Onset of Grain Boundary Migration and Drastic Weakening of Quartzite during increasing grade of Metamorphism in the Contact Aureole surrounding the Eureka Valley-Joshua Flat-Beer Creek pluton, California, USA

Abstract:

The Eureka Valley-Joshua Flat-Beer Creek (EJB) pluton in eastern California is surrounded by a ~1.3 km wide intensely deformed concordant aureole of metasedimentary rocks. South of the pluton, the Harkless Quartzite can be mapped from where it is located outside the aureole, with its regional strike through the transition into the aureole and concordancy with the pluton. The transition into concordancy, which is fairly abrupt, occurs over a distance of less than 100 m. Across this transition the bedding rotates close to 90° to become subvertical. Here the metasedimentary formations in the aureole have undergone 65% shortening. A suite of Harkless Quartzite samples was collected starting at 2.3 km south of the pluton, across the transition into concordancy at 1.3 km, and to within 450m from the pluton contact. Microstructurally, the transition is defined by changes in the dominant recrystallization mechanisms. At 2.3 km from the pluton, subgrain rotation recrystallization (SGR) plus grain boundary migration (GBM) operate together and many sedimentary grains (rounded grain boundaries) exist. As the pluton is approached, SGR decreases, GBM increases, and rounded grain boundaries slowly disappear. The abrupt transition into concordancy is marked by the final disappearance of SGR and rounded grain boundaries and extensive GBM. The transition is not completely smooth, and other variables such as pinning and amount of fluid inclusions seem to have a strong local affect on the dominant recrystallization mechanism. We suspect that the onset of extensive GBM allows for the diffusion of water into the crystal lattice which results in the drastic weakening and rotation of metasedimentary formations into concordancy.