Exhumation of high-P marbles of the Samaná Terrane (Northern Hispaniola): Insights from paleostress and microstructural imprints

- Present microstructures and tectonic fabric of high-P marbles developed during the exhumation of a subducted carbonate wedge.
- Calcite tectonic fabrics enclose relict of cataclasis partially erase by deformation mechanisms.
- Grain size distributions display two distinct power-law fits: D2 characterized the cataclasis.
- Only small increase in fluid pressure by dehydration reaction is needed to produce cataclasis.
- Most of the data are consistent with an initial forced exhumation of the carbonate slab.

Paleostress variations and microstructural imprints of a subducted carbonate slab record changes in mechanical strength during its exhumation. The slab studied here forms part of the high-P Samaná Terrane located on the north-eastern margin of the Hispaniola Island. Cold-cathodoluminescence images reveal relict cataclastic fabrics within the highest-pressure marbles of the Punta Balandra and Santa Bárbara Schists structural units, formed in the early stages of exhumation at P-T conditions ca. 2.0 GPa − 500 °C. Cataclastic flow was triggered after a moderate increase of water content (1.2% < w.t. H2O < 1.8%). Accordingly, grain sizes larger than equivalent radius ri = 40 μm preserve distribution of power law type with fractal dimensions D2 = 2.43 in Punta Balandra unit and D2 = 2.72 in Santa Bárbara unit. After cataclastic flow, the stress dropped and grain comminution conducted the marbles to the dissolution-precipitation domain. Then, as exhumation progressed, the effective stress increased and calcite intracrystalline plasticity process dominated. Calcite-twinning incidence and recrystallized grain-size indicate maximum paleostress ca. 350 MPa and mean flow paleostress ≈ 130 MPa. SEM-EBSD analyses show similar weak type-c calcite fabrics in all high-P carbonate units, even though they record different metamorphic P peak. Therefore, intracrystalline plasticity was probably dominant during the development of the final tectonic fabric. Finer grain-size distributions are out of fractal range, with D1 < 1, because of the further superposed deformation. Most of the data are consistent with an initial forced exhumation model of the carbonate slab in a brittle-ductile rheology of the confined plate interface.