Staurolite porphyroblasts, 1.5-8cm in length and 0.3-2cm in width, in the Littleton Schist at Bolton, Connecticut, contain curved quartz inclusion trails which document synkinematic rotations of at least 135". The orientations of long axes of these staurolite crystals define a weak preferred orientation in a plane approximately parallel to the external foliation. Serial sections of four differently orientated crystals and U-stage measurements of the orientations of their inclusion trails demonstrate that the inflection hinge line and the statistical 'symmetry axis' characterizing the foliation within a porphyroblast are unrelated to the orientations of external crenulations and are, in all cases, parallel to the long axis of the porphyroblast. The cumulative rotation reflected in the curvature of the inclusion trails is a maximum in a c-axis section through the initial core of a crystal. The amount of rotation about the c-axis decreases linearly along the length of the crystal away from the nucleation site.The sense and amount of rotation recorded by a porphyroblast is related to its orientation. A tightly constrained transition from clockwise to anticlockwise rotation defines a slip direction that coincides with the preferred orientation of the staurolite c-axes. The total rotation reflected by the inclusion trails increases as a function of the angle between the c-axes of the staurolite crystals and the slip direction.Initially random staurolite porphyroblasts rotated during growth, as a consequence of laminar shear in the surrounding viscous matrix. This interpretation is quantitatively consistent with: the staurolite preferred orientation; its coincidence with the apparent slip direction; the correlation between both the sense and the amount of rotation and the orientation of the long axis of the porphyroblast; and the twisted conical shape of the family of surfaces defined by the inclusion trails.

A fluid dynamic model for a rigid spherical porphyroblast growing in a viscous fluid matrix undergoing simple shear deformation predicts an arrangement of captured inert inclusions that is remarkably similar to the spiral pattern observed in synkinematic 'rolled' garnets. The model assumes only creeping (Stokes) flow of the matrix and a kinetic model for the growth of the porphyroblast of the formwhere r is the crystal radius, Q is the amount of shear-induced rotation, and m and k are kinetic parameters.For rotation less than 180°, J. B. Thompson and J. L. Rosenfeld's simple ring-model provides a surprisingly accurate description of the three-dimensional geometry of the central inclusion surface in the simulated porphyroblasts. Although marker planes, originally parallel to the shear plane, are deflected around the porphyroblast, their intersections with its surface remain approximately circular for much larger amounts of rotation than anticipated by Rosenfeld.The polar coordinate equation, T(r, O ) , of the double spiral formed by the trace of the central inclusion surface in a section through the centre of simulated porphyroblasts, is also surprisingly simple, as follows:This relationship was observed over the complete range of rotation angles investigated, 0-720", and could form a reasonable basis for estimating the growth-rotation history of rolled garnets from the shape of their spiral inclusion trails.Two-dimensional sections through the simulated porphyroblasts, parallel to the rotation axis, yield 'clamshell' (Rosenfeld's term) inclusion geometries similar to the controversial 'millipede' patterns observed in many natural porphyroblasts.

Fan-shaped polycrystalline staurolite porphyroblasts, 3-4 cm in length and 0.5 cm in width, occur together with centimetre-sized euhedral prismatic staurolite porphyroblasts in pelitic schists of the Littleton Formation on the western overturned limb of the Bolton syncline in eastern Connecticut. The fans consist of intergrown planar splays of [001] elongated prisms, which are crudely radial from a single apex. The apical angles of the radial groupings range up to 70°. The orientations of the individual staurolite prisms are related by a rigid rotation about an axis perpendicular to the fan plane. The zone axes [001] always lie in the plane of the fan. Although the angle between the [100] zone axes of the individual prisms is uniform in each fan, it ranges from +30°to )30°in different fans. Internally, the fans display: (i) remnants of a passively captured S i foliation defined by disc-shaped quartz blebs (type 1 inclusions) and layers of very fine carbonaceous material and tabular ilmenite platelets; (ii) bent staurolite blades and undulose extinction along low-angle (010) subgrain boundaries near the apex of the fans; (iii) wedge-shaped dilatational zones containing equigranular inclusion-free quartz, mica and staurolite, and (iv) growth-related quartz inclusion trails roughly perpendicular to a crystal face (type 2 inclusions). The S i inclusion trails are typically perpendicular to the fan surface, radiate parallel to the blades, and show little to no curvature except at the very edge of the fans where they abruptly curve through nearly 90°into parallelism with an external S e foliation. Careful examination of the threedimensional geometry of fans based on U-stage measurements, serial sections and two-circle optical goniometric measurements permits a detailed reconstruction of their sequential development. The origin of a fan involves limited intracrystalline deformation and brittle crack dilation, spalling, rotation, and growth of small marginal fragments and of new staurolite along wedge-shaped zones along the S i inclusion surfaces. Fans preferentially develop in porphyroblasts in which S i is subparallel to the 010 cleavage. These internal features reflect the rotation and deformation of a brittle porphyroblast relative to syn-growth shear stresses.