Ductile Shear Zone

Different shear zone Geometry of ductile shear zone Tectonites in ductile shear zone Folds in ductile shear zone Indicators of shear sense in ductile shear zone

Types of shear zone

Ramsay1980

A.brittle, B.brittle-ductile, C.ductile-brittle, D.ductile

BRITTLE SHEAR ZONE

Transition from brittle shear zone to ductile shear zone (Park, 1997)

Photo: Martin Miller

Ductile-Brittle Shear Zone (Zuoxun Zeng, 2003)

Sigmoid en echelon veins

Ductile shear zone

Undeformed block

Relative displacement

Strain across a ductile shear zone

Ductile Deformation zone

Undeformed block

Orientation and magnitude of finite strain ellipses and trajectories of Principal stretch, across a ductile shear zone resulting from progressive simple shear (From Ramsay and Huber, 1983)

Variation of shear strain across a ductile shear zone

Ramsay1980

A small shear zone in a specimen from Jianou, Fujian Province (Zuoxun Zeng and Lilin Liu, 1992)

A ductile shear zone in granite, Shaanxi,China (Zuoxun Zeng et al., 2004)

Copper Pyrite

Copper ore in a shear zone, South Gansu, China (Zuoxun Zeng et al., 2004)

Sketch showing stretch lineation in shear zone

Ductile deformation

A slab of spectacular mylonite. Note the recrystallization of feldspar (lightest crystals) and the ribbons of quartz (grey ) in a dark, biotite-rich matrix (Google image)

Protomylonite

CATACLASITE (BRITTLE)

MYLONITE (DUCTILE)

(Bruhn, 2001)

Calcic mylonite, Sichuan, China

(Zuoxun Zeng et al., 2004)

Protomylonite
(Zuoxun Zeng, 2001)

Undulate extinction in quartz in mylonite

Sheath fold

Folds in ductile shear zones

After M.Mattauer1980
A. Stretching lineation in a ductile shear zone, B,D and E. A-type of folds with the fold axes parallel to the stretching lineationC.B-type of folds with the fold axes perpendicular to the fold axesM. Movement senseL.Stretching lineation

Sheath folds in shear zone

A.YZ-planeB.XZ-planebottom length: 30cm (Zhu et al., 1999)

Indicators of shear sense in ductile shear zone (Zhu et al., 1997)

A.Drag of mark layers and earlier foliations B.Asymmetric folds C.Sheath folds D.S-C fabrics E.Mica fishes F. Asymmetric Tails(Sigma type) G. Asymmetric Tails(Delta type) H.Asymmetric pressure shadow I. Domino structures J.Retort structures

Sheath folds in a ductile shear zone

Ductile shear zone and drag of a inclusion in magma body (Zuoxun Zeng, 2005)

Mica Fish-lenticular (fish-shaped) porphyroclasts muscovite or biotite indicate shear sense observed in thin section or hand specimen common in mylonitic rocks (Kevin P. Hefferan,2004)

type (sigma)- wedge shaped tails tails do not cross the reference plane of shear may represent slow grain rotation relative to tail growth (Kevin P.Hefferan,2004)

Sigma Grain Tail Complex in mylonite thin section; Sinistral Shear (Kevin P. Hefferan,2004)

-type (delta) curved tails cross the reference plane of shear thought to represent fast grain rotation relative to tail growth (Kevin P. Hefferan,2004)

- type grain tails

Indicators of shear sense in a ductile shear zone in Fangshan Magma body, Zhoukoudian, Western Beijing (Zuoxun Zeng, 2005)

A ductile shear zone in Fangshan magma body, Zhoukoudian, western Beijing, China (Zuoxun Zeng, 2005)

Ductile shear zone in Zhoukoudian, Western Beijing (Zuoxun Zeng, 2005) Contour of shear Strain in Dashuiyu Ductile Shear Zone, Huairou, Beijing (After Zhen Yadong et al., 1984)

Contour of shear strain In a small ductile shear zone

undeformed

After Ramsay et al 1970

Modeling of ductile shear zone

Shear zone undeformed (Zuoxun Zeng and Lilin Liu, 1992)

Contours of shear strain resulted from the modeling (Zuoxun Zeng

and Lilin Liu, 1992)

Contours of rotation resulted from the modeling (Zuoxun Zeng and

Lilin Liu, 1992)

Questions for review

What is a ductile shear zone? What is the condition forming ductile shear zone? What is mylonite? What is type A, type B and type-AB folds, respectively? How do you determine the sense of shear for a ductile shear zone? What is the distribution of strain in a ductile zone?

Shear strain (A) and rotation (B) across the shear zone in the modeling
(Zuoxun Zeng and Lilin Liu, 1992)