Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-22T20:26:48.092Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Fault gouge dating: history and evolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 July 2018

Peter Vrolijk ,
David Pevear ,
Michael Covey  and
Allan LaRiviere
Peter Vrolijk*
Affiliation:
Department of Earth and Environmental Science, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 801 Leroy Place, Socorro, NM 87801, USA 22777 Springwoods Village Parkway, Spring, TX 77389, USA
David Pevear
Affiliation:
22777 Springwoods Village Parkway, Spring, TX 77389, USA 14777 Presilla Drive, Jamul, CA 91935, USA
Michael Covey
Affiliation:
22777 Springwoods Village Parkway, Spring, TX 77389, USA 4115 Crondall Drive, Sacremento, CA 95864, USA
Allan LaRiviere
Affiliation:
ExxonMobil Canada, PO Box 2480, Station M, Calgary, Alberta T2P 3M9, Canada
*
*E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Radiometric dating of fault gouges has become a useful tool for regional tectonics studies and for exploring and understanding fault and earthquake processes. Methods to define the absolute age of faults achieved a solid scientific foundation almost 25 years ago when the development and application of illite age analysis for investigating sedimentary burial and thermal histories found a new potential application – defining the age of fold-and-thrust development. Since then, the methods have benefitted from further development and incorporation of the 40Ar/39Ar micro-encapsulation method and quantitative clay mineral evaluation to distinguish polytypes (Wildfire). These refinements to the methods have improved their application in fold-and-thrust terrains and have opened up applications in normal and strike-slip fault environments. Another important development is the use of absolute dating methods in retrograde clay gouges in which clays in a fault develop from igneous or metamorphic wall rocks that contain no clays. In addition, the method has also been shown to be useful at dating folds in fold-and-thrust belts. We think the method is now an established part of the geological toolkit, look forward to future fault structural and tectonic studies that incorporate fault ages and hope that researchers continue to probe and discover ways that the method can assist fault process studies, including earthquake fault studies.

Keywords

fault gouge datingfault ageradiometric datingillite age analysisillite2M1illite polytypes
Type
Article
Information
Clay Minerals , Volume 53 , Issue 3 , September 2018 , pp. 305 - 324
Copyright
Copyright © Mineralogical Society of Great Britain and Ireland 2018 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This paper is based on the 2017 George Brown Lecture given by P. Vrolijk and was submitted for the special issue: ‘GG01 – Clays in faults and fractures + MI-03 clay mineral reaction progress in very low-grade temperature petrologic studies’ of ICC2017.

Guest Associate Editor: S.J. Kemp

References

REFERENCES

Boles, A., van der Pluijm, B., Mulch, A., Mutlu, H., Uysal, I. T. & Warr, L. N. (2015) Hydrogen and 40Ar/39Ar isotope evidence for multiple and protracted paleofluid flow events within the long-lived North Anatolian Keirogen (Turkey). Geochemistry, Geophysics, Geosystems, 16, 1975–1987.Google Scholar
Bui, H.B., Ngo, X.T., Khuong, T.H., Golonka, J., Nguyen, T.D., Song, Y., Itaya, T. & Yagi, K. (2017) Episodes of brittle deformation within the Dien Bien Phu Fault zone, Vietnam: evidence from K–Ar age dating of authigenic illite. Tectonophysics, 695, 53–63.Google Scholar
Clauer, N., Zwingmann, H., Liewig, N. & Wendling, R. (2012) Comparative 40Ar/39Ar and K–Ar dating of illite-type clay minerals: a tentative explanation for age identities and differences. Earth-Science Reviews, 115, 76–96.Google Scholar
Davids, C., Wemmer, K., Zwingmann, H., Kohlmann, F., Jacobs, J. & Bergh, S.G. (2013) K-Ar illite and apatite fission track constraints on brittle faulting and the evolution of the northern Norwegian passive margin. Tectonophysics, 608, 196–211.Google Scholar
Duvall, A.R., Clark, M.K., van der Pluijm, B.A. & Li, C. (2011) Direct dating of Eocene reverse faulting in northeastern Tibet using Ar-dating of fault clays and low-temperature thermochronometry. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 304, 520–526.Google Scholar
Fitz-Diaz, E., Hudleston, P., Tolson, G. & van der Pluijm, B. (2014) Progressive, episodic deformation in the Mexican fold–thrust belt (central Mexico): evidence from isotopic dating of folds and faults. International Geology Review, 56, 734–755.Google Scholar
Fitz-Diaz, E. & van der Pluijm, B. (2013) Fold dating: a new Ar/Ar illite dating application to constrain the age of deformation in shallow crustal rocks. Journal of Structural Geology, 54, 174–179.Google Scholar
Foland, K.A., Hubacher, F.A. & Arehartet, G.B. (1992) 40Ar/39Ar dating of very fine-grained samples: an encapsulated-vial procedure to overcome the problem of 39Ar recoil loss. Chemical Geology (Isotope Geoscience Section), 102, 269–276.Google Scholar
Grathoff, G.H. & Moore, D.M. (1996) Illite polytype quantification using WILDFIRE-calculated patterns. Clays and Clay Minerals, 44, 835–842.Google Scholar
Haines, S.H. & van der Pluijm, B.A. (2008) Clay quantification and Ar–Ar dating of synthetic and natural gouge: application to the Miocene Sierra Mazatán detachment fault, Sonora, Mexico. Journal of Structural Geology, 30, 525–538.Google Scholar
Haines, S.H. & van der Pluijm, B.A. (2010) Dating the detachment fault system of the Ruby Mountains, Nevada: significance for the kinematics of low-angle normal faults. Tectonics, 29, 525–538.Google Scholar
Haines, S.H. & van der Pluijm, B.A. (2012) Patterns of mineral transformations in clay gouge, with examples from low-angle normal fault rocks in the western USA. Journal of Structural Geology, 43, 2–32.Google Scholar
HainesS., Lynch S., Lynch E., Mulch, A., Valley, J.W. & van der Pluijm, B. (2016) Meteoric fluid infiltration in crustal-scale normal fault systems as indicated by δ18O and δ2H geochemistry and 40Ar/39Ar dating of neoformed clays in brittle fault rocks. Lithosphere, 8, 587–600.Google Scholar
Hetzel, R., Zwingmann, H., Mulch, A., Gessner, K., Akal, C., Hampel, A., Güngör, T., Petschick, R., Mikes, T. & Wedin, F. (2013) Spatiotemporal evolution of brittle normal faulting and fluid infiltration in detachment fault systems: a case study from the Menderes Massif, western Turkey. Tectonics, 32, 364–376.Google Scholar
Hnat, J.S. & van der Pluijm, B.A. (2014) Fault gouge dating in the Southern Appalachians, USA. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 126, 639–651.Google Scholar
Kameda, J., Shimizu, M., Ujiie, K., Hirose, T., Ikari, M., Mori, J., Oohashi, K. & Kimura, G. (2015) Pelagic smectite as an important factor in tsunamigenic slip along the Japan Trench. Geology, 43, 155–158.Google Scholar
Kirschner, D.L., Cosca, M.A., Masson, H. & Hunziker, J.C. (1996) Staircase 40Ar/39Ar spectra of fine-grained white mica: timing and duration of deformation and empirical constraints on argon diffusion. Geology, 24, 747–750.Google Scholar
Kralik, M., Klima, K. & Riedmueller, G. (1987) Dating fault gouges. Nature, 327, 315–317.Google Scholar
Lyons, J.B. & Snellenberg, J. (1971) Dating faults. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 82, 1749–1752.Google Scholar
Mahon, K.I. (1996) The New “York” regression: application of an improved statistical method to geochemistry. International Geology Review, 38, 293–303.Google Scholar
Mancktelow, N., Zwingmann, H. & Mulch, A. (2016), Timing and conditions of clay fault gouge formation on the Naxos detachment (Cyclades, Greece). Tectonics, 35, 2334–2344.Google Scholar
Maxwell, D.T. & Hower, J. (1967) High-grade diagenesis and low-grade metamorphism of illite in the Precambrian Belt Series. American Mineralogist 52, 843–857.Google Scholar
Moore, D.M. & Reynolds, R.C. (1989) X-Ray Diffraction and the Identification and Analysis of Clay Minerals. Oxford University Press, Oxford, UK.Google Scholar
Nemkin, S.R., Fitz-Díaz, E., van der Pluijm, B. & van der Voo, R. (2015) Dating synfolding remagnetization: approach and field application (central Sierra Madre Oriental, Mexico). Geosphere, 11, 1617–1628.Google Scholar
Och, D.J., Offler, R. & Zwingmann, H. (2014) Constraining timing of brittle deformation and fault gouge formation in the Sydney Basin. Australian Journal of Earth Sciences, 61, 337–350.Google Scholar
Onstott, T.C., Mueller, C., Vrolijk, P.J. & Pevear, D.R. (1997) Laser 40Ar/39Ar microprobe analyses of fine-grained illite. Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta, 61, 3851–3861.Google Scholar
Pană, D.I. & van der Pluijm, B.A. (2015) Orogenic pulses in the Alberta Rocky Mountains: radiometric dating of major faults and comparison with the regional tectono-stratigraphic record. Geological Society of America Bulletin, 127, 480–502.Google Scholar
Pevear, D.R., Vrolijk, P.J. & Longstaffe, F.J. (1997) Timing of Moab Fault displacement and fluid movement intergrated with burial history using radiogenic and stable isotopes. Pp. 42–45 in: Geofluids II ’97: Contributions to the Second International Conference on Fluid Evolution, Migration and Interaction in Sedimentary Basins and Orogenic Belts (Hendry, J., Carey, P., Parnell, J., Ruffell, A. & Worden, R., editors). Geofluids Research Group, Belfast, Northern Ireland.Google Scholar
Pevear, D.R. (1999) Illite and hydrocarbon exploration. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 96, 3440–3446.Google Scholar
Plançon, A., Tsipurski, S.I. & Drits, V.A. (1985) Calculation of intensity distribution in the case of oblique texture electron diffraction. Journal of Applied Crystallography, 18, 191–196.Google Scholar
Pleuger, J., Mancktelow, N., Zwingmann, H. & Manser, M. (2012) K-Ar dating of synkinematic clay gouges from Neoalpine faults of the Central, Western and Eastern Alps. Tectonophysics, 550, 1–16.Google Scholar
Rahl, J.M., Haines, S.H. & van der Pluijm, B.A. (2011) Links between orogenic wedge deformation and erosional exhumation: evidence from illite age analysis of fault rock and detrital thermochronology of syn-tectonic conglomerates in the Spanish Pyrenees. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 307, 180–190.Google Scholar
Schleicher, A.M., van der Pluijm, B.A. & Warr, L.N. (2010) Nanocoatings of clay and creep of the San Andreas Fault at Parkfield, California. Geology, 38, 667–670.Google Scholar
Schleicher, A.M., Boles, A. & van Der Pluijm, B.A. (2015) Response of natural smectite to seismogenic heating and potential implications for the 2011 Tohoku earthquake in the Japan Trench. Geology, 43, 755–758.Google Scholar
Smeraglia, L., Billi, A., Carminati, E., Cavallo, A. & Doglioni, C. (2017) Field- to nano-scale evidence for weakening mechanisms along the fault of the 2016 Amatrice and Norcia earthquakes, Italy. Tectonophysics, 712–713, 156–169.Google Scholar
Solum, J.G., van der Pluijm, B.A. & Peacor, D.R. (2005) Neocrystallization, fabrics and age of clay minerals from an exposure of the Moab Fault, Utah. Journal of Structural Geology, 27, 1563–1576.Google Scholar
Solum, J.G. & van der Pluijm, B.A. (2007) Reconstructing the Snake River–Hoback River Canyon section of the Wyoming thrust belt through direct dating of clay-rich fault rocks. Pp. 183–196 in: Whence the Mountains? Inquiries into the Evolution of Orogenic Systems: A Volume in Honor of Raymond A. Price (Sears, J.W., Harms, T.A. & Evenchick, C.A., editors). Geological Society of America, Boulder, Colorado, USA.Google Scholar
Solum, J.G., Davatzes, N.C. & Lockner, D.A. (2010) Fault-related clay authigenesis along the Moab Fault: implications for calculations of fault rock composition and mechanical and hydrologic fault zone properties. Journal of Structural Geology, 32, 1899–1911.Google Scholar
Song, Y., Chung, D., Choi, S.J., Kang, I.M., Park, C., Itaya, T. & Yi, K. (2014) K-Ar illite dating to constrain multiple events in shallow crustal rocks: implications for the Late Phanerozoic evolution of NE Asia. Journal of Asian Earth Sciences, 95, 313–322.Google Scholar
Środoń, J., Drits, V.A., McCarty, D.K., Hsieh, J.C. & Eberl, D.D. (2001) Quantitative X-ray diffraction analysis of clay-bearing rocks from random preparations. Clays and Clay Minerals, 49, 514–528.Google Scholar
Środoń, J., Clauer, N. & Eberl, D.D. (2002) Interpretation of K-Ar dates of illitic clays from sedimentary rocks aided by modeling. American Mineralogist, 87, 1528–1535.Google Scholar
Środoń, J. (2002) Quantitative mineralogy of sedimentary rocks with emphasis on clays and with applications to K-Ar dating. Mineralogical Magazine, 66, 677–687.Google Scholar
Surace, I.R., Clauer, N., Thélin, P. & Pfeifer, H.R. (2011) Structural analysis, clay mineralogy and K-Ar dating of fault gouges from Centovalli Line (Central Alps) for reconstruction of their recent activity. Tectonophysics, 510, 80–93.Google Scholar
Tagami, T. (2012) Thermochronological investigation of fault zones. Tectonophysics, 538, 67–85.Google Scholar
Tonai, S., Ito, S., Hashimoto, Y., Tamura, H. & Tomioka, N. (2016) Complete 40Ar resetting in an ultracataclasite by reactivation of a fossil seismogenic fault along the subducting plate interface in the Mugi Mélange of the Shimanto accretionary complex, southwest Japan. Journal of Structural Geology, 89, 19–29.Google Scholar
Torgersen, E., Viola, G., Zwingmann, H. & Harris, C. (2014) Structural and temporal evolution of a reactivated brittle–ductile fault – part II: timing of fault initiation and reactivation by K-Ar dating of synkinematic illite/muscovite. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 407, 221–233.Google Scholar
Torgersen, E., Viola, G., Zwingmann, H. & Henderson, I.H. (2015) Inclined K–Ar illite age spectra in brittle fault gouges: effects of fault reactivation and wall-rock contamination. Terra Nova, 27, 106–113.Google Scholar
Tsipursky, S.I. & Drits, V.A. (1984) The distribution of octahedral cations in the 2:1 layers of dioctahedral smectites studied by oblique-texture electron diffraction. Clay Minerals, 19, 177–193.Google Scholar
Uysal, I.T., Mutlu, H., Altunel, E., Karabacak, V. & Golding, S.D. (2006) Clay mineralogical and isotopic (K-Ar, δ 18 O, δD) constraints on the evolution of the North Anatolian Fault Zone, Turkey. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 243, 181–194.Google Scholar
van der Pluijm, B.A., Hall, C.M., Vrolijk, P.J., Pevear, D.R. & Covey, M.C. (2001) The dating of shallow faults in the Earth's crust. Nature, 412, 172–175.Google Scholar
van der Pluijm, B.A., Vrolijk, P.J., Pevear, D.R., Hall, C.M. & Solum, J. (2006) Fault dating in the Canadian Rocky Mountains; evidence for Late Cretaceous and early Eocene orogenic pulses. Geology, 34, 837–840.Google Scholar
Verdel, C., Niemi, N. & van der Pluijm, B.A. (2011) Thermochronology of the Salt Spring fault: constraints on the evolution of the South Virgin–White Hills detachment system, Nevada and Arizona, USA. Geosphere, 7, 774–784.Google Scholar
Viola, G., Zwingmann, H., Mattila, J. & Käpyaho, A. (2016) K-Ar illite age constraints on the Proterozoic formation and reactivation history of a brittle fault in Fennoscandia. Terra Nova, 25, 236–244.Google Scholar
Vrolijk, P. & van der Pluijm, B.A. (1999) Clay gouge. Journal of Structural Geology, 21, 1039–1048.Google Scholar
Vrolijk, P., Urai, J.L. & Kettermann, M. (2016) Clay smear: Review of mechanisms and applications. Journal of Structural Geology, 86, 95–152.Google Scholar
Wang, Y., Zwingmann, H., Zhou, L., Lo, C.H., Viola, G. & Hao, J. (2016) Direct dating of folding events by 40Ar/39Ar analysis of synkinematic muscovite from flexural-slip planes. Journal of Structural Geology, 83, 46–59.Google Scholar
Yamasaki, S., Zwingmann, H., Yamada, K., Tagami, T. & Umeda, K. (2013) Constraining the timing of brittle deformation and faulting in the Toki granite, central Japan. Chemical Geology, 351, 168–174.Google Scholar
Ylagan, R.F., Kim, C.S., Pevear, D.R. & Vrolijk, P.J. (2002) Illite polytype quantification for accurate K–Ar age determination. American Mineralogist, 87, 1536–1545.Google Scholar
Zwingmann, H. & Mancktelow, N. (2004) Timing of Alpine fault gouges. Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 223, 415–425.Google Scholar
Zwingmann, H., Offler, R., Wilson, T. & Cox, S.F. (2004) K–Ar dating of fault gouge in the northern Sydney Basin, NSW, Australia – implications for the breakup of Gondwana. Journal of Structural Geology, 26, 2285–2295.Google Scholar
Zwingmann, H., Yamada, K. & Tagami, T. (2010a) Timing of brittle deformation within the Nojima fault zone, Japan. Chemical Geology, 275, 176–185.Google Scholar
Zwingmann, H., Mancktelow, N., Antognini, M. & Lucchini, R. (2010b) Dating of shallow faults: new constraints from the AlpTransit tunnel site (Switzerland). Geology, 38, 487–490.Google Scholar
Zwingmann, H., Han, R. & Ree, J.-H. (2011) Cretaceous reactivation of the Deokpori Thrust, Taebaeksan Basin, South Korea, constrained by K–Ar dating of clayey fault gouge. Tectonics, 30, TC5015.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: File

Vrolijk et al. supplementary material

Vrolijk et al. supplementary material 1

Download Vrolijk et al. supplementary material(File)
File 13.2 KB