Burial and exhumation of Corsica (France) in the light of fission track data

Abstract

The Mesozoic and Cenozoic exhumation and cooling history of Corsica is reconstructed by fission track (FT) data on basement and sedimentary rocks. Apatite ages are 105–16 Ma; zircon ages are 160–145 Ma. The Jurassic and Cretaceous ages show that parts of the Variscan basement escaped Alpine influence. The basement was thermally affected by rifting prior to Jurassic opening of the Ligurian‐Piedmont Ocean; then it cooled to near‐surface temperatures. In Paleocene‐Eocene times, subduction buried parts of the basement and overlying flysch to greater depth. In the Oligocene, both collapse of the nappe stack and rifting prior to opening of the Ligurian‐Provençal Basin affected the apatite FT system of the basement in different, partly overlapping areas causing a complex age pattern. The study shows that thorough analysis of FT data and thermal modeling allow to assign age populations to distinct cooling processes even when several thermotectonic events contributed to generate an intricate age pattern.

Orogenic processes and the Corsica/Apennines geodynamic evolution: insights from Taiwan

“…Bézert and Caby 1988;Brunet et al 2000;Chopin et al 2008;Dal Piaz and Zirpoli, 1979;Danisik et al 2007;Fournier et al, 1991;Lahondère and Guerrot 1997;Lahondére 1996;Tribuzio and Giacomini 2002;Molli 2008;Vitale Brovarone et al 2009), Southern Tuscany and Alpi Apuane (based on Kligfield et al 1986;Fellin et al 2007;Giorgetti et al 1998;Jolivet et al 1998;Molli et al 2000;Rossetti et al 2002;Theye et al 1997) Corsican-derived continental units and continental slices from the former OCT show a variable high-pressure/lowtemperature metamorphic imprint. It ranges from lower grade (high-pressure greenschist to lower blueschist facies) in the external and presently geometrically lowermost units, to eclogite facies in the more internal and uppermost ones (Figs.…”

“…The rebound of the decoupled upper part of the subducting plate triggered a strong surface uplift responsible for the erosion of the EarlyMiddle Eocene flysch originally covering a large part of the autochthonous Hercynian basement (Danisik et al 2007). …”

Thermal evolution of the Malá Fatra Mountains (Central Western Carpathians): insights from zircon and apatite fission track thermochronology

“…Sample preparation and fission track analysis followed the procedure outlined by Danišík et al (2007a). The external detector method (Gleadow 1981) was applied with the etching protocols of Donelick et al (1999) for apatite (5.5 M HNO 3 for 20 seconds at 21 °C) and Zaun & Wagner (1985) for zircon (eutectic mixture of KOH and NaOH at 215 °C for 7 hours).…”

Tracing metamorphism, exhumation and topographic evolution in orogenic belts by multiple thermochronology: a case study from the Nízke Tatry Mts., Western Carpathians

“…Fission track analysis was carried out using standard procedures described in Danišík et al (2007). The external detector method (Gleadow 1981) was applied with the etching protocols of Donelick et al (1999) for apatite (5.5 M HNO 3 for 20 s at 21°C) and Zaun and Wagner (1985) for zircon (eutectic mixture of KOH and NaOH at 215°C for 12 h).…”