Fluid-assisted fracturing,cataclasis, and resulting plastic flow in mylonites from the Moresby Seamount detachment,Woodlark Basin |
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| Institution: | 1. GEOMAR, Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, 24148 Kiel, Germany;2. Bayerisches Geoinstitut, University of Bayreuth, 95440 Bayreuth, Germany;1. The Institute for Geoscience Research (TIGeR), School of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Curtin University, Perth, Bentley WA 6845, Australia;2. Department of Earth Sciences, The University of Adelaide, Adelaide, SA 5005, Australia |
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| Abstract: | The Moresby Seamount detachment (MSD) in the Woodlark Basin (offshore Papua New Guinea) is a large active low-angle detachment excellently exposed at the seafloor, and cutting through mafic metamorphic rocks. Hydrothermal infiltration of quartz followed by that of calcite occurred during cataclastic deformation. Subsequent deformation of these a priori softer minerals leads to mylonite formation in the MSD. This study aims at a better understanding of the deformation mechanism switch from cataclastic to plastic flow. Deformation fabrics of the fault rocks were analyzed by light-optical microscopy. Rheologically critical phases were mapped to determine distributions and area proportions, and EBSD was used to measure crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO). Strong calcite CPOs indicate dominant dislocation creep. Quartz CPOs, however, are weak and more difficult to interpret, suggesting at least some strain accommodation by diffusion creep mechanisms. When quartz aggregates are intermixed with the polymineralic mylonite matrix diffusion creep grain boundary sliding may be dominant. The syntectonic conversion from mafic cataclasites to more siliceous and carbonaceous mylonites induced by hydrothermal processes is a critical weakening mechanism enabling the MSD to at least intermittently plastic flow at low shear stresses. This is probably a crucial process for the operation of low-angle detachments in hydrated and dominantly mafic crust. |
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| Keywords: | Low-angle detachment Hydrothermal infiltration Quartz Calcite Polymineralic matrix Dislocation creep Diffusion creep Interconnected layering |
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