Shear zone nucleation and deformation transient: effect of heterogeneities and loading conditions in experimentally deformed calcite

Abstract:

In the Earth’s middle to lower crust, strain is frequently localized along ductile shear zones, which commonly nucleate at structural and material heterogeneities. To investigate shear zone nucleation and development due to heterogeneities, we performed constant strain-rate (CSR) and constant stress (CS) simple shear (torsion) deformation experiments on Carrara marble samples containing weak (limestone) inclusions. The experiments were conducted in a Paterson-type gas deformation apparatus at 900 °C temperature and 400 MPa confining pressure and maximum bulk shear strains of 3. Peak shear stress was about 20 MPa for all the samples, followed by smooth weakening and steady state behavior. The strain is predominantly localized in the host marble within the process zone in front of the inclusion, defined by a zone of intense grain size reduction due to dynamic recrystallization. In CS tests a narrow shear zone developed in front of the inclusion, whereas in CSR experiments the deformation is more heterogeneously distributed, up to g=3.. In the later, secondary foliations oblique to the process zone and alternating thin, high-strain layers are common. In samples deformed at the same shear strain (g=1), the average recrystallized grain size in the process zone is similar for CS and CSR conditions. Crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) measurements shows that different grain sizes have slightly different CPO patterns. CPO strength varies for different grain sizes, with a CPO strength peak between 40-50 µm, decreasing progressively within smaller grain size, but with secondary peaks for different coarse-grained sizes. Our observations suggest that the initial formation and transient deformation of shear zones is strongly affected by loading conditions.