Hydrothermal quartz formation during fluctuations of brittle shear-zone activity and fluid flow: grain growth and deformation structures of the Pfahl shear zone (Germany)

The Bavarian Pfahl shear zone is a WNW-ESE trending dextral strike-slip shear zone at the SW margin of the Bohemian Massif (Central Europe). It was discontinuously active during decreasing PT-conditions, i.e. from ductile to brittle, from the late-Carboniferous to the late-Cretaceous - Paleocene times. Triassic hydrothermal activity produced a 150 km long and 30-100 m wide quartz dyke along the main fault, surrounded by sheared basement rocks. Within a zone of >10 m metasomatism transformed the wall rocks to mostly kaolinite, chlorite and phyllosilicates. The quartz dyke exhibits a layered to lenticular and partly symmetric structure with different types of quartz masses, transected by a complex quartz vein network. This already indicates pulses of fluid flux and fragmentation during the lifetime of the shear zone. Analyses by optical microscopy, cathodoluminescence (CL) and SEM-EDX reveal at least four subsequent stages of quartz crystallization and fragmentation. (i) The oldest generation of quartz is represented by a homogeneous dark grey to reddish quartz mass made up by ~10-20 μm-sized crystals. It contains mm- to cm-sized angular wall-rock fragments, completely altered to kaolinite, indicating intense wall-rock alteration prior to the earliest event of silica precipitation. This rules out the possibility that the quartz mass developed from silicification of the wall rocks. This first type of quartz occurs as cm- to dm-large angular fragments in (ii) a light grey to pink quartz mass formed by ~10-50 μm-sized crystals. The different colours result from variable types and amounts of inclusions. Quartz of both generations shows random crystallographic orientations and complex inclusion structures. It probably developed during two fragmentation events and possibly from a silica gel precursor that crystallized after precipitation. (iii) The third quartz generation formed as a set of mm- to dm-wide veins roughly parallel to the trend of the Pfahl zone, crosscutting the first generations of fine-grained quartz mass and the wall rocks, in connection to intense fracturing and brecciation. The complex geometry of the vein sets points to multiple fluid injections and brecciation, as additionally indicated by coarse quartz with different inclusion and CL intensity. Temporal changes of strain rate are indicated by crystal plastic deformation structures in quartz, which overprint brittle structures. (iv) The fourth quartz generation occurs in mm- to dm-thick quartz veins, partly open as geodes, filling N-S oriented cm- to dm-spaced fractures that crosscut the earlier quartz masses and veins and extend at least several meters into the wall rock. They indicate the last activity of the shear-zone in a constant kinematic framework. Summarizing, the Pfahl shear zone shows brittle-ductile deformation during the long-term activity of a large-scale hydrothermal system. Consequently, it represents an excellent example where different generations of quartz precipitation can be connected to fluctuations of fluid flow and strain rate.