Rheology

Rheology is the study of the ductile flow of minerals in response to stress. The Mantle Processes group uses rheological analysis of peridotites to examine a range of mantle processes, including the formation of localized zones of deformation; the relationship between olivine lattice preferred orientation and seismic anisotropy; and the effect of orthopyroxene on olivine deformation.

Olivine Deformation Mechanism Maps:


Matlab files for for plotting deformation mechanism maps are available here: OlivineDefMaps_v11Public.

Examples of Naturally Deformed Peridotites:

Peridotite Ultramylonite, Shaka Fracture Zone, Southwest Indian Ridge (Warren & Hirth, 2006)
Shear Zone P, Josephine Peridotite, Oregon (Warren et al., 2008)