Healed microcrack sets are common features in rocks and are marked by planar arrays of fluid inclusions. The use of these features to delineate deformational events, including paleostress determination, is of increasing interest. This study will measure microcrack arrays in well-dated plutons in Utah in order to determine the usefulness and limitations of microcracks as paleostress indicators and to better understand the paleostress history of the Basin and Range Province from the Mesozoic to the present. Results will be of general interest in the field of paleostress determinations as well as local Cordilleran geology.
