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Reactivation and strain localisation in Bhavani shear zone, South India

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Journal of the Geological Society of India

Abstract

Shear markers and shear sense indicators from the Bhavani shear zone, a member of the shear system separating the northern Archaean and southern Pan African granulite terranes of the South Indian shield, with differently exhumed crustal blocks, suggest multiphase reactivation. This is revealed by textural and geochemical characteristics of mylonites which indicate an event of prograde epidote-amphibolite facies metamorphism of the previously retrograded protolith of shear zone rocks. The amphibole varies progressively from an initial magnesio-hornblende to ferrotschermakitic hornblende with increasing Al and K while the plagioclase maintains oligoclase composition (An21-25). P-T estimates suggest metamorphic conditions of 634°C - 720°C at 3.6±0.5 to 5.8±0.5 kbar. Strain partitioning during the reactivation of the shear zone prior to the Pan African event, is responsible for the gradation in the intensity of mylonitic fabric as well as some of the opposing shear sense indicators.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Kerala, Kariavattom, Trivandrum, India, 695 581

    V. Prasannakumar

  2. Institute of Geophysics and Tectonics, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK

    Andrew McCaig

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Prasannakumar, V., McCaig, A. Reactivation and strain localisation in Bhavani shear zone, South India. J Geol Soc India 88, 421–432 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12594-016-0505-7

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