Solid Earth, 8, 199–215, 2017 www.solid-earth.net/8/199/2017/ doi:10.5194/se-8-199-2017 © Author(s) 2017. CC Attribution 3.0 License. Rheological transitions in the middle crust: insights from Cordilleran metamorphic core complexes Frances J. Cooper1, John P. Platt2, and Whitney M. Behr3 1School of Earth Sciences, University of Bristol, Bristol BS8 1RJ, UK 2Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA 3School of Geological Sciences, Jackson School of Geosciences, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX 78712, USA Correspondence to: Frances J. Cooper (
[email protected]) Received: 15 September 2016 – Discussion started: 4 October 2016 Revised: 17 January 2017 – Accepted: 24 January 2017 – Published: 21 February 2017 Abstract. High-strain mylonitic rocks in Cordilleran meta- perposed sequences of microstructures reflecting progressive morphic core complexes reflect ductile deformation in the exhumation, cooling, and strain localization. The LDT is not middle crust, but in many examples it is unclear how always exhumed, or it may be obscured by later deformation, these mylonites relate to the brittle detachments that over- but in the Whipple Mountains, it can be directly observed lie them. Field observations, microstructural analyses, and where high-strain mylonites captured from the middle crust thermobarometric data from the footwalls of three meta- depart from the brittle detachment along a mylonitic front. morphic core complexes in the Basin and Range Province, USA (the Whipple