ASSIGNMENT OF METAMORPHIC PETROLOGY REGIONAL

OROGENIC METAMORPHIC TEXTURES

SUBMITTED BY: PRIYA CHOUDHARY
Roll No: 3910
M.SC GEOLOGY (2nd SEMESTER)
SUBMITTED TO: MISS NEHA MAM
 INTRODUCTION
Regional metamorphism occurs over broad areas in the lithosphere, possibly influenced
by the heat supply. Regional metamorphic rock results from regional metamorphism and
usually develops a flaky texture. It is distributed most widely in metamorphic rock, from
Archean to even Cenozoic.
Regional metamorphism is metamorphism that occurs over broad areas of the crust. Most
regionally metamorphosed rocks occur in areas that have undergone deformation during an
orogenic event resulting in mountain belts that have since been eroded to expose the
metamorphic rocks. Orogenic metamorphism is the most common tye of metamorphism. It
commonly occurs in island arcs and near continental margins because orogenic belts typically
form at convergent plates boundaries.
 REGIONAL OROGENIC METAMORPHIC TEXTURES
These textures are appropriately called dynamo thermal textures because they occur
in any situation where deformation and heat are combined. Such situations range
from deep shear zones to strained contact aureoles, but the majority of dynamo
thermal rocks are found in ancient orogenic belts.
Orogenic belts are complex tectonic environments where plate convergence
produces a number of deformational and thermal patterns. We can envision an
orogeny as a long-term mountain building process, such as the Appalachian
Orogeny or the Alpine Orogeny. Orogenies are not continuous, however, and an
orogeny may comprise more than one tectonic event, believed to result most
commonly from short-term changes in plate motion, such as accelerated subduction
rate or (micro)- continent accretion. Tectonic events, in turn, may consist of more
than one deformation.
 TECTONITES
A Tectonites is a deformed rock with a texture that records the deformation by developing a
preferred mineral orientation of some sort. The fabric of a tectonite is the complete spatial and
geometrical configuration of its textural and structural elements. Foliation is a general term for
any planar textural element in a rock, whereas lineation similarly applies to linear elements.
Foliations and lineations can be subdivided into primary (pre-deformational) ones, such as
bedding, and secondary (deformational) ones. Minerals may be oriented by either dimensional
preferred orientation (DPO) or lattice preferred orientation (LPO), or both. Although they are
treated separately, there is probably a complete natural gradation from pure foliations through
combined foliations and lineations to pure lineations.
 FOLIATIONS
A number of features can define a secondary foliation, including platy
minerals, linear minerals, layers, fractures, and flattened elements.
Metamorphic foliations are divided into cleavages (fine penetrative foliations), schistosity
(coarser penetrative foliations), and gneissose structure (poorly developed coarse foliations or
segregated layers). The nomenclature of cleavages suffers from an overabundance of terms that
were used in different ways by different investigators and often confused the purely descriptive
from the genetic aspects. A Penrose Conference was held in 1976 to reach a consensus on the
description and origins of rock cleavages (Platt, 1976). Although consensus was not
immediately forthcoming, Powell (1979) followed it up and proposed a classification of
cleavages (includingschistosity) that was purely descriptive, thereby allowing us a universal
nomenclature unencumbered by inferences about cleavage origins. Geological processes are
usually slow, and the majority of petrological phenomena that we see today have remained
unchanged since scientists first observed them. Interpretations as to the origin of the features, on
the other hand, change often as new ideas and data come to light. Thus, it is always a good idea
to separate our observations from our interpretations.
 MORPHOLOGICAL CLASSIFICATION OF
CLEAVAGE AND SCHISTOSITY

The first step in characterizing a cleavage is to decide whether the foliation

elements are continuous or spaced. Ina continuous foliation, the aligned
minerals define a foliation that does not vary across the area of the thin
section. In a spaced foliation, the fabric of the rock is separated into unfoliated
microlithons separated by cleavage domains (fractures or concentrations of
platy minerals). Of course, there is a continuum between these idealized
endmembers, and continuous cleavage grades through zonal to spaced
cleavage. Fine-grained continuous cleavage may also be called slaty cleavage
because it typifies slates. As Vernon (1998, 2004) pointed out, however, slates
may develop some degree of spacing into anastomosing lenticular P-rich and
Q-rich domains even at very low grades. Most petrologists still refer to such
finely spaced cleavages as slaty cleavage. Phyllites have a slightly coarser
continuous cleavage, and, when the individual aligned crystals become large
enough to see with the unaided eye, the foliation is called a schistosity.
A crenulation cleavage is actually two cleavages.
The first cleavage may be a slaty cleavage or schistosity that becomes micro
folded. The fold axial planes typically format a high angle to σ1 of the second
compressional phase.

LINEATIONS
Foliations generally occur when and lineations generally occur when, or when
shear smears out an object. there are also several types of lineations. They
usually result from the elongation of minerals or mineral aggregates
(stretching lineations). Stretched pebbles in deformed conglomerates is a
common example. Lineations may also result from parallel growth of
elongateminerals, fold axes, or intersecting planar elements (cleavage and
bedding, or two cleavages).