Structural Evidence for Fluid-Assisted Shear Failure within a Ductile Shear Zone

Recent observations of seismic slip occurring below the seismogenic zone of large fault zones have emphasized the significance of coeval ductile and brittle processes at high temperatures. We present observations of a shear zone contained within the Saddlebag Lake pendant of the eastern Sierra Nevada, CA, where Triassic and Jurassic metavolcanics and metasediments are highly strained in a high-temperature shear zone. Transposed bedding and cleavage that define a flattening fabric, dextrally rotated porphyroclasts, and a steep, pervasive lineation together suggest an overall transpressive kinematic regime for the ductile deformation. The high-strain rocks exhibit multiple episodes of vein formation, indicating a prolonged migration of hydrothermal fluids throughout the system. Crosscutting relationships and mineral assemblages define discrete sets of differently oriented veins. The veins form by fracture, but many veins are folded and boudinaged, showing synkinematic brittle and ductile deformation. We document foliation-parallel quartz veins that show shear displacement from the geometry of pull-apart structures and offsets of earlier veins. Synkinematic equilibrium mineral assemblages within the host rock and dynamic recrystallization of the quartz veins show they formed at temperatures around 400 to 500°C. The shear fractures have horizontal trace lengths of up to a few meters and displacements range from 2-3 mm to ~3 cm, with 1-5 mm of opening. Assuming the observed offset in the fractures occurred in a single event, these measurements are consistent with stress drops of 1 to 10 MPa. We interpret these observations to show that the veins formed as a result of high pore fluid pressure that caused shear failure at low effective stresses. Because foliated rocks are mechanically anisotropic, the foliation provided planes of weakness for failure with a preferred orientation. Evidence for shear failure occurring within crystal-plastic shear zones at high temperatures suggests the veins within this shear zone-fault system may record similar processes to those causing tectonic tremor in other continental transform fault zones.