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Structural reactivation in plate tectonics controlled by olivine crystal anisotropy

Nature Geoscience volume 2, pages 423–427 (2009)Cite this article

Abstract

Reactivation of structures inherited from previous collisional or rifting events, especially lithospheric-scale faults, is a major feature of plate tectonics. Its expression ranges from continental break-up along ancient collisional belts1,2 to linear arrays of intraplate magmatism and seismicity3,4. Here we use multiscale numerical models to show that this reactivation can result from an anisotropic mechanical behaviour of the lithospheric mantle due to an inherited preferred orientation of olivine crystals. We explicitly consider an evolving anisotropic viscosity controlled by the orientation of olivine crystals in the mantle. We find that strain is localized in domains where shear stresses on the inherited mantle fabric are high, and that this leads to shearing parallel to the inherited fabric. During rifting, structural reactivation induced by anisotropy results in oblique extension, followed by either normal extension or failure. Our results suggest that anisotropic viscosity in the lithospheric mantle controls the location and orientation of intraplate deformation zones that may evolve into new plate boundaries, and causes long-lived lithospheric-scale wrench faults, contributing to the toroidal component of plate motions on Earth.

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Figure 1: Geometry, boundary conditions and shear-strain ɛx y distribution in a model with an ’inherited shear zone’ at 45∘ of the imposed extension direction after a total stretching of 40%.
Figure 2: Evolution of strain rates in the inherited texture zone (thick lines) and in the surroundings (thin lines) as a function of the imposed extension.
Figure 3: Poloidal–toroidal partitioning in the models.

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Acknowledgements

This study was partially funded by the programme Action Marges of the Institut National des Sciences de l’Univers, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (INSU-CNRS), France. Collaboration with J.S. was supported by a CNRS-CONICET cooperation program. M.K. benefited from a PhD scholarship from the Ministère de la Recherche et de l’Enseignement Supérieur, France.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Geosciences Montpellier, CNRS & Université de Montpellier 2, Pl. E Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier cedex 5, France

    Andréa Tommasi, Mickael Knoll, Alain Vauchez & Catherine Thoraval

  2. MINES ParisTech, CEMEF—Center for Materials Forming, UMR CNRS 7635, BP207, 06904 Sophia Antipolis Cedex, France

    Mickael Knoll & Roland Logé

  3. Instituto de Fisica de Rosario, CONICET, Universidad Nacional de Rosario, 2000 Rosario, Argentina

    Javier W. Signorelli

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  1. Andréa Tommasi
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Contributions

This work is the outcome of a study on the effect of olivine fabrics on the mechanical behaviour of the continental lithosphere started by A.V. and A.T. M.K. ran all simulations as part of his Ph.D. under the supervision of A.T. and R.L. J.W.S. performed the coupling between the VPSC and the FEM codes. C.T. assisted in the analysis of the modelled flow fields.

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Correspondence to Andréa Tommasi.

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Tommasi, A., Knoll, M., Vauchez, A. et al. Structural reactivation in plate tectonics controlled by olivine crystal anisotropy. Nature Geosci 2, 423–427 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1038/ngeo528

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