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Volume 56 Supplement 12

Special Issue: Slip and Flow Processes in and below the Seismogenic Region (2)

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Heterogeneous material distribution, an important reason for generation of strain-localized mylonite and frictional slip zones in the Hidaka metamorphic belt, Hokkaido, Japan

Earth, Planets and Space volume 56, pages 1225–1232 (2004)Cite this article

Abstract

Lithological heterogeneity of low P/T metamorphic rocks in southern area of Hidaka metamorphic belt (HMB) was formed through historical development of HMB while these rocks had been laid in ductile lower crust. Many strain-localized mylonite zones (<100 m in thickness) are preferentially developed within S-type tonalite and pelitic gneiss, which are characterized by a large modal amount of phyllosilicates (biotite+muscovite+chlorite) and quartz, compared to other lithofacies in HMB. Mylonitic foliations are more conspicuous with close to the center of the shear zone associated with increase in amounts of phyllosilicate minerals, indicating fluidenhanced weakening mechanisms were operated in plastic shear zones. Pseudotachylyte veins are observed exclusively in these mylonite zones, which were generated during exhumation stage of HMB. We conclude the seismic slip zones in southern HMB had been initiated in the ductile lower crust by concentration of localized plastic shear zones within the phyllosilicate- and quartz-rich lithofacies, which were heterogeneously formed by old metamorphic and magmatic events. Then these zones were further weakened by fluid-enhanced plastic deformation, and finally seismic slips occurred at the bottom of seismogenic upper crust, during exhumation of HMB.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Depertment of Earth and Planetary Science, Graduate school of Science, University of Tokyo, Bunkyo, Tokyo, 113-0033, Japan

    Hidemi Tanaka & Koji Shimada

  2. Graduate School of Science and Technology, Niigata University, Niigata, 950-2181, Japan

    Tsuyoshi Toyoshima

  3. Japan Oil Development Co., Ltd., Tokyo, 104-0033, Japan

    Tomohiro Obara

  4. Horonobe Underground Research Center, Japan Nuclear Cycle Development Institute, Horonobe, Hokkaido, 098-3297, Japan

    Tadafumi Niizato

Authors
  1. Hidemi Tanaka
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  2. Koji Shimada
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  3. Tsuyoshi Toyoshima
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  4. Tomohiro Obara
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  5. Tadafumi Niizato
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Correspondence to Hidemi Tanaka.

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Tanaka, H., Shimada, K., Toyoshima, T. et al. Heterogeneous material distribution, an important reason for generation of strain-localized mylonite and frictional slip zones in the Hidaka metamorphic belt, Hokkaido, Japan. Earth Planet Sp 56, 1225–1232 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353344

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1186/BF03353344

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