Evidence for dominant grain-boundary sliding deformation in greenschist- and amphibolite-grade polymineralic ultramylonites from the Redbank Deformed Zone, Central Australia

Microstructural and textural investigations by scanning (SEM) and transmission electron microscopy (TEM) techniques have been performed on samples taken across two quartzo-feldspathic mylonite zones from the Redbank Deformed Zone, Central Australia. One has been deformed at greenschist-facies (GS), the second at amphibolite-facies (Am), conditions. With increasing strain the rock type changes from protomylonite to mylonite to ultramylonite. The protomylonites and mylonites consist of alternating quartz and polymineralic quartz-feldspar bands. At the highest strains a homogeneous, fine-grained polymineralic ultramylonite occurs. Shear-zone geometry and microscale structures indicate that these ultramylonites experienced higher strains and were weaker than the encapsulating protomylonites and mylonites. TEM and SEM studies of the ultramylonites reveal a rectangular to square grain shape, a continuous alignment of grain and interphase boundaries across several grain diameters, a grain size (GS 0.5 μm; Am 5–11 μm) less than the equilibrium subgrain size, and open and void-containing grain and interphase boundaries. Analysis of local textures by electron back-scatter diffraction (EBSD) in the SEM showed a very weak crystallographic preferred orientation (CPO) for the quartz. The grain misorientation relationships are not consistent, with dislocation creep being the dominant deformation mechanism. All structures are of the type expected if grain-boundary sliding processes had contributed significantly to the deformation. Consequently, the deformation of such quartzo-feldspathic rocks, and by implication the rheology of the Redbank Deformed Zone, must have been controlled by the mechanical properties of these fine-grained polymineralic ultramylonites, deforming by grain-boundary sliding processes. This is in contrast to the pure quartz bands which deformed by dislocation-creep mechanisms and were less important in the rheology of the Redbank Deformed Zone.