cataclastic

1. Relating to rocks consisting of cemented fragments that originate from the mechanical breakdown of rock associated with plate tectonic processes. Cataclastic rocks form in regions that have undergone intense metamorphism and are associated with other metamorphic features such as folds and faults. They typically contain bent, broken, and granular minerals.

Example Sentences

Those gneisses in which the minerals have been crushed and broken by fluxion or injection movements have been called protoclastic, while those which have attained their gneissose state by crushing long after consolidation are distinguished as cataclastic.

From Project Gutenberg