Geol341

J. Toro

Topics

Metamorphic Rocks and

Cleavage Development

Fabrics
Foliation, cleavage, lineation
Cleavage and Folds
Geometry
Strain significance

Origin of Cleavage
Pressure solution
Passive rotation
Recrystallization

Shear zones
Chapter 12- Fossen
Many diagrams are from Earth Structure, van der Pluijm and Marshak, 2004

Geothermal Gradient and

Metamorphism

Naming of Metamorphic Rocks

Slatey cleavage

Gneiss

Looks Like Bedding, but is it?

Metamorphic layering

Brooks Range, AK

Quartz-mica schist

Isoclinal Fold

Fabric
Fabric Elements

Arrangement of component features in a rock van

der Pluijm & Marshak

Includes:
Texture

Bedding
Compositional layering
Crystallographic orientation

Structure

Fold Hinges

Microstructure

Cleavage planes

Preferred Orientation

Mineral elongation lineation

Passchier and Trouw (1996)

Metamorphic Fabrics
Foliation : Cleavage, Schistosity
Lineation: Mineral Lineation, Intersection Lineation

Intersection Lineation
S0 = bedding

Mineral Elongation
Lineation (Stretching
lineation)

S1 = First cleavage
S0/S1 Intersection
S0
Random fabric

Foliation

Lineation

S1

Metamorphic Fabrics
Foliation

Penetrative Fabric

Cleavage
Schistosity

Lineation

Spaced Fabric

S-tectonite

L-tectonite

L/S-tectonite

Cleavage
A kind of foliation
Deformation Fabric
Rock splits along preferred planes

Lachlan fold belt, Australia

Photo by E.L.Miller

Paleozoic Quartzite, Brooks Range, AK

Spaced cleavage
The beginning of
Metamorphism:

Axial Planar
Cleavage

Cambrian Rocks,
South Verkhoyansk
foldbelt, Siberia

Relationship of cleavage to
folding
Axial-planar cleavage

Keck photo

Axial Planar cleavage

Processes of Cleavage
Development

Rotation of minerals
Recrystallization
Pressure solution
Crenulation

Cleavage
Development

Cleavage formation during thrusting

Vertical compactionHorizontal cleavage

Tectonic Shorteningvertical spaced cleavage

More tectonic shorteningvertical slatey cleavage

along axial planes

SEM Image of Clays in Shale

Pressure solution in Clay-rich

Limestone

Spaced Pressure-Solution Cleavage

Small quartz vein cut by a spaced crenulation/solution cleavage

Documenting the extent of material removal along these surfaces.
Photo from David Gray, Monash University, Australia

Shortening by folding vs. shortening by cleavage

Sequential diagram of % shortening by folding (initially by

buckling), cleavage development and dissolution.
Courtesy of David Gray, Monash University, Australia

Bedding/cleavage relationship

Beginning of foliation

Sandstone after compaction

Crenulation Cleavage
Small scale kinks and pressure solution surfaces

More Advanced Fabric

Crenulation Cleavage Beginning

Two Foliations!

Coarse Sandstone-Strong Foliation

S2
S1

Hard Lumps in the Pudding:

strain shadows

Pyrite
Quartz
Impressive evidence for rotation of cleavage during its formation
can sometimes be read from fibrous mineral growth in the strain
shadows of resistant minerals such as pyrite
(From Passchier and Trouw, 1996)

Strain distribution in a Shear

zone

Evidence for Rotation during

non-coaxial deformation

Shear Sense Indicators

Sense of Shear Indicators

Garnet in Qtz-mica schist

Take home ideas

Metamorphic fabric is a product of
deformation
Foliation is perpendicular to flattening
direction
Lineation is parallel to direction of shear or
flow
Bedding becomes transposed during
foliation development
Asymmetric fabrics reveal sense of shear.