Melt origin of fault-generated pseudotachylytes demonstrated by textures

A petrographic and electron-microprobe study of fault-generated pseudotachylytes from the Outer Hebrides thrust zone, Scotland, demonstrates that the textures have resulted from the primary crystallization of a clast-laden melt rather than the devitrification of a glass, or by crushing and cataclasis. The observations are consistent with these pseudotachylytes having formed by frictional fusion followed by rapid quenching, implying faulting at shallow crustal depths.

Английский

Geology. – 1983. – Vol. 11, № 2. – P. 105–108.