Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Alpine Corsica consists of a stack of variably metamorphosed units of continental and Tethys-derived rocks. It represents an excellent example of high-pressure (HP) orogenic belt, such as the Western Alps, exposed over a small and accessible area. Compared to the Western Alps, the geology of Alpine Corsica is poorly unraveled. During the 1970s-80s, based on either lithostratigraphic or metamorphic field observations, various classifications of the belt have been proposed, but these classifications have been rarely matched together. Furthermore, through time, the internal complexity of large domains has been progressively left aside in the frame of large-scale geodynamic reconstructions. As a consequence, major open questions on the internal structure of the belt have remained unsolved. Apart from a few local studies, Alpine Corsica has not benefited of modern developments in petrology and basin research. This feature results in several uncertainties when combining lithostratigraphic and metamorphic patterns and, consequently, in the definition of an exhaustive architecture of the belt. In this paper we provide a review on the geology of Alpine Corsica, paying particular attention to the available lithostratigraphic and metamorphic classifications of the metamorphic terranes. These data are completed by a new and exhaustive metamorphic dataset obtained by means of thermometry based on Raman Spectroscopy of Carbonaceous Material (RSCM). This technique provides reliable insights on the peak temperature of the metamorphic history for CM-bearing metasediments. A detailed metamorphic characterization of metasediments, which have been previously largely ignored due to retrogression or to the lack of diagnostic mineralogy, is thus obtained and fruitfully coupled with the available lithostratigraphic data. Nine main tectono-metamorphic units are defined, from subgreenschist (ca. 280-300 °C) to the lawsonite-eclogite-facies (ca. 500-550 °C) condition. These units are homogeneous in metamorphism, laterally continuous and have characteristic lithostratigraphic features. This study also suggests a direct link between the pre-orogenic extensional setting and the present-day compressional structure of Alpine Corsica, indicating that large sections of subducted lithosphere were subducted and exhumed as coherent domains. These features provide important insight on the mechanism of stacking and exhumation of HP rocks, and make Alpine Corsica a unique reference for mountain-building processes in Tethyan-type orogens.
ISSN: 0012-8252

hal-00814433
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00814433
DOI : 10.1016/j.earscirev.2012.10.003

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
In the Schistes Lustres of Alpine Corsica (France) serpentinized mantle rocks are associated with continental basement and meta-volcanic/-seclimentary cover rocks. The relationships among these different lithologies are especially well exposed in the Monte San Petrone unit, where Alpine metamorphism reached lawsonite-eclogite conditions. The contact between serpentinites and slivers of continental basement, relatively flat-lying over several kilometers, is characterized by evidence of cataclastic deformation pre-dating Alpine High-Pressure ductile fabrics. The serpentinite/continental basement pair is stratigraphically overlain by metasediments with a typical Jurassic-Cretaceous supra-ophiolitic lithostratigraphy, with metaradiolarites passing upward to marbles and cal cschists. Noticeably, no evidence of cataclastic deformation is found in metasediments. These observations indicate that the lithostratigraphy of the Monte San Petrone unit was established during a pre-Alpine polyphase evolution, which culminated in extensive brittle deformation along a flat-lying detachment fault prior to the deposition of Jurassic sediments. We suggest that the inferred Mesozoic extensional tectonics were related to the opening of the Westem Tethys. The Mesozoic architecture of the Monte San Petrone area, which is typical of an Ocean-Continent Transition (OCT) zone, was preserved despite Alpine deformation and metamorphism, when the different lithologies (i.e. meta-ophiolites, continent-derived rocks and metasediments) underwent a common metamorphic evolution, culminating at T=490-550 degrees C and P= 2.2-2.6 GPa. Similar tectonostratigraphic associations are observed in other high-pressure terranes of Alpine Corsica, suggesting that inherited OCT-type domains may be common in Alpine-type orogens.
ISSN: 0024-4937

hal-00617744
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00617744
DOI : 10.1016/j.lithos.2011.02.013

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The analysis of field relationships between allochthonous crystalline slivers, ultramafic units and associated sedimentary cover in the high-pressure Schistes Lustrés units of northern Corsica allows reconstruction of the pre-orogenic architecture of a fossil Mesozoic Ocean-Continent Transition (OCT) of the Tethys basin. The studied area, encompassing the Serra di Pigno and Col de Téghime areas (Cap Corse) is composed of an assemblage of prealpine basement sheets made up of serpentinized mantle rocks, Permian gabbros and gneisses, locally associated with Paleozoic metabasites and micaschists. The sedimentary cover includes numerous intervals of calc-schists, marbles, quartzites, micaschists and dolomitic metabreccias yielding a great variety of lithostratigraphical successions. The metasedimentary sequences do not show affinities with the typical cover series of the Prépiémontais margin domains. This implies an origin from a more internal domain (oceanward) for the studied units. In addition, the sedimentary cover of the ultramafic basement units do not display the characters of the classical Alpine ophiolites but bear lithological features showing affinities with both continental and oceanic environments. We assume that the high variability of the sedimentary successions as well as the presence of a basement composed of continental and upper-mantle rocks is consistent with an origin at an OCT. The acidic basement slivers are regarded as former extensional allochthons of continental crust abandoned during breakup on a newly exhumed seafloor of peridotite composition. Such extensional allochthons, will then logically constitute the most internal continental slices buried at great depth during Alpine subduction. This work shows that a lot has to be expected from a revision of the Schistes Lustrés lithostratigraphy in the light of the new concepts of the evolution of the OCT domains.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-00795578
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00795578
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2012.06.013