Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD E Schweizerbart Science Publishers
Résumé : International audience
Mass balance calculations have been performed through a comparison of published graphical and statistical approaches applied to two contrasted geological settings: (i) the development of a greenschist-facies ductile shear-zone that recorded a weak volume change but significant mass transfers, and (ii) the formation of exoskarns in metacarbonate xenoliths that recorded a large volume decrease related to huge mass transfers. The comparison of the four mass-balance approaches shows that, if uncertainties are ignored, (1) they yield similar results concerning the mobile vs immobile behaviour of many components; (2) they yield similar mass-change values on bulk rock and on individual chemical elements (bulk-rock mass-change values differ by a maximum of ca. 15 % between graphical and statistical treatments of the metacarbonate xenolith evolution). The main difference concerns the uncertainties on mass changes (for bulk rocks and individual elements), which are much larger with the graphical than with the statistical approaches when uncertainties on chemical elements are taken into account, as they should be.The main advantage of the graphical methods is their rapid implementation and the clarity of the diagrams. Their main disadvantages are that uncertainties on each chemical element and bulk compositions are not taken into account and the difficulty in choosing an accurate immobility field to precisely define errors. Graphical methods need to be completed by a statistical treatment that gives absolute mass transfer results. The statistical approaches have the advantage of taking into account the chemical heterogeneities of the compared populations, in conjunction to a precise data treatment. The statistical treatment is an important and necessary step to decipher and to be pertinent in interpreting mobility/immobility of chemical elements, and, thus, in the absolute quantification of mass and volume changes.
ISSN: 0935-1221

hal-01260258
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01260258
DOI : 10.1127/ejm/2015/0027-2475

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : In order to address the question of the processes involved during shear zone nucleation, we present a petro-structural analysis of millimetre-scale shear zones within the Roffna rhyolite (Suretta nappe, Eastern central Alps). Field and microscopic evidences show that ductile deformation is localized along discrete fractures that represent the initial stage of shear zone nucleation. During incipient brittle deformation, a syn-kinematic metamorphic assemblage of white mica + biotite + epidote + quartz precipitated at ca. 8.5 ± 1 kbar and 480 ± 50 °C that represent the metamorphic peak conditions of the nappe stacking in the continental accretionary wedge during Tertiary Alpine subduction. The brittle to ductile transition is characterized by the formation of two types of small quartz grains. The Qtz-IIa type is produced by sub-grain rotation. The Qtz-IIb type has a distinct CPO such that the orientation of c-axis is perpendicular to the shear fracture and basal and rhombhoedric slip systems are activated. These Qtz-IIb grains can either be formed by recrystallization of Qtz-IIa or by precipitation from a fluid phase. The shear zone widening stage is characterized by a switch to diffusion creep and grain boundary sliding deformation mechanisms. During the progressive evolution from brittle nucleation to ductile widening of the shear zone, fluid–rock interactions play a critical role, through chemical mass-transfer, metasomatic reactions and switch in deformation mechanisms.
ISSN: 0191-8141

hal-01355954
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01355954
DOI : 10.1016/j.jsg.2016.02.015

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
We decipher late-orogenic crustal flow characterized by feedback relations between partialmelting and deformation in the Variscan Montagne Noire gneiss dome. The dome shape and finite strainpattern of the Montagne Noire Axial Zone (MNAZ) result from the superimposition of three deformations(D1, D2 and D3). The early flat-lying S1 foliation is folded by D2 upright ENE-WSW folds and transposed in thecentral and southern part of the MNAZ into steep D2 high-strain zones consistent with D2 NW-SE horizontalshortening, in bulk contractional coaxial deformation regime that progressively evolved to noncoaxial dextraltranspression. The D2 event occurred under metamorphic conditions that culminated at 0.65 ± 0.05 GPa and 720± 20°C. Along the anatectic front S1 and S2 foliations are transposed into a flat-lying S3 foliation with top-to-NEand top-to-SW shearing in the NE and SW dome terminations, respectively. These structures define a D3 transitionzone related to vertical shortening during coaxial thinning with a preferential NE-SW to E-W directedstretching. Depending on structural level, the metamorphic conditions associated with D3 deformation rangefrom partial melting conditions in the dome core to subsolidus conditions above the D3 transition zone. Wesuggest that D2 and D3 deformation events were active at the same time and resulted from strain partitioningon both sides of the anatectic front that may correspond to a major rheological boundary within the crust.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-01208098
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01208098