Formation process of slickenside developed in chert block

Abstract

We observe the microstructures of slickenside of faulted cherts that are composed of Jurassic and Jurassic-Cretaceous accretionary complexes, in order to clarify generation mechanism of slickenside. Our results are 1) The trigger of faulting in chert blocks is generation of weak plane created by pressure solution. 2) Slickenside is an amorphous thin layer with 50 nm – 100 nm in width, which is composed of very tiny grains with less than 50 nm in size. These grains are amorphous materials mainly with quartz composition.