The Border Ranges shear zone, Glacier Bay National Park, Alaska: An example of an ancient brittle-ductile transition zone
- Univ. of Tennessee, Knoxville, TN (United States). Dept. of Geological Sciences
The Border Ranges fault system in southern Alaska forms the tectonic boundary between the Peninsular-Alexander-Wrangellia (PAW) composite terrane and the Chugach terrane. In Glacier Bay National Park, the Border Ranges fault system is a north-northwest trending, 10 kilometer wide zone of ductile shear zones and brittle faults hereafter referred to as the Border Ranges shear zone. Three-dimensional strain analyses of plagioclase lathes in the foliated calc-alkaline plutons reveals a strong flattening fabric with the plane of maximum flattening (XY-plane) oriented northwest-southeast and dipping steeply to the southwest. The distribution and shapes of sub-elliptical mafic enclaves in the calc-alkaline plutons show a similarly oriented flattening fabric. Coeval brittle and ductile deformational processes are indicated by: (1) ductile shear zones narrowing to brittle faults at the outcrop scale; and (2) undulose quartz with subgrain development, kinked biotite, twinned and undulose feldspar, and fractured and twinned hornblende often within a single thin-section. Amphibole geobarometry indicates that two of the calc-alkaline plutons deformed by the shear zone crystallized at pressures of approximately 3 kilobars equivalent to 10 to 12 kilometers depth. Metamorphic mineral assemblages within the mylonites indicate deformation under lower greenschist facies conditions (300--400 C). The shear zone may represent a snapshot of the brittle-ductile transition of an ancient convergent-transform plate boundary. As such, this unique exposure may be an ancient analogue for the brittle-ductile transition of the present day San Andreas fault system.
- OSTI ID:
- 5639442
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-921058-; CODEN: GAAPBC
- Journal Information:
- Geological Society of America, Abstracts with Programs; (United States), Vol. 24:7; Conference: 1992 annual meeting of the Geological Society of America (GSA), Cincinnati, OH (United States), 26-29 Oct 1992; ISSN 0016-7592
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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