Mesofabric, Microfrabric, and Submicrofabric of Ice-Thrust Bedrock, Highvale Mine, Wabamum Lake Area, Alberta

The fabric of the ice-thrust argillaceous bedrock from a shear zone was studied in hand specimens, under a polarizing microscope and a scanning electron microscope. The fabric included principal displacement shears, Riedel shears, conjugate sets of particle alignments, cutans, lithorelics, and aggre...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Cruden, D. M., Tsui, P. C., Thomson, S.
Format: Other/Unknown Material
Language:English
Published: 1988
Subjects:
Ice
Online Access:https://era.library.ualberta.ca/items/5961898d-7b6d-4be3-8c10-45f3c7b13a75
https://doi.org/10.7939/R3GM81R4N
Description
Summary:The fabric of the ice-thrust argillaceous bedrock from a shear zone was studied in hand specimens, under a polarizing microscope and a scanning electron microscope. The fabric included principal displacement shears, Riedel shears, conjugate sets of particle alignments, cutans, lithorelics, and aggregations which dense cores of randomly oriented groups of clay platelets wrapped by an external layer of oriented clay particles in a turbostatic arrangement. In addition, the bedrock has been disturbed by permafrost, cycles of loading and unloading, and weathering, causing the magnitude of deformation to vary within the ice-thrust shear zone.The fabric of the ice-thrust shear zone is similar to that of shear zones formed by tectonic activity and by laboratory shear tests, suggesting that all these shear zones were formed under conditions of similar kinematic restraint.