BEDDING PARALLEL VEINS AND THEIR RELATIONSHIP TO FOLDING

Laminated bedding parallel veins hosted in turbiditic sandstone shale sequences from central Victoria, Australia, consist of stacked, millimetre thick, sub-parallel sheets of quartz separated by micaceous layers, wall rock slivers and pressure solution seams. They have very high length to thickness ratios, are laterally continuous over tens to hundreds of metres, and have relatively uniform thickness compared to other vein types. They are intimately associated with and folded by chevron folds, and the quartz grain shape elongation lineation is commonly orthogonal to mesoscopic and macroscopic fold hinge lines. The bedding parallel veins have two morphological forms. Type I are thin (commonly 5-10 cm) laminated veins which have complex microstructures dominated by phyllosilicate inclusion surfaces, related to oblique opening along bedding with varying rates of deposition (opening) relative to shear displacement (slip) along the bedding surfaces. More common are Type II, thicker (generally <20 cm), banded veins of alternating milky-white quartz with wall rock inclusion laminae (formerly fragments) bounded by stylolitic partings parallel to both bedding and the vein margins. The inclusion surfaces in Type I veins track the opening direction during vein formation. Vein opening-sense criteria suggest cyclical pore fluid pressure fluctuations which predate the amplification and propagation of the host chevron folds; i.e. prior to attainment of significant limb dip. Different layer parallel shortening and amplification rates for individual layers within the sedimentary sequence may lead to bedding parallel veins with an opening sense unrelated to the flexural slip folds which eventually follow.