Thesis (Master of Science)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution,2008. / Bibliography: p. 30-37.

Thèse de doctorat--Structure et évolution Terre et planètes--Montpellier 2, 2003. / Titre provenant de l'étiquette du support.

Thesis (M.S.)--University of Tennessee, Knoxville, 2009. / Title from title page screen (viewed on Nov. 4, 2009). Thesis advisors: Robert D. Hatcher, Micah J. Jessup. Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

No description available.

Thesis advisor: Seth C. Kruckenberg / The Burlington Mylonite Zone (BMZ) is a northeast-trending, greenschist- to amphibolite-facies shear zone located entirely within the Boston Avalon terrane in Eastern Massachusetts along the tectonic boundary with the Nashoba terrane (the trailing marginal terrane of Ganderia). The juxtaposition of these terranes, and the development of the BMZ, is hypothesized to represent the amalgamation of Avalon and Laurentia during the late Silurian-early Devonian Acadian orogeny, but the timing of its formation and its structural evolution remain largely unconstrained. Field observations and microstructural analysis using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) of 24 samples from 16 field sites throughout the BMZ provide new constraints on the kinematics and conditions of deformation that facilitated the development of this large-scale crustal shear zone. The BMZ samples comprise a heterogeneous mix of quartzofeldspathic +/- hornblende-bearing gneisses and quartzites with varying microstructures. Nearly all samples contain abundant mixed, but predominantly sinistral, kinematic indicators (e.g., asymmetric porphyroclasts, tiled feldspars) and a strong crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO). Quartz – the dominant mineral by mode in all of the samples analyzed – is known from experimental deformation studies to develop distinct patterns of CPO which vary as a function of deformation kinematics, temperature, and strain geometry. Patterns of CPO in quartz are used to determine the dominant intracrystalline deformation mechanisms that accommodated the formation of the BMZ. Quartz CPO patterns in the BMZ samples are characterized by variably developed c- and a-axis distributions, broadly consistent with patterns expected for mixed<a> to prism<a> slip at intermediate temperatures of deformation. Corresponding intragranular misorientation axis plots are more diagnostic and indicate dominant prism<a> slip in all of the shear zone samples analyzed, consistent with microstructures observed in thin section (e.g., undulose extinction, subgrain development, grain boundary migration, dynamic recrystallization) and metamorphic conditions inferred from shear zone mineral parageneses. Application of the quartz recrystallized grain size piezometer places additional constraints on deformation conditions, indicating that the BMZ rocks record differential stresses ranging from ~44 to 92 MPa. Field and microstructural observations of shear sense indicators are combined with two analytical methods for determining aspects of kinematic vorticity and deformation geometry in the BMZ. This study applies a new analytical method - crystallographic vorticity axis (CVA) analysis - that leverages rotational statistics on crystallographic orientations within the interiors of grains to constrain the dominant axis of material rotation in deformed samples. This dominant axis provides a uniquely objective proxy for the vorticity normal reference frame required for further quantitative kinematic vorticity analyses. The rotational axis of kinematic vorticity, and its relationship to structural fabrics (i.e. foliation and lineation), provides an important constraint on the geometry of the deforming zone (e.g., monoclinic versus triclinic shear zones). The results of the CVA analysis are invariable across the entire length of the BMZ; the kinematic vorticity axis lies within the plane of mylonitic foliation perpendicular to lineation – the pattern expected for monoclinic deformation geometries. The mean kinematic vorticity number (Wm: a measure of the relative contribution of pure and simple shear) is calculated using Rigid Grain Net (RGN) analysis for the BMZ mylonites and ranges from 0.4-0.5, indicating general shear. Combined field, microstructural, and vorticity analyses are interpreted to suggest that crustal strain localization along the Avalon-Nashoba boundary, as recorded in the BMZ mylonites, involved the combined effects of pure and simple shear in a predominantly sinistral, monoclinic transpressional shear zone. Rock microstructures, patterns of crystallographic preferred orientation, and paleostress estimates suggest that mylonitization occurred at or near the brittle-ductile transition under relatively high stress conditions. This study demonstrates the power of new microstructural methods, such as CVA analysis of electron backscatter diffraction data, to augment traditional field-based methods of kinematics and deformation analysis in enigmatic, large-scale crustal shear zones.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--York University, 2008. Graduate Programme in Earth and Space Science and Engineering. / Typescript. Includes bibliographical references (leaves123-134). Also available on the Internet. MODE OF ACCESS via web browser by entering the following URL: http://gateway.proquest.com/openurl?url_ver=Z39.88-2004&res_dat=xri:pqdiss&rft_val_fmt=info:ofi/fmt:kev:mtx:dissertation&rft_dat=xri:pqdiss:NR46019

Neoarchean thermotectonism at in the northern Wyoming province is preserved in metamorphic zircon rims and monazite growth throughout the Snowy shear zone (SSZ) and the Madison mylonite zone (MMZ), South Madison Range, Montana. Comparison of U-Pb and U-Th-Pb ages yielded by monazite grains from both shear zones and zircon rims from SSZ, a new timing for major SE-directed thrusting and formation of the MMZ and SSZ has been identified at ~2550 Ma. The collinearity of these two shears indicates the formation of a much larger single shear zone that extends from the North Snowy block (NE), Beartooth Mountains, through the South Madison range (SW), and is paralleled to the immediate NW by the Mirror Lake and Big Brother shear zones. A detrital zircon study of two quartzites, from the westernmost North Snowy block units, yielded concordant age populations ranging in age from 3556 ± 10 to 2752 ± 9 Ma indicating that these sediments were derived either from older crust located in the Beartooth Mountains or from another source that was relatively close to the region prior to ~2750 Ma. The youngest magmatic zircon core found among these quartzites yielded a U-Pb age of 2690 ± 12 Ma, setting a new maximum age for sandstone deposition, additionally 10 metamorphic zircon rims and one monazite grain provide a new minimum U-Pb age of deposition and metamorphism at 2545 ± 2 Ma. Driving forces behind the ~2550 Ma SE-directed thrusting in the NW Wyoming craton may have been the final stages of supercontinent Kenorland assembly, whereas the ~2450 Ma reactivation, recorded by monazite rim growth, along the SSZ-MMZ may relate to the incipient supercontinent break-up, which has been suggested to have occurred at about this time by other studies. / Master of Science

Interpreting the tectonic significance of high strain zones requires detailed knowledge of the P-T-t-D history of rocks on either side and of tectonized rocks within the shear zone. In-situ monazite geochronology is particularly useful because it generates a time-integrated framework of metamorphism and fabric development. This can be achieved by correlating monazite compositional domains with the growth and consumption of major phases. Furthermore, monazite can be a fabric forming mineral, and can be directly linked to structural fabrics and kinematics. The Cora Lake shear zone (CLsz) represents a major lithotectonic discontinuity within the deep crustal Athabasca Granulite terrain, and preserves intense mylonitic to ultramylonitic fabrics. The 3-5 km wide CLsz strikes ~231°, and dips ~62° to the Northwest, has a moderately plunging stretching lineation (SW trend) with abundant sinistral kinematic indicators. These data indicate oblique extension with NW hanging wall down and to the SW relative to the SE footwall. The NW hangingwall is dominated by the ca. 2.6 Ga charnockitic Mary batholith. The southeastern footwall is primarily underlain by the heterogeneous ca. 3.3-3.0 Ga Chipman tonaite straight gneiss. Although both share common Archean (ca. 2.55 Ga) and Paleoproterozoic (ca. 1.9 Ga) deformation events, the style and P-T conditions of deformation are different. The earliest phase of deformation within the NW hangingwall consists of a penetrative subhorizontal flow fabric at 0.9 GPa and ~725°C (2.56 Ga), but folding in the SE footwall associated with the development of a strong upright axially planar fabric at 1.35 GPa and 850°C. Deformation at ca 1.9 Ga was characterized by upright folding, similar in orientation, in both hangingwall (0.9 GPa; 725°C) and footwall (1.17 GPa; 825°C). Deformation related to the CLsz occurred at 1880 Ma (0.9-1.06 GPa; ~775°C), and is responsible for juxtaposing two levels of lower crust. The Cora Lake shear zone is interpreted to be the culmination of a trend of increased strength, localization, strain partitioning, and vertical coupling. Furthermore, the CLsz overprints fabrics from each wall, marks the development of a major lateral lithotectonic discontinuity, and an introduction of major structural and compositional heterogeneity within the lower continental crust.

Reconstructing the structural evolution of metamorphic core complexes is critical to understanding how large-magnitude extension is accommodated in the middle to upper crust. This dissertation focuses on the Miocene geometric and kinematic evolution of the Buckskin-Rawhide metamorphic core complex in west-central Arizona, addressing controversial topics including the geometric development of mid-crustal shear zones, the formation of detachment fault corrugations, and the transition from detachment faulting to more distributed deformation. Detailed microstructural data from mylonites in the lower plate of the Buckskin-Rawhide detachment fault indicate that early Miocene mylonitization was characterized by consistent top-NE-directed shear and ~450-500°C deformation temperatures that varied by [less-than or equal to]50°C across a distance of ~35 km in the extension direction. The relatively uniform deformation conditions and strain recorded in mylonitized ~22-21 Ma granitoids are incompatible with models in which the lower plate shear zone represents the down-dip continuation of a detachment fault. Instead, lower plate mylonites initiated as a subhorizontal shear zone that was captured and rapidly exhumed by a moderately to gently dipping detachment fault system. Structural data and geologic mapping demonstrate that the prominent NE-trending Buckskin-Rawhide detachment fault corrugations are folds produced by extension-perpendicular (NW-SE) shortening during core complex extension. Dominant NE-directed slip on the detachment fault was progressively overprinted by NW- and SE-directed slip associated with corrugation folding. Orientation patterns of upper plate bedding across the corrugations are compatible with folding about a NE-trending axis. Extension-perpendicular shortening in the lower plate is recorded by synmylonitic constriction and folding. Upright m-scale and km-scale lower plate folds parallel the detachment fault corrugations and developed primarily by postmylonitic flexural slip that was coeval with detachment faulting. The total amount of NW-SE shortening across the lower plate is ~10%, but the amount of NW-SE shortening recorded by the younger detachment fault is only ~1%. The relatively late-stage development of corrugations in the Buckskin-Rawhide metamorphic core complex suggests that extension-perpendicular shortening was primarily driven by a reduction of vertical stresses through crustal thinning and tectonic denudation. Brittle fault data document the transition from large-magnitude, NE-directed extension to distributed E-W extension and right-lateral faulting. Following exhumation to brittle conditions, lower plate mylonites were extended up to ~20-30% by NE-dipping, syndetachment normal faults. Towards the end of detachment faulting, the extension direction rotated clockwise, and some portions of the Buckskin detachment fault record a transition from dominant top-NE slip to ENE- and E-directed slip. After detachment faulting ceased, E-W extension was accommodated primarily by steeply NE-dipping, right-lateral and oblique right-lateral-normal faults. The cumulative amount of right-lateral shear across the core complex is probably 7-9 km, which is the amount needed to restore the topographic trend of lower plate corrugations into alignment with the dominant extension direction. Postdetachment right-lateral/transtensional faulting across the Buckskin-Rawhide metamorphic core complex reflects the increasing influence of the Pacific-North American transform plate boundary towards the end of the middle Miocene. / text

The exposed shear zone within the footwall of the Badwater turtleback presents an excellent opportunity to explore the brittle-ductile transition. Within this shear zone, a variety of lithologies preserve the last stages of crystal-plastic deformation concurrent with exhumation of the turtleback. The included field study captures a snapshot of each lithologic element during the last stages of ductile deformation. The exposed shear zone's journey through the brittle-ductile transition is analyzed using the deformation mechanisms of calcite and quartz. A history of strain partitioning is constructed through comparison of the strain and temperature environments needed to facilitate each mechanism of crystal-plastic deformation. As the shear zone cooled, strain was partitioned from quartz-rich mylonitic gneiss to the calcite-dominated marbles and mylonites. Correlation of deformation temperatures with previous studies further constrains the timing of the last stage of ductile deformation to between 13 and 6 Ma.