Abstract
The mechanism for structural damage during incipient slip on joints within the Melechov Granite, Czech Republic, changes with the misalignment of the joint's mesotopography, largely a plumose surface morphology. Prior to slip, the joint surfaces are well mated so that contact area is organized on a microscopic scale.
During the first phase of slip, diffusion-mass transfer is the active deformation mechanism between the sliding surfaces of the joints, as indicated by the extensive growth of crystal-fibre lineations characteristic of slickenside surfaces. After slip of the order of 1 cm or more, the mesotopography becomes mismatched and the contact area is reorganized to form indentation pits aligned on the ridges of hackle plumes.
Indentation pits, that are testimony to a brittle process, are generated by the excavation of Hertzian ring cracks that propagate under contact loading of a brittle substrate.