Formation of Spaced Cleavage and Concurrent Mass Removal of Si02, Meguma Goup Metagreywackes, Goldenville, Nova Scotia

Increasing inequancy and decreasing fluctuation of long axes of quartz grains from lithons to cleavage zones in Heguna Group metagreywackes indicate an increase in strain. This strain increase is best ascribed to pervasive pressure solution in which quartz grains are trimmed to yield nearly rectangular sections in cleavage zones, as compared to their irregular outlines in lithons. Shortening calculated from a one-dimensional strain model reaches 60-7OZ in cleavage zones. Comparable values of shortening are calculated from modal analyses, and from chemical analyses of cleavages and lithons. The Implication of such shortening is that about ten percent of all the quartz in the original rock has been removed from the immediate system. This demands volumes of water about one order of magnitude greater than any likely content of connate water. The transport system was a dynamic one, involving most of the rock volume. RÉSUMÉ L'accroieseaent de l'inégalité et la baisse des fluctuations des longs axes des grains de quartz, des lithons jusqu'aux zones de clivage, dans les métagrauwackes du groupe Méguma, indique une haueae de tension. Cette hausse de tension est attribute à la solution de pression pénétrante dans laquelle les grains de quartz sont tallés et donnent des sections presque rectangulaires dans les zones de clivage, comparé à leur profile irrégulier dans les lithons. Le raccourcissement, calculi à partlr d'un modèle de pression unidimensionnel, atteint des valeurs entre 60 et 702 dans les zones de clivage. Des valeurs comparables du raccourcissement sont calculées à partlr d'analyses modales, et d'analyses chimiques des clivages et des lithons. L'implicatlon de ce raccourclssement est qu'environ dix pourcent de tout le quartz de la roche originaire, a été supérime du système immédiate Cela exige des volumes d'eau d'un ordre de grandeur plus important que n'importe quel système inné d'eau vraissembable. Ce système de transport était un système dynamique qui comprenait la majorité du volume des roches. [Traduit par le journal

Equatorial Layered Deposits in Arabia Terra, Mars: Facies and process variability

We investigated the equatorial layered deposits (ELDs) of Arabia Terra, Mars, in Firsoff crater and on the adjacent plateau. We produced a detailed geological map that included a survey of the relative stratigraphic relations and crater count dating. We reconstructed the geometry of the layered deposits and inferred some compositional constraints. ELDs drape and onlap the plateau materials of late Noachian age, while they are unconformably covered by early and middle Amazonian units. ELDs show the presence of polyhydrated sulfates. The bulge morphology of the Firsoff crater ELDs appears to be largely depositional. The ELDs on the plateau display a sheet-drape geometry. ELDs show different characteristics between the crater and the plateau occurrences. In the crater they consist of mounds made of breccia sometimes displaying an apical pit laterally grading into a light-toned layered unit disrupted in a meter-scale polygonal pattern. These units are commonly associated with fissure ridges suggestive of subsurface sources. We interpret the ELDs inside the craters as spring deposits, originated by fl uid upwelling through the pathways likely provided by the fractures related to the crater formations, and debouching at the surface through the fi ssure ridges and the mounds, leading to evaporite precipitation. On the plateau, ELDs consist of rare mounds, fl atlying deposits, and cross-bedded dune fields. We interpret these mounds as possible smaller spring deposits, the fl at-lying deposits as playa deposits, and the cross-bedded dune fi elds as aeolian deposits. Groundwater fluctuations appear to be the major factor controlling ELD deposition