MELANGES, INTRODUCTION AND ORIGIN

By

Syed Ahtasham Ali Jafri (01-262122-016) MS Geology 2012-2014

Submitted to

Prof. Dr. Tahseenullah Khan

DEPARTMENT OF EARTH AND ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES, BAHRIA UNIVERSITY ISLAMABAD.

MELANGES
INTRODUCTION In geology, a melange is a large-scale breccia, a mappable body of rock characterized by a lack of continuous bedding and the inclusion of fragments of rock of all sizes, contained in a fine-grained deformed matrix. The mlange typically consists of a jumble of large blocks of varied lithologies. Large-scale melanges formed in active continental margin settings generally consist of altered oceanic crustal material and blocks of continental slope sediments in a sheared mudstone matrix. The mixing mechanisms in such settings may include tectonic shearing forces, ductile flow of a water-charged or deformable matrix (such as serpentinite), sedimentary action (such as slumping, gravity-flow, and olistostromal action), or some combination of these. Some larger blocks of rock may be as much as 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) across. Smaller-scale localized mlanges may also occur in shear or fault zones, where coherent rock has been disrupted and mixed by shearing forces.

Figure 1. Francisan Complex Melange San Bruno South San Francisco Mountain.

Examples include the Franciscan Formation along the Coast Ranges of central and northern California and the Bay of Islands ophiolite complex in Newfoundland. The Gwna Mlange in the

UK extends through Anglesey and the Lln Peninsula onto Bardsey Island in North Wales. The Northern Palawan melange distributed in Minilog Island [clarify], west coast of Inabamalaki Island, west coast of El Nido town; Cudugman Point on Bacuit Bay, in the islands of the Cuyo Group of Islands. It consists of a jumble of various rock types contained in a matrix of grey-green slaty mudstone and siltstone.

Figure 2. Geological map of the Ino district milange (part) (Wakita et al., 2007). MELANGE GENERATION IN OCEANIC FRACTURE ZONES IN ABYSSAL SETTINGS The papers by Shervais et al. (Chapter 1) and Saleeby (Chapter 2) present integrated field, petrological, and geochemical data on serpentinite-matrix mlanges of different ages in California. Both studies provide field and geochemical evidence that block-in-matrix fabrics developed in serpentinite within an abyssal fracture zone. Shervais et al. present field evidence for subduction initiation along a fracture zone based on the presence of high-pressure, hightemperature (HP-HT) garnet-amphibolite blocks from a serpentinite shear zone structurally beneath unmetamorphosed ophiolitic rock of the Jurassic Coast Range ophiolite. The serpentinite matrix mlange may represent the original subduction interface. The authors suggest that

exhumation was aided not only by the lower density of the serpentinite matrix compared to the top of the lower plate (oceanic crust) and the upper plate (suboceanic mantle), but was also driven by the positive volume change associated with serpentinite in a confined zone that might have served to force the serpentinite upward. Saleeby presents evidence for subduction initiation along an abyssal fracture zone, based on his work in the Kings-Kaweah ophiolite belt of the southern Sierra Nevada. He suggests a long duration of time (~190 m.y.) between the early Ordovician abyssal ocean crust formation and the Permo-Carboniferous mlange development in an abyssal fracture zone environment. He argues that initiation of subduction along this fracture zone was followed by the development of supra-subduction zone igneous rocks. Saleeby argues that the emplacement of garnetamphibolite blocks in the mlange was related to serpentinite diapirism through the upper plate of a subduction system, instead of back along the subduction interface through channel flow. MELANGE FORMATION ASSOCIATED WITH SUBDUCTION INITIATION The rock record of subduction initiation is evaluated in Myhill's paper (Chapter 3) on the metamorphic sole of the Vourinos and Pindos ophiolites in the western Hellenides (Greece). Myhill presents detailed metamorphic evidence and argues that metamorphic soles, which are the thin high-grade metamorphic sheets commonly found beneath Tethyan ophiolites, were formed at lower pressures than commonly thought, and that they were therefore not necessarily associated with subduction initiation as has been widely assumed. He demonstrates that the hightemperature metamorphism of the metamorphic sole beneath the Mesohellenic ophiolites (Pindos and Vourinos) occurred during intra-oceanic thrusting (but not subduction) near a ridge crest and soon after subduction initiation, and that slices and blocks of the sole were incorporated into a subophiolitic mlange during further thrusting associated with ophiolite emplacement. Mori et al. (Chapter 4) present a model for the complex tectonic evolution of the Mineoka ophiolitic mlange belt in the Boso Peninsula of central Japan, based on field relations, geochronology, and petrology. The evolution of this mlange includes early HP-HT, possibly associated with a subduction initiation event, followed by considerable deformation and mixing involving triple junction interaction and evolution.

MELANGE DEVELOPMENT IN SUBDUCTION-ACCRETION COMPLEXES AND IN COLLISIONAL SETTINGS In his process-oriented approach to delineating the tectonic settings of mlange formation, Wakabayashi (Chapter 5) divides and examines the classic Jurassic-Eocene Franciscan Complex mlanges of coastal California into distinct structural groups. The structurally highest mlanges in the Franciscan Complex may have formed at or shortly after subduction initiation, marking the initial subduction interface, whereas the mlanges separating coherent nappe sheets may represent later-developed paleo megathrust horizons within the accretionary prism. He argues that the large displacements associated with these nappes may have been largely accommodated along the borders of the mlanges rather than within them. He presents field and petrographic evidence supporting pretectonic sedimentary mixing of mlanges (development of block-in-matrix structure and introduction of exotic blocks), including those most likely to be classified as entirely tectonic mlanges (internappe mlanges). He shows the presence of two cycle high-P rocks, which were subducted to blueschist-facies depths, then exhumed and re-worked as sedimentary deposits, and then resubducted again to blueschist depths and exhumed. Dangerfield et al. (Chapter 6) present structural, geochronological, and geochemical data from the Eldivan ophiolite, which occurs as a coherent block in the Ankara Mlange in northcentral Turkey. The Ankara Mlange is part of the zmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture zone and represents a classic Tethyan colored mlange. Dangerfield and her co-authors show development of the Eldivan ophiolite in a suprasubduction zone setting, followed by its integration into the Ankara Mlange as an oceanic block. Detrital zircon U/Pb analyses from the mlange and the overlapping epiclastic sandstones show that mlange development occurred between ~143 Ma and 105 Ma, consistent with the regional geochronological data. The authors argue that although the development of the zmir-Ankara-Erzincan suture zone involved continental collision tectonics, its overall evolution resembles the formation of mlange terrains in the southwest Pacific rather than that of a Himalayan-type continental collision. Erickson presents field, petrographic, and geochronological data from a Cretaceous sandstone-matrix olistostrome in the Franciscan Complex in northern California that collectively provide critical constrains on the exhumation age and patterns of various blocks and the

depositional age of the olistostrome. The majority of these blocks themselves are Franciscanderived. The evolution of the olistostrome includes initial subduction burial of the blocks; their subsequent exhumation and exposure as blueschist-, eclogite-, and amphibolite-facies blocks; their deposition sometime after 83 Ma; and partial re-subduction to prehnite-pumpellyite facies conditions subsequently. As shown in the paper by Wakabayashi, Erickson's work also demonstrates the sedimentary reworking of previously metamorphosed Franciscan rocks, including high-grade blocks formed during the earliest stages of Franciscan subduction at ca. 165 Ma.

Figure 3. origin of milange in tectonic environment (www.Science direction.com)

Osozawa et al. use map and outcrop relationships from excellent coastal exposures of the Miocene Nabae complex of Japan and petrofabric studies to show that the block-in-matrix fabric observed in this mlange was a result of early sedimentary sliding rather than tectonism. They demonstrate that the amount of shear strain associated with foliation development in the mlange matrix was minimal, and that this deformation was vastly inadequate to account for the introduction of exotic blocks of chert and basalt into the shale matrix. Their data also show

evidence for reworking of clasts that include penetrative fabrics developed in an older subduction complex. Festa presents detailed field relationships from the Piedmont Basin in northwest Italy that developed as an episutural basin after the main stage Alpine collision, and he documents structures that formed at burial depths of 23 km. Utilizing sedimentary structures and sedimentary contact relationships (for establishing sedimentary origins), shear-sense indicators, and progressive strain and rotation of rocks toward faults, he distinguishes between mlanges that were formed by tectonic strain, sedimentary sliding, and diapiric emplacement. He then links the development of different types of mlanges to the regional tectonics, during which faulting (along with the formation of tectonic mlanges) may have triggered gas hydrate disassociation and rise of overpressured fluids (diapiric emplacement, preferentially following fault zones), triggering gravitational collapse and development of sedimentary mlanges. Muraoka and Ogawa present observations on mlanges, duplexes, and folds that they interpret to have formed in a trench-fill environment, the shallowest level of preservation of an accretionary prism. The evidence comes from fine coastal exposures of the Plio-Pleistocene Chikura Group on the Boso Peninsula of Japan. The Lower Chikura Group units are interpreted to have been deposited in the trench in advance of the thrust front and later incorporated into the accretionary wedge by seaward propagation of the thrust front; the Upper Chikura Group units, on the other hand, were originally deposited in a trench slope basin setting. The lower Chikura Group deposits include evidence for interaction of methane-rich fluids from associated chemosynthetic biocommunities that suggest a trench-fill environment similar to the modern Sagami Trough. Chaotic deposits or mlanges include those with diapiric (intrusive) field relationships as well as those that appear to represent submarine slides, whereas the duplexes and thrust anticlines record significant tectonic shortening in the coherent units. Michiguchi and Ogawa examine the internal structure of the Miocene-Pliocene accretionary prism complex exposed in the Boso Peninsula, Japan. They show that dark bands found in siltstones are the products of different deformation mechanisms in an accretionary prism toe and the frontal thrust region. The host rocks include both coherent stratal and chaotic units (as in mlanges). Their map, outcrop, and microscopic analysis suggests that some of these features formed as a result of high pore fluid pressure as shear fractures, whereas others formed

as tensional fractures associated with different states of stress and deformation modes. One of their dark band types represents flexural-slip faults associated with folding, another type represents sliding planes formed during submarine landslides, whereas yet another type consists of thrust faults formed during accretion. SUMMARY COMMENTS AND CONCLUSIONS Melange Classification: Descriptive Rather than Genetic Schemes Recommended Most of the previous melange studies, including those in GSA Special Paper 198, offered detailed classification or definitions of mlanges and their sub-types. It is clear that a uniform classification scheme has merit, given that the term mlange is used differently by many authors. However, caution is urged, especially when genetic significance is attached to a definition, given how difficult it may be to ascertain mlange origins from first-order field observations, particularly for mlanges that appear strongly deformed, such as those described by Osozawa et al. and Wakabayashi. The classification schemes proposed by Cowan (1985) are largely descriptive and are therefore more useful than a genetic definition presented, for example, by Sengr (2003), wherein a purely tectonic origin is a requirement for the term mlange. Raymond (1984b) proposed a detailed classification scheme, but its ultimate application required some knowledge of the genesis of the mlange. Although this may seem a regressive definition, we recommend a broad definition of mlange as a bedrock unit with a matrix and variety of blocks included in it, similar to the recommendation of Silver and Beutner (1980). In fact Silver and Beutner (1980) noted that in addition to the more common block-in-matrix fabric, some mlanges have a block-on-block fabric, a structural style that appears to best fit the Mineoka ophiolite belt of Japan (Takahashi et al., 2003; also Mori et al., Chapter 4). Festa (Chapter 10) makes a similar recommendation for a descriptive, rather than genetic definition of the term mlange. Wakabayashi proposes mlange categories based on structural-tectonic settings that are derived from 3-D field relationships. This scheme has the primary goal of connecting the mlanges to large-scale processes during evolution of active plate margins, but it does not directly aid evaluation of strain and sedimentary processes in mlange formation in the way that a scheme such as Cowan's (1985) does. Accordingly, we think that there is no single unifying

classification or nomenclature scheme for mlanges, nor should there be, because different schemes serve different purposes. We recommend that authors writing about block-in-matrix units be as specific as possible about the descriptive aspects of these units, so that readers are not misled into applying their own definition of mlange that may differ markedly from that intended by the author. In many ways, the problem of mlange classification and nomenclature parallels that of the term ophiolite, for which numerous definitions also exist (e.g., Dilek, 2003; Dilek and Furnes, 2009). Sedimentary versus Tectonic Mixing in Melanges An increasing amount of field evidence has been presented in the past few decades, illustrating the significant contributions of sedimentary mixing to even some of the most (apparently) sheared mlanges (e.g., Aalto, 1989; Osozawa et al., 2009, Chapter 8; Wakabayashi, Chapter 5). These studies support the conclusions of earlier research (Cowan and Page, 1975; Cowan, 1978). Some of the most extreme examples include the sedimentary introduction of exotic blocks into nappe-bounding mlanges in the Franciscan Complex, which may have accommodated tens of km or more of displacement (Wakabayashi,). The studies of Osozawa et al. (2009,) also show that most or all exotic blocks in the Nabae Complex of the Shimanto Belt of Shikoku, Japan, and the Yuwan accretionary complex of the Ryukyu Islands, respectively, were integrated into the mlange by pre-tectonic phases of submarine sliding. Osozawa et al. argue that the deformation that produced the matrix foliation in the mlanges that they have examined records relatively minimal shear strain, which cannot account for introduction of exotic blocks or development of block-in-matrix fabrics. Aalto (1989) and Wakabayashi document a range of textures from undeformed sedimentary breccias to strongly foliated shale mlange matrix. Although evidence points to submarine sedimentary (gravity) sliding as a main contributor to the development of block-in-matrix fabrics in many of the most tectonized mlanges, sedimentary sliding was not a major process in the formation of block-in-matrix fabrics in all mlanges. Some mlanges clearly have a tectonic or diapiric origin. Festa summarizes effectively the criteria for distinguishing diapiric versus tectonic mlanges, and provides field examples of both. For diapiric mlanges, the diagnostic feature is opposing shear sense on opposite mlange contacts, a criterion that was first applied by Orange (1990) and

subsequently used by Dela Pierre et al. (2007), as well as Muraoka and Ogawa and Festa. For tectonic mlanges, an important field characteristic is an increasing degree of deformation and rotation of fabric elements as a fault or shear zone is approached. Significance of Melanges and Melange Types in Orogenic Belt Development Melanges are characteristic features of modern and ancient convergent plate boundaries, and rank with ophiolites and HPlow-temperature metamorphic rocks as critical recorders of convergent plate margin processes. Mlanges provide critical insights into sedimentary and structural evolution in the accretionary prism and forearc basin environments, including evidence for large-scale material movement (particularly in cross-sectional view) in accretionary wedges. Mlanges form as subduction of oceanic lithosphere is punctuated by a collisional process (see discussion in Dangerfield et al., Chapter 6, although they argue for a noncollisional origin for the particular mlange of their study), and/or terminated by the final stages of continental collision (Festa, Chapter 10). In addition to recording subduction- and collision-related sedimentary and tectonic processes, mlange formation may also include pre-subduction tectonics, including deformation along abyssal fracture zones (Shervais et al., Chapter 1; Saleeby,) and at oceanic core complexes (Saleeby,), as well as supra-subduction zone oceanic crust evolution (Dangerfield et al., Chapter 6; Shervais et al.,). Societal Significance Mlanges, by the very nature of their chaotic block-in-matrix structure, pervasive and strong internal deformation and clay-rich soil contents, are prone to landsliding as well as creating problems because of the great contrast in ease of excavation of block and matrix (Medley and Zekkos, Chapter 13). Hence, they pose major challenges for engineering projects developed on them as well as for water supplies and infrastructure. Therefore, mlange terrains cause first-order societal problems for the people in California, Japan, Italy, Scotland, Greece, Cyprus, Turkey, the Philippines, and many other countries, where ophiolites and mlanges occur abundantly. Furthermore, most engineers and engineering geologists continue to treat mlangecontaining bedrock by using the basic principles of stratigraphy and by assuming a layered structure for their formation, and fail to account for the 3-D variation of many key parameters such as rock strength and ease of excavation. This ill-informed approach results in disastrous

engineering problems, leading to significant property damage and casualties. It is thus highly important for the academic community and the practicing geological and civil engineers to convey their learned experience and knowledge on mlanges and mlange structures to each other through publishing in common literature and in conference proceedings in order to maximize the dissemination of their scientific and applied findings. The academic community in particular should continue to strive to remedy the knowledge gaps through interaction with the applied community as well as through implementing contemporary reforms in undergraduate education that would revive field instruction and field-based, observation-oriented earth science education. We hope that this GSA Special Paper presents an important step in this mission of closing the knowledge gap in the purely scientific and engineering aspects of mlanges and mlange-forming processes and their significance for engineering and societal issues.

References Aalto K.R. 1989, Franciscan Complex olistostrome at Crescent City, northern California: Sedimentology, v. 36, p. 471495, doi:10.1111/j.1365-3091.1989.tb00620.x. Cowan D.S.1978, Origin of blueschist-bearing chaotic rocks in the Franciscan Complex, San Simeon, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 89, p. 14151423. Cowan D.S.1985, Structural styles in Mesozoic and Cenozoic mlanges in the Western Cordillera of North America: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 96, p. 451462, doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1985)96<451:SSIMAC>2.0.CO;2. Cowan D.S., Page B.M. 1975, Recycled Franciscan material in Franciscan mlange west of Paso Robles, California: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 86, p. 10891095, doi:10.1130/0016-7606(1975)86<1089:RFMIFM>2.0.CO;2. Dilek Y. 2003, Ophiolite concept and its evolution, inDilek Y., Newcomb S.eds., Ophiolite Concept and the Evolution of Geologic Thought: Geological Society of America Special Paper 373,p. 116. Dilek Y., Furnes H. 2009, Structure and geochemistry of Tethyan ophiolites and their petrogenesis in subduction rollback systems: Lithos, v. 113, p. 120, doi:10.1016/j.lithos.2009.04.022. Greenly E., 1919, The Geology of Anglesey: Great Britain Geological Survey Memoir, v. 1, 980 p. Medley E.W., Zekkos D. 2011, this volume, Geopractitioner approaches to working with antisocial mlanges, inWakabayashi J., Dilek Y.eds., Mlanges: Processes of Formation and Societal Significance: Geological Society of America Special Paper 480, doi:10.1130/2011.2480(13). Muraoka S., Ogawa Y.2011, this volume, Recognition of trench-fill type accretionary prism: Thrust anticlines, duplexes and chaotic deposits of Pliocene-Pleistocene Chikura Group, Boso Peninsula, Japan, inWakabayashi J., Dilek Y.eds., Mlanges: Processes of Formation and Societal Significance: Geological Society of America Special Paper 480, doi:10.1130/2011.2480(11). Orange D.L., 1990, Criteria helpful in recognizing shear-zone and diapiric mlanges: Examples from the Hoh accretionary complex, Olympic Peninsula, Washington: Geological Society of America Bulletin, v. 102, p. 935951, doi:10.1130/0016-7606 Raymond L.A., 1984a, editor, Mlanges: Their Nature, Origin and Significance: Geological Society of America Special Paper 198, 170 p.

Raymond L.A., 1984b, Classification of mlanges, inRaymond L.A.ed., Mlanges: Their Nature, Origin and Significance: Geological Society of America Special Paper 198,p. 720. Silver E.A., Beutner E.C. 1980, Melanges: Geology, v. 8, p. 3234, doi:10.1130/00917613(1980)8<32:M>2.0.CO;2. www.wikipedia.com http://courses.eas.ualberta.ca/eas421/lecturepages/melange.html