Strain-induced mineral growth in ductile shear zones and a preliminary study of ductile shearing in western Newfoundland

In the Fleur de Lys and the Central Gneiss terranes the presence of strain-induced mineral growth characteristic of ductile shear zones within zones of rocks with mylonitic fabrics indicates the existence of major belts of layer-parallel ductile shearing with complex evolutionary sequences. Kinemati...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences
Main Author: Piasecki, M. A. J.
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: Canadian Science Publishing 1988
Subjects:
Online Access:http://dx.doi.org/10.1139/e88-195
http://www.nrcresearchpress.com/doi/pdf/10.1139/e88-195
Description
Summary:In the Fleur de Lys and the Central Gneiss terranes the presence of strain-induced mineral growth characteristic of ductile shear zones within zones of rocks with mylonitic fabrics indicates the existence of major belts of layer-parallel ductile shearing with complex evolutionary sequences. Kinematic markers in several of these shear belts indicate that shearing movements on initially probably gently inclined surfaces, directed not normal to the axial trend of the orogen but parallel to it, are tectonically important in western Newfoundland. The shear belts are in excess of 1 km thick, and one well-exposed example exhibits a pattern in which zones of the highest strain anastomose on the map scale.The base of the Fleur de Lys Supergroup is marked by one such major zone of shearing (décollement) in which kinematic indicators record movements directed to the north and to the south, before the regional attitude of the rocks was steepened. Along the Baie Verte Line, earlier north- and south-directed movements in the Fleur de Lys were succeeded by reverse movements towards the east, over the Dunnage Terrane.