Serpentine Dehydration Curves and their Bearing on Serpentinite Deformation in Orogenesis

Abstract

Serpentinite bodies characteristically occur in regions that have undergone an orogenesis of alpine type. The more recent recognition that significant quantities of serpentinites are associated with the oceanic crust, oceanic trenches and mid-oceanic ridges extends the possible role of serpentinites in tectonic processes which involve the crust and upper mantle. Thus the experimental deformation of serpentinite at high pressures and temperatures has important implications for theories of the tectonic emplacement of serpentinites and principal tectonic processes such as mountain building. Raleigh and Paterson have found that at low temperatures and high pressures serpentine has strength comparable with granite. With an increase in temperature sealed specimens showed marked weakening accompanied by the development of brittleness.