Late magmatic healed fractures in granitoids and their influence on subsequent solid-state deformation

Late magmatic fractures developed during final stages of magma crystallization are recorded in many granitoid plutons by planar trails of magmatic biotite and/or leucocratic veins but have not been previously described. Such biotite-rich trails, with lengths of a few centimetres to several tens of centimetres, widths of a few millimetres, and a variable orientation, are ubiquitous in meta-granitoids of the Neves area (Tauern Window, Eastern Alps, Italy). These pre-Alpine granitoids were metamorphosed to upper amphibolite facies and deformed during the Alpine orogeny, allowing the effect of planar healed magmatic fractures on the nucleation of subsequent solid-state ductile shear zones to be directly assessed. Numerical models considering power-law viscous materials predict that planar arrays of a weaker mineral (e.g. biotite) oriented at around 45° to the shortening direction should nucleate and localize viscous deformation. However, no discernible localization on the natural small-scale biotite trails is observed, even when they delineate planes that were well-oriented for shear reactivation. In contrast, heterogeneous shear zones nucleated on larger scale (>1–10 m long) planar compositional or structural boundaries such as joints, dykes, quartz veins, alteration layers surrounding veins, and zones of magma mingling outlined by densely packed clusters of basic enclaves, irrespective of their orientation relative to the imposed shortening direction. Clearly some crucial aspect is missing from purely viscous numerical models. We propose that this missing aspect is the observed interplay between fracture and flow, with new fractures developing and localizing shear at bulk strains too low for discernible localization to occur on the pre-existing healed magmatic fractures. Natural granitoids have a truly elasto-plasto-viscous rheology even at low differential stress (as in the Neves example) and for high grade metamorphic conditions considered as typical of wet “ductile” middle crust.