Browsing by Author "Morata D."

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    Fault-Driven Differential Exhumation in a Transpressional Tectonic Setting: A Combined Microstructural and Thermochronologic Approach From the Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault System, Southern Andes (39°S)
    (2023) Roquer Rodríguez, Tomás Esteban; Arancibia Hernández, Gloria Cecilia; Seymour N.M.; Veloso Espinosa, Eugenio Andrés; Rowland J.; Stockli D.F.; Jons N.; Morata D.
    Crustal deformation in transpressive tectonic settings is partitioned across fault-bounded tectonic blocks whose borders may represent ideal loci for enhanced rock exhumation. Field and petrographic analysis, geothermobarometry, zircon U-Pb geochronology, and zircon and apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronology were applied to intrusive and metamorphic rocks to investigate exhumation patterns of fault blocks delimited by the Liquiñe-Ofqui Fault System (LOFS), Southern Andes (39°S). Our integrated analyses document the relative influences of magmatism, fault-driven differential exhumation, and fault-controlled geothermal flow along the LOFS. Magmatism was concentrated in the Early to Late Jurassic (∼182–151 Ma), Early Cretaceous (∼116–104 Ma), and Miocene (∼17–6 Ma). Dextral mylonitic deformation was most likely coeval with the Miocene pulse of magmatism. Tectonic exhumation occurred across a positive flower structure during the Late Miocene to Early Pleistocene (∼6–2 Ma), and affected kilometric-scale tectonic blocks bound by N-striking, steeply dipping faults of the LOFS. Fault-controlled geothermal flow occurred from the Early Pleistocene to the present-day (∼1.5 Ma-present). Our results suggest that individual faults not only facilitate exhumation of tectonic blocks but also act as pathways for long-term hydrothermal fluid flow.
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    Quantitative anisotropies of palaeopermeability in a strike-slip fault damage zone: Insights from micro-CT analysis and numerical simulations
    (Elsevier B.V., 2021) Gomila R.; Arancibia G.; Cembrano J.; Gomila R.; Arancibia G.; Morata D.; Cembrano J.; Gomila R.; Nehler M.; Bracke R.; Morata D.
    © 2021 Elsevier B.V.Fracturing and damage around faults related to seismogenesis can enhance hydrothermal fluid percolation, causing mineral precipitation. This study uses hydrothermally sealed microfractures across an ancient exhumed fault to unravel the 3D-spatial distribution of fault damage and related anisotropy in permeability. We studied the fault damage zone of the Jorgillo Fault, a left-lateral strike-slip fault, exposed by ca. 20 km in the Atacama Fault System, northern Chile. The study was conducted by addressing the 3D-spatial distribution of the microfracture network through X-ray micro-computed tomography and palaeopermeability modeling using a computational fluid dynamic approach, thus assessing mm-scale fault-related permeability tensors. 3D modeled fault-directed permeability ellipsoids on both sides of the fault core are transverse anisotropic, where palaeopermeability (matrix permeability) in the fault-parallel plane is higher than across-strike of the Jorgillo Fault (2.4 and 1.9 times in the eastern and western block of the fault, respectively). Modeled 3D permeability values (ca. 10−11 to 10−15 m2) show a mean overestimation factor of 8.4 of the estimated 2D permeability (ca. 10−9 to 10−12 m2). Permeability anisotropy distribution in the damage zone is related to off-fault damage generation, and could be explained by tip propagation fault growth and dynamic rupture due to earthquakes under the fault-valve mechanism. Whereas the fault would act as an impermeable seal except for post-failure, when it became highly permeable for fluids.