Very high rates of cooling and uplift in the Alpine belt of the Betic Cordilleras, southern Spain

Zeck, H. P.; Monié, Patrick; Villa, Igor M.; Hansen, Bent

doi:10.1130/0091-7613(1992)020<0079:vhroca>2.3.co;2

Cited by 168 publications

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“…The Miocene ages from the area we have studied compare well with the mean age of 20 Ma from white mica in Alboran basement samples at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Site 976 (Kelley & Platt 1999), and an age range of 19-21 Ma elsewhere on the mainland (Zeck et al 1992;Monié et al 1994;Platt et al 1998). We conclude, therefore, that low-grade rocks in the Alpujárride Complex underwent deformation and metamorphism as long ago as 47.8 Ma, and that deformation and recrystallization may have continued, or the temperature of the rocks was maintained above around 300 8C, for a long period prior to rapid extensional exhumation at around 20 Ma.…”

Section: Variation Of Ar-ar Ages For Micas Between Different Areas Ofsupporting

confidence: 61%

“…Isotopic dates on most Alpujárride rocks are dominated by the effects of rapid cooling in the early Miocene, which largely obscures the earlier history (Monié et al 1991;Zeck et al 1992;Monié et al 1994;Platt et al 1998Platt et al , 2003b. Little geochronological work has been published on the lowest-grade rocks of the Alpujárride Complex, yet these are the ones most likely to retain evidence for the early compressional events.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Timing of tectonic events in the Alpujárride Complex, Betic Cordillera, southern Spain

Platt

Kelley

Carter

et al. 2005

JGS

122

173

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Ar-Ar and fission-track dating from four low-grade sections in the Alpujárride Complex sheds light on the timing of the early contractional history of these high-pressure metamorphic units, and their subsequent exhumation during the early Miocene extensional collapse of the Betic orogen. White mica grains from the lowest-grade rocks yield partly reset detrital Ar-Ar ages; where deformation and recrystallization are more intense, however, they yield reproducible ages as old as c. 48 Ma, which we interpret as the approximate timing of the main contractional event and associated high-pressure metamorphism in these units. Rocks from slightly higher-grade sections give reproducible Ar-Ar ages between 30 and 40 Ma, but these younger ages probably reflect the interplay of growth and cooling in fine-grained micas heated to between 300 8C and 400 8C during prograde metamorphism. In each of the four areas studied the low-grade rocks are separated by an extensional detachment or shear zone from medium-grade rocks below. In two areas these detachments have been folded around major overturned north-vergent folds. Ar-Ar data from structurally below the detachments, and fission-track ages from all structural levels, indicate the onset of significant cooling in the early Miocene, which corresponds to the age of the extensional event. The folds must therefore be early Miocene or younger.

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Section: Variation Of Ar-ar Ages For Micas Between Different Areas Ofsupporting

confidence: 61%

mentioning

confidence: 99%

Timing of tectonic events in the Alpujárride Complex, Betic Cordillera, southern Spain

Platt

Kelley

Carter

et al. 2005

JGS

122

173

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“…Some authors consider that the Miocene calc-alkaline volcanic episode post-dated active subduction (e.g. Hernandez & Lepvrier, 1979), whilst others link it directly to subduction (Tricart et al, 1994;Lonergan & White, 1997) or to slab detachment in the Tertiary (Zeck et al, 1992;Monié et al, 1992). Duggen et al (2003) have demonstrated that between 6.3 and 4.8 Myr ago there was a marked change in the geochemistry of the magmatism in the western Mediterranean from subduction-related to intra-plate which was synchronous with the Messinian salinity cricis.…”

Section: North African Margin-alboran Seamentioning

confidence: 99%

Tertiary-Quaternary intra-plate magmatism in Europe and its relationship to mantle dynamics

Wilson

Downes

2006

Memoirs

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Anorogenic intra-plate magmatism was widespread in Europe from early Tertiary to Recent times, extending west to east from Spain to Bulgaria, and south to north from Sicily to northern Germany. Magmatism is spatially and temporally associated with Alpine-Pyrenean collisional tectonics, the development of an extensive lithospheric rift system in the northern foreland of the Alps, and, locally, with uplift of Variscan basement massifs (Massif Central, Rhenish Massif, Bohemian Massif). The volcanic regions vary in volume from large central volcanoes (e.g. Cantal, Massif Central;Vogelsberg, northern Germany), to small isolated plugs (e.g. Urach and Hegau provinces in southern Germany). Within the Mediterranean region, the Dinarides, the Pannonian Basin and Bulgaria, anorogenic volcanism locally postdates an earlier phase of subduction-related magmatism.The major and trace element and Sr-Nd-Pb isotope characteristics of the most primitive mafic magmatic rocks (MgO > 6 wt %) provide important constraints on the nature of the mantle source and the conditions of partial melting.. These are predominantly sodic (melilitites, nephelinites, basanites and alkali olivine basalts); however, locally, potassic magma types (olivine leucitites, leucite nephelinites) also occur. In several localities (e.g., Sicily; Vogelsberg and the Rhine Graben, Germany; Calatrava, central Spain) olivine-and quartz-tholeiites form a significant component of the magmatism. The sodic magmas were derived by variable degrees of partial melting (~ 0.5 -5 %) within a transitional zone between garnet-peridotite and spinel-peridotite mantle facies, close to the base of the lithosphere; the potassic magma types are interpreted as partial melts of enriched domains within the lithospheric mantle. Mantle partial melting was induced by adiabatic decompression of the asthenosphere, locally in small-scale, plume-like, diapirs which appear to upwell from ~ 400 km depth. 2Tertiary and Quaternary volcanic activity within Europe occurs in two principal geotectonic settings: referred to as orogenic and anorogenic by Wilson & Bianchini (1999). Occurrences of calc-alkaline volcanism (orogenic) in the Alpine chain, the Carpathians and the Mediterranean region (Harangi et al., this volume) can be explained geodynamically in terms of contemporaneous subduction, and will not be considered further in this review. Here emphasis is placed on the extensive anorogenic, dominantly alkaline, volcanic province to the north of the Alpine collision zone, including the Massif Central of France, the Rhenish Massif of northern Germany, the Rhine Graben, and the Eger Graben within the northern part of the Bohemian Massif in the Czech Republic (Figs. 1 & 2). Further to the east mafic alkaline volcanism (anorogenic) post-dates a major phase of subduction-related volcanism in the Pannonian Basin, the Dinarides (Serbia, Slovenia, Croatia, N. Bosnia), Bulgaria and western Turkey. Further south,within the Mediterranean region, anorogenic volcanism occurs in Sicily, Sardinia, Monte V...

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“…Copeland et al 1987;Zeck et al 1992). Rapid exhumation of deep-seated rocks causes upward advection of heat and thus retards cooling and promotes isothermal decompression.…”

Section: T -T P a T H Smentioning

confidence: 99%

Exhumation processes

et al. 1999

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Deep-seated metamorphic rocks are commonly found in the interior of many divergent and convergent orogens. Plate tectonics can account for high-pressure metamorphism by subduction and crustal thickening, but the return of these metamorphosed crustal rocks back to the surface is a more complicated problem. In particular, we seek to know how various processes, such as normal faulting, ductile thinning, and erosion, contribute to the exhumation of metamorphic rocks, and what evidence can be used to distinguish between these different exhumation processes.In this paper, we provide a selective overview of the issues associated with the exhumation problem. We start with a discussion of the terms exhumation, denudation and erosion, and follow with a summary of relevant tectonic parameters. Then, we review the characteristics of exhumation in different tectonic settings. For instance, continental rifts, such as the severely extended Basin-and-Range province, appear to exhume only middle and upper crustal rocks, whereas continental collision zones expose rocks from 125 km and greater. Mantle rocks are locally exhumed in oceanic rifts and transform zones, probably due to the relatively thin crust associated with oceanic lithosphere.Another topic is the use of P-T-t data to distinguish between different exhumation processes. We conclude that this approach is generally not very diagnostic since erosion and normal faulting show the same range of exhumation rates, reaching maximum rates of >5-10 km Ma -1 for both processes. In contrast, ductile thinning appears to operate at significantly slower rates. The pattern of cooling ages can be used to distinguish between different exhumation processes. Normal faulting generally shows an asymmetric distribution of cooling ages, with an abrupt discontinuity at the causative fault, whereas erosional exhumation is typically characterized by a smoothly varying cooling-age pattern with few to no structural breaks. Last, we consider the challenging problem of ultrahigh-pressure crustal rocks, which indicate metamorphism at depths greater than 100-125 kin. Understanding the exhumation of these rocks requires that we first know where and how they were formed. One explanation is that metamorphism occurred within a thickened crustal root, but it does seem unlikely that the crust, including an eclogitized mafic lower crust, could get much thicker than c. 110 km while maintaining a reasonable Moho depth (<70 km, assuming that the seismically defined Moho would be observed to lie above the eclogitized lower crust). Diamondbearing crustal rocks cannot be explained by this scheme. The alternative is to accrete the upper 10-40 km of lithospheric mantle into the orogenic root. This scenario will provide sufficient pressures for both coesite-and diamond-bearing eclogite-facies metamorphism, while maintaining a reasonable Moho depth (<70 km) and reasonable mean topography (<3 kin). We speculate that the detachment and foundering of the mantle root may contribute to the exhumation of any crust...

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Very high rates of cooling and uplift in the Alpine belt of the Betic Cordilleras, southern Spain

Cited by 168 publications

References 0 publications

Timing of tectonic events in the Alpujárride Complex, Betic Cordillera, southern Spain

Timing of tectonic events in the Alpujárride Complex, Betic Cordillera, southern Spain

Tertiary-Quaternary intra-plate magmatism in Europe and its relationship to mantle dynamics

Exhumation processes

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