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Microstructural study of natural fractures in Cape Roberts Project 3 core, Western Ross Sea, Antarctica

Open-File Report 2007-1047-SRP-053
By: , , and 
https://doi.org/10.3133/ofr20071047SRP053

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Abstract

Microstructures in natural fractures in core recovered offshore from Cape Roberts, Ross Sea, Antarctica, provide new constraints on the relative timing of faulting and sedimentation in the Victoria Land Basin along the Transantarctic Mountain rift flank. This study characterizes the textures, fabrics and grain-scale structures from thin section analysis of samples of microfaults, veins, and clastic dikes. Microfaults are abundant and display two different types of textures, interpreted to record two different deformation modes: pre-lithification shearing and brittle faulting of cohesive sediment. Both clastic dikes and calcite veins commonly follow fault planes, indicating that injections of liquefied sediment and circulating fluids used pre-existing faults as conduits. The close association of clastic injections, diagenetic mineralization, and faulting indicates that faulting was synchronous with deposition in the rift basin

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Publication type Report
Publication Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Title Microstructural study of natural fractures in Cape Roberts Project 3 core, Western Ross Sea, Antarctica
Series title Open-File Report
Series number 2007-1047-SRP-053
DOI 10.3133/ofr20071047SRP053
Year Published 2007
Language English
Publisher U.S. Geological Survey
Publisher location Reston, VA
Description 4 p.
Larger Work Type Report
Larger Work Subtype USGS Numbered Series
Larger Work Title Antarctica: A Keystone in a Changing World--Online Proceedings for the Tenth International Symposium on Antarctic Earth Sciences. Santa Barbara, California, U.S.A.--August 26 to September 1, 2007
Other Geospatial Antarctica;Ross Sea
Online Only (Y/N) N
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