Paul Dennis edited geology3.tex  over 8 years ago

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Dirtlow Rake (GR) is a major WSW-ENE trending strike slip fault lying just to the south of Castleton, Figure 1. The fault is exposed in a series of old surface workings where excavations up to 10 metres wide and several 10's of metres long have been made for the commercial extraction of galena and spahalerite, Figure 3. These old pits can be traced along the length of the fault for a distance of more than 10km. Where exposed individual slip planes show well developed sub-horizontal slickensides. Within the fault There there  is extensive development of a complex vein fill dominated by calcite with variable amounts of barute, baryte,  fluorite, galena and spahalerite. The calcite occurs as large, elongate, syntaxial crystals. The growth form is often sparry with dog-tooth terminations indicative of scalenohedral terminations. Thin section examination shows the crystals to grow in optical continuity despite many apparent  growth into a void. In thin-section hiatuses. These are marked by planes with high inclusion denisites and the presence of small calcite crystals with an apparent random orientation, Figure 4.  for the top of the platformevidence for high pore fluid pressures during the period of faulting with the development of mode I fractures and in places a pervasive mesoscale fracture network. Fracture dimensions range from sub-mm to fault widths of several metres. Fracture and fault vein fill at all the locations is dominated by white, sparry calcite often showing a syntaxial growth pattern with varying degrees of complexity as a result of repeated episodes of movement, brecciation and renewed hydrothermal mineral growth.