Crystallographic preferred orientations analysis of quartz crystals in Psammite using electron backscatter diffraction,western Ireland

The present study investigates the crystal preferred orientation (CPO) of quartz crystals in psammitic rocks to ascertain the deformationmechanism using electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD) on quartz crystals from north of the Renvyle-Bofin Slide (RBS) nearLetterfrack in western Ireland. Complete crystallographic orientations were determined for several thousand individual quartz crystalsin psammite samples to provide a dataset for exploring the active deformation mechanism(s). Quartz crystallographic orientations areplotted as pole figures and contour diagrams in and directions. Quartz-c-axis patterns show maxima in the Y axis ofthe pole figure, which can be explained by the dominance of prism gliding, indicating that dislocation creep was the dominantdeformation mechanism.