Microstructural, compositional and textural inheritance in deformed mafic amphibolites

Abstract

This study investigates the scales of compositional equilibria and the role of early hydration for the development of microstructures and mineral fabrics in mafic amphibolites, all deformed along a major tectonic plate boundary (Hokkaido, Japan). From fractured domains to mm-size shear bands and meter-size shear zones, element and cathodoluminescence mapping, as well as thermodynamic modelling show that both in plagioclase and in amphibole, strong compositional gradients were observed at the smallest (10–200 μm) scale, which in many instances were inherited from an early, static stage of fracturing, hydration and replacement of igneous minerals. Phase distribution and grain sizes in shear bands and shear zones were also inherited from this early metamorphic stage, giving rise to: (1) monomineralic amphibole layers derived from amphiboles replacing aggregates of Fe-Mg igneous minerals in metagabbros, (2) monomineralic plagioclase layers derived from plagioclase-rich domains of metagabbros that experienced limited early breakdown reactions and (3) intimately mixed and fine-grained amphibole-plagioclase layers developed only where symplectites after igneous minerals were previously formed. While crystallographic and shape preferred orientations of amphibole were acquired from early fracture-driven reactions, and then strengthened in shear bands/zones by dissolution-precipitation, nucleation and oriented growth, the ones of plagioclase, whose reaction was incomplete in fractured domains, continued to evolve with increasing viscous strain and reaction progress. Where plagioclase experienced early, partial breakdown, viscous strain was further accommodated by dissolution-precipitation and phase nucleation. In contrast, where igneous plagioclase was largely preserved, crystal plastic deformation accompanied dissolution-precipitation. Heterogeneous early hydration of mafic rocks led therefore to a patchwork of local reacted domains, where inherited microstructures gave rise to heterogeneous phase distribution, grain sizes, fabrics and preconditioned the rock for strain partitioning, and hence, strain localization at a scale of hundreds of microns. In particular, phase mixing was the product not of strain, but rather of an initial stage of chemical reactions.