The simulation of fabric development during plastic deformation and its application to quartzite: the influence of deformation history

Abstract

The effect of deformation history on the development of crystallographic preferred orientation in quartzities has been simulated using a computer program based on the Taylor-Bishop-Hill analysis. Model quartzities with different combinations of glide systems have been subjected to various coaxial and non-coaxial deformation histories. It is possible to obtain information from the fabrics that develop during simple histories; for example, the location of the axis of extension is generally associated with a pole free area on a c-axis plot, and progressive axial shortening, plane strain and axial shortening produce characteristic fabrics. In progressive simple shear the fabric skeleton becomes asymmetric relative to the sense of shear and a-axes preferentially align in the flow plane parallel to the flow direction. However, this example illustrates that the fabric orientation and characteristics are controlled by the kinematic framework and bear only an indirect relationship to the finite strain accumulated to that point in the history.

The imprint of the closing stages of deformation limits to some degree the use of crystallographic fabrics as a tool for structural geologists, but in favourable circumstances data can be obtained concerning characteristics of the deformation history, on the scale of the hand-specimen, for the last part of this history.