher pressure. Calculated melt compositions are dependent on the protolith composition, but initial solidus melting and biotite breakdown produce 1–3 mol.% of K-rich granitic melts. As hornblende melting proceeds, 15–20 vol.% of either more granodioritic-to-tonalitic or granodioritic-to-trondhjemitic melt is produced. Once quartz is exhausted, intermediate to mafic melt compositions are produced at ultrahigh-temperature conditions. Quartz-rich lithologies with high Ca coupled to low Na and K are the most fertile under orogenic conditions, yielding up to 25 mol.% of sub-alkalic granitic melt by 850°C. Such rocks did not experience significant subsolidus alteration. Altered compositions with low Ca and elevated Na and K are not as fertile, yielding less than 15 mol.% of alkalic granitic melt by 850°C. These melt volumes are enough to be segregated, and can make a contribution to granite magmatism and intracrustal differentiation that should not be overlooked.

Quartz vein formation by local dehydration embrittlement along the deep, tremorgenic subduction thrust interface

Hydrothermal quartz veins are ubiquitous in exhumed accretionary complexes, including the Namibian Damara belt. Here, subduction-related deformation occurred at temperatures ≤550 °C, and vein geometry is consistent with plate interface shear, low effective normal stresses, and mixed-mode deformation. Quartz vein δ18O values relative to Standard Mean Ocean Water (SMOW) range from 9.4‰ to 17.9‰ (n = 30), consistent with precipitation from metamorphic fluids. A dominant subset of quartz veins away from long-lived high-strain zones and basaltic slivers have δ18O values in a smaller range of 14.9‰ ± 1‰, requiring precipitation from a fluid with δ18O of 12‰ ± 1‰ at 470–550 °C. This uniform fluid isotope value is consistent with progressive local breakdown of chlorite allowing extensive hydrofracture at temperatures typical of the plastic regime. In active subduction zones, brittle deformation within the plastic regime is inferred from observations of tectonic tremor, a noise-like seismic signal including overlapping low- and very low-frequency earthquakes, which occurs below the seismogenic zone. Both tremor and hydrothermal veins correlate with zones of inferred high fluid pressure, could represent a mixture of shear and dilatant failure, and may therefore be controlled by episodic hydrofracturing within a dominantly plastic and aseismic regime.