Late Palaeozoic deformation of post-Variscan lower crust: shear zone widening due to strain localization during retrograde shearing

The Santa Lucia Shear Zone (SLSZ, Corsica) is a granulite-facies Permian shear zone that developed after the emplacement of a deep-seated gabbroic intrusion. New structural data shows that the SLSZ results from the juxtaposition of three spatially distinct mylonite belts, which are the product of the interaction between magmatism, metamorphism and shearing over a temperature range from ~800 to ~400°C. During the earlier high-grade deformation stage, which was accompanied by decompression from ~7 to ~5 kb at ~800°C, the SLSZ has accommodated high finite strain on a shear zone ≥1 km wide. Strain became increasingly localized as temperature decreased, but rather than reactivating pre-existing shear zones as commonly expected, younger mylonites expanded into previously unsheared rock, extending the total width of the shear zone. The zonation of different fabrics across the SLSZ suggests that pre-existing compositional and grain size heterogeneities in the starting material played a key role in governing superposed generations of shear zones.