Mass transfer in unmetamorphosed carbonates and during low-grade metamorphism of arenites

Summary Study of stylolites in Silurian carbonates of southern Ontario, and of spaced cleavage in Lower Palaeozoic meta-arenites of Nova Scotia, shows that diffusional or infiltrational mass transfer has been the dominant mechanism for dimensional change. The carbonates show a quite specific pattern of stylolite growth in, and normal to, the mean plane of the stylolite, and there is always a low-porosity halo about each stylolite. Implied …