Direct observation of strain localization along the differentially exhumed SEMP fault system, Austria

Structural analysis of key outcrops from ~5 to ~25 km exhumation depth along the Salzach-Ennstal-Mariazell-Puchberg (SEMP) fault-zone in Austria reveal highly localized deformation in the seismogenic crust down through the brittle-ductile transition (BDT), widening into a 2-km-wide mylonite at mid-crustal levels. Specifically, grain-size distribution analysis of brittley-deformed dolomite exhumed from the seismogenic crust reveals that strain progressively localized into a 10-m-wide fault core. Microstructural analysis of marbles and greywackes exhumed from the BDT shows off-fault ductile deformation only accommodated a minor portion of the displacement along the SEMP, with most of the strain localized along the contact between these two units. Similar analysis of gneisses and amphibolite-facies metasediments exhumed from just below the BDT shows that at this depth, the majority of displacement is focused into a 100-m-wide ductile shear zone, with further evidence for strain localization along grain boundaries, creating throughgoing shear zones at the grain-scale. At deeper exhumation levels (Rosenberg and Schneider, 2008), the SEMP is a 1-2-km-wide mylonite zone that extends to depths of at least 25 km. Collectively, these data indicate that slip along the SEMP was highly localized from throughout the seismogenic crust downward into at least the mid-crust.