Strain localization during high temperature creep of marble: The effect of inclusions

• Marbles containing inclusions were experimentally deformed in the ductile regime.
• Weak inclusions initiate strain localization by local stress concentration.
• The localized process zone shows strong twinning, CPO, and dynamic recrystallization.
• Deformation mechanisms plot at the boundary between dislocation and diffusion creep.
• The bulk strength of twisted aggregates is close to the isostress bound.

The deformation of rocks in the Earth's middle and lower crust is often localized in ductile shear zones. To better understand the initiation and propagation of high-temperature shear zones induced by the presence of structural and material heterogeneities, we performed deformation experiments in the dislocation creep regime on Carrara marble samples containing weak (limestone) or strong (novaculite) second phase inclusions. The samples were mostly deformed in torsion at a bulk shear strain rate of ≈ 1.9 × 10− 4 s− 1 to bulk shear strains γ between 0.02 and 2.9 using a Paterson-type gas deformation apparatus at 900 °C temperature and 400 MPa confining pressure. At low strain, twisted specimens with weak inclusions show minor strain hardening that is replaced by strain weakening at γ > 0.1–0.2. Peak shear stress at the imposed conditions is about 20 MPa, which is ≈ 8% lower than the strength of intact samples. Strain progressively localized within the matrix with increasing bulk strain, but decayed rapidly with increasing distance from the inclusion tip. Microstructural analysis shows twinning and recrystallization within this process zone, with a strong crystallographic preferred orientation, dominated by {r} and (c) slip in < a >. Recrystallization-induced weakening starts at local shear strain of about 1 in the process zone, corresponding to a bulk shear strain of about 0.1. In contrast, torsion of a sample containing strong inclusions deformed at similar stress as inclusion-free samples, but do not show localization. The experiments demonstrate that the presence of weak heterogeneities initiates localized creep at local stress concentrations around the inclusion tips. Recrystallization-induced grain size reduction may only locally promote grain boundary diffusion creep. Accordingly, the bulk strength of the twisted aggregate is close to or slightly below the lower (isostress) strength bound, determined from the flow strength and volume fraction of matrix and inclusions.