Cathodoluminescence as a tracing technique for quartz precipitation in low velocity shear experiments

Two simulated gouges (a pure quartz and a quartz-muscovite mixture) were experimentally deformed in a ring shear apparatus at a constant low velocity under hydrothermal conditions favourable for dissolution–precipitation processes. Microstructural analysis using scanning electron microscope cathodoluminescence imaging and cathodoluminescence spectroscopy combined with chemical analysis showed that quartz dissolution and precipitation occurred in both experiments. The starting materials and deformation conditions were chosen so that dissolution–precipitation microstructures could be unambiguously identified from their cathodoluminescence signal. Precipitated quartz was observed as blue luminescent fracture fills and overgrowths with increased Al content relative to the original quartz. In the pure quartz gouge, most of the shear deformation was localized on a boundary-parallel slip surface. Sealing of fractures in a pulverized zone directly adjacent to the slip surface may have helped keeping the deformation localized. In the quartz-muscovite mixture, some evidence was observed of shear-accommodating precipitation of quartz in strain shadows, but predominantly in fractures, elongating the original grains. Precipitation of quartz in fractures implies that the length scale of diffusive mass transfer in frictional-viscous flow is shorter than the length of the quartz domains. Additionally, fracturing might play a more important role than generally assumed. Our results show that cathodoluminescence, especially combined with chemical analysis, is a powerful tool in microstructural analyses of experimentally deformed quartz-bearing material and visualizing quartz precipitation.