Dynamic recrystallization processes of calcitic fossils in deformed marble

Abstract:

Here we report dynamic recrystallization processes of calcitic fossils in weakly to fully recrystallized marbles to discuss the survivability of fossils and possible recognition of former fossils in fully recrystallized marbles. The marble is from the early Paleozoic sequence in the Jeongseon area of South Korea. Each crinoid stem in a weakly or non-recrystallized marble cut perpendicular to its length appears as a donut shape and consists of five calcite grains (300-500µm in size) with the same c-axis but different a-axis orientations. The misorientation angle between adjacent grains in a crinoid stem is 40-50°. The outer and inner diameters of the donut-shaped crinoid stems are about 900 and 500 µm, respectively. The recrystallization processes initiate on grain boundaries as bulging recrystallization while transgranular subgrain walls form within lattice-distorted grains. New grains also nucleate on twin boundaries and subgrain boundaries. Some subgrain walls become grain boundaries as they collect more dislocations with subgrain boundary migration. The newly recrystallized grains grow to reach a steady-state grain size of 20-50µm. In fully recrystallized and deformed marbles, the crinoid stems occur as elongated donut-shaped calcite aggregates. The crinoid stems can be recognized by their size larger than that of recrystallized matrix grains (5-20µm), With a higher degree of dynamic recrystallization, the randomness of the misorientation angle distribution of the recrystallized grains within a crinoid stem increases, indicating weaker lattice preferred orientation. We are trying to test whether lattice orientation maps (or AVA diagrams) can be used to recognize former fossil traces in fully recrystallized marbles.