The Capo Castello Shear Zone (Eastern Elba Island): Deformation at the Contact between Oceanic and Continent Tectonic Units

Abstract

Low-grade mylonitic shear zones are commonly characterized by strain partitioning, with alternating low strain protomylonite and high strain mylonite and ultramylonite, where the shearing is most significant. In this paper the capo Castello shear zone is analyzed. It has developed along the contact between continental quartzo-feldspathic, in the footwall, and oceanic ophiolitic units, in the hangingwall. The shear zone shows, mostly within the serpentinites, a heterogeneous strain localization, characterized by an alternation of mylonites and ultramylonites, without a continuous strain gradient moving from the protolith (i.e., the undeformed host rock) to the main tectonic contact between the two units. The significance of this mylonitic shear zone is examined in terms of the dominant deformation mechanisms, and its regional tectonic frame. The combination of the ultramafic protolith metamorphic processes and infiltration of derived fluids caused strain softening by syntectonic metamorphic reactions and dissolution–precipitation processes, leading to the final formation of low strength mineral phases. It is concluded that the strain localization, is mainly controlled by the rock-fluid interactions within the ophiolitic level of the Capo Castello shear zone. Regarding the regional setting, this shear zone can be considered as an analogue of the initial stage of the post-collisional extensional fault, of which mature stage is visible along the Zuccale fault zone, a regional structure affecting eastern Elba Island.