Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Société géologique de France
Résumé : International audience
Age constraints on the protoliths, deformation, metamorphism and melting events are key parameters when correlating different continental lithospheric remnants among each other and disentangling their evolution within large-scale orogens. In situ U-Th-Pb chemical dating on monazites using Electron Probe Micro-Analyser (EPMA) has been performed on eight samples throughout the Variscan Maures-Tanneron massif (SE France) in order to date the medium to high-tectonothermal events related to the Variscan orogeny.Results indicate a polyphased crustal evolution : (i) U-Th-Pb ages obtained in polygenetic monazite grain cores gave inherited Upper Ordovician (456 ± 11 Ma) age, highlighting the large scale occurrence of the Ordovician magmatic activity in the North Gondwanian margin. An Early Devonian (404 ± 10 Ma) age may date a protolith emplacement related to calc-alkaline supra-subduction magmatism or could be associated to an early medium-grade metamorphism, prior to collisional stage. (ii) The crustal thickening stage has been further recorded in prograde metamorphic monazites formed during the underthrusting and subsequent nappe stacking events, under amphibolite facies conditions. This stage is dated between 382 ± 11 (Middle Devonian) and 331 ± 5 Ma (Late Visean). (iii) An orogenic partial melting event took place during Middle Carboniferous and is accompanied by the crystallization of crustal peraluminous magmas (Plan-de-la-Tour granite, 329 ± 3 Ma).This contribution demonstrates the capacity of monazite to record the prograde path of rocks during increasing metamorphic conditions related to stages of crustal thickening, and the robustness of the U-Th-Pb chronometer in monazite despite the overprinting of high-grade thermal events, including partial melting. The age ranges of the different orogenic stages reported in this study are in good agreement with those reported in adjacent Variscan Corsica and Sardinia; while correlations with other nearest Variscan massifs like the Argentera massif in the southwestern Alps or the French Massif Central remain more hypothetic. The Internal Zone of the Maures-Tanneron massif, and more widely the Internal Zone of the Maures-Tanneron-Corsica-Sardinia segment, is part of the southern orogenic root system of the Variscan belt.
EISSN: 1777-5817

insu-01140973
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01140973
DOI : 10.2113/gssgfbull.186.2-3.145

Éditeur(s) : Elsevier Science Bv
Résumé : An exceptional structural picture of the immerged Variscan basement, offshore the Leon metamorphic domain, is supplied by high-resolution LiDAR and echosounder data recorded in the Molene archipelago, western Brittany (France). Various types of fabrics are identified and, from in situ rock sample analyses further combined with field structural data, are interpreted on a lineament trajectory map as the trace of magmatic and tectonic structures. Our onshore/offshore study leads us to propose a two-phase kinematic model that emphasizes the role of a strike-slip duplex in an EW-trending relay zone linking the North Armorican and Pierres Noires ductile shear zones (NASZ, PNSZ). Dextral shearing occurred within a transtensional setting, synchronously with magmatic intrusions (St-Renan granite and an offshore gabbro-diorite complex) dated at 314-320 Ma by new U-Th/Pb ages. It post-dated an early regional foliation related to top-to-the-NE ductile transpresional shearing. Our study emphasizes the key role of strike-slip tectonics in the NW part of the Armorica Variscan belt.
Tectonophysics (0040-1951) (Elsevier Science Bv), 2014-09 , Vol. 630 , P. 236-250

Droits : 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00194/30490/28895.pdf
DOI:10.1016/j.tecto.2014.05.026
http://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00194/30490/

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
The geology of the North Pyrenean Zone in the central Pyrenees allows for the observation in the field of theentire section of the Pyrenean rift, from the mantle to the crust and the Mesozoic cover (pre, syn and post rift).The good knowledge we have of the pre-Alpine history of the Pyrenees allows us to properly constrain the Alpinegeological evolution of the pre-Triassic rocks which record both Variscan and Alpine orogenic cycles.The mantle outcrop as kilometric to centimetric fragments of peridotite dispersed within a carbonate metamorphicbreccia. The study of peridotite serpentinisation shows several events of low-temperature serpentinisation, incontact with seawater. In some locallities, we can observe a mixture of fragments of variously serpentinizedperidotites. This suggests a tectonic context where fragments of peridotites from different structural levels weresampled more or less synchronously.The granulitic basement is characterized by a Variscan syndeformational HT event (300-280 Ma). So farwe have not found any trace of a Cretaceous HT event (> 500C). On the other hand, the basement is affectedby a regional metasomatism that began during the Jurassic and became more spatially focused with time until itwas restricted to the Pyrenean rift during the Aptien, Albian and Cenomanian. The talc-chlorite metasomatism(120-95 Ma) shows an evolution from a static toward a syn-deformation hydrothermal event, under a more or lessnormal geothermal gradient. Extensional deformation is recorded by the reworking of several inherited low-angleVariscan tectonic contacts, but also by dispersed high-angle extensional shear zones formed under greenshistconditions.The metamorphic Mesozoic cover of the basement massifs, which constitute the so-called Internal MetamorphicZone, is an allochtonous unit made of lenses of Mesozoic rocks enclosed into the breccia, whichlocally contains peridotite and basement clasts. The Mesozoic metamorphic carbonates show a first phase ofsyn-metamorphic (450-600C, P < 2 kb) ductile deformation, and subsequent phases of folding and fracturing.The datation of neoformed minerals give a 108-85 Ma time span for the metamorphism. We interpret this brecciaas an abandonment breccia which marks the emergence of the main detachment. The basal contact of the Mesozoiccover has a complex 3D geometry traced by Triassic evaporites. It corresponds to a major pre- and synorogenicpolyphased tectonic contact.All these data show a geometrically complex hyper-extended rift where the crust was not stretched under ahigh geothermal gradient but thinned by the tectonic extraction of relatively thin lenses and perhaps cut by highangle low-grade shear zones. The 3D geometry, as well as the strain records and the breccia lithologies stronglysuggest a non-cylindricity for the exhumation process, probably within a transtentional system
Geophysical Research Abstracts
Vienne, Austria

insu-01510371
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01510371

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : Vertical displacements on the SW-NE T (e) over capt fault (Eastern Pyrenees Axial Zone, France), which separates the Variscan Canigou-Caranca and Mont-Louis massifs, were constrained using a thermochronologic multi-method approach. Ar-40/Ar-39 data from the granitic Mont-Louis massif record its Variscan cooling history and reveal no ages younger than Early Cretaceous, while the Canigou-Caranca gneiss massif records systematically younger Ar-40/Ar-39 ages. These younger Ar-40/Ar-39 ages in the Canigou-Caranca gneiss massif are the result of partial to total rejuvenation of argon isotopic systems related to a thermal flow coeval with the Cretaceous HT-BP metamorphism in the North Pyrenean Zone. Only the deepest rocks from the Canigou-Caranca suffered this extensive Mid-Cretaceous thermal overprint probably due to differential burial around 4 km at that time. The post Mid-Cretaceous vertical displacements along the T (e) over capt fault are recorded by "low" temperature thermochronology using K-feldspar Ar-40/Ar-39, zircon and apatite fission track and (U-Th)/He datings. The Mont-Louis granite samples experienced a long period of protracted cooling reflecting a lack of thermo-tectonic activity in this area from Late Palaeozoic to Early Cenozoic, followed by cooling from 55-60 Ma to Late Eocene at a mean rate of 15-20 degrees C/Ma in the final stage. This cooling stage corresponds to T (e) over capt fault reactivation with a reversed component, promoting exhumation of the Mont-Louis roof zone contemporaneously with the south-vergent Pyrenean thrusting. In the Canigou-Caranca massif, the main cooling event occurred from 32 to 18 Ma at a maximum rate of 30 degrees C/Ma during Early Oligocene followed by a more moderate rate of 3 degrees C/Ma from Late Oligocene to Early Burdigalian, coeval with the normal reactivation of the T (e) over capt fault in brittle conditions that accommodated the final exhumation of the massif during the opening of the Gulf of Lion.
ISSN: 1437-3254

hal-00411442
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00411442
DOI : 10.1007/s00531-007-0179-x

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union
Résumé : International audience
The Iberian Massif is the best exposed segment of the European Variscan Belt. It includes relatively well preserved terranes that were accreted by transpression along time and resulted in a number of geotectonic units that formed part of the Late Paleozoic assembly of the Pangaea Supercontinent. In SW Iberia, these units are the Central Iberian Zone (CIZ), Ossa Morena Zone (OMZ), and the South Portuguese Zone (SPZ). A 210 km long NE-SW magnetotelluric profile was carried out through the CIZ, from the OMZ-CIZ boundary toward the north, reaching the Tagus (Cenozoic) basin. Data dimensionality analysis resulted in a suitable 2-D electrical resistivity structure, allowing a 2-D inversion of the data set. Complementary available geophysical data (deep seismic, gravity and aeromagnetic) and a comparison with a detailed geological cross section led us to constrain the interpretation of the 2-D electrical resistivity structure of the CIZ crust. The results show, for the upper crust, the existence of diverse conductive/resistive bodies that correlate well with known geological features (sedimentary basins, faults, granitic plutons, mineralized systems). A mild but steady conductive band is located along the middle and lower crust that is interpreted as a mafic granulite basement. The upper section of this band connects with several elongated shallow conductors, providing further evidence for the existence, in the Central Iberian Zone, of a complex decollement system where the major faults are rooted. Such a crustal architecture is viewed as the northward continuation of the Variscan large-scale structures previously recognized in the southern sectors (OMZ and SPZ).
ISSN: 0148-0227

hal-00671036
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00671036
DOI : 10.1029/2010JB007538

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : Hot collisional orogens are characterized by abundant syn-kinematic granitic magmatism that profoundly affects their tectono-thermal evolutions. Voluminous granitic magmas, emplaced between 360 and 270 Ma, played a visibly important role in the evolution of the Variscan Orogen. In the Limousin region (western Massif Central, France), syntectonic granite plutons are spatially associated with major strike-slip shear zones that merge to the northwest with the South Armorican Shear Zone. This region allowed us to assess the role of magmatism in a hot transpressional orogen. Microstructural data and U/Pb zircon and monazite ages from a mylonitic leucogranite indicate synkinematic emplacement in a dextral transpressional shear zone at 313 +/- 4 Ma. Leucogranites are coeval with cordierite-bearing migmatitic gneisses and vertical lenses of leucosome in strike-slip shear zones. We interpret U/Pb monazite ages of 315 +/- 4 Ma for the gneisses and 316 +/- 2 Ma for the leucosomes as the minimum age of high-grade metamorphism and migmatization respectively. These data suggest a spatial and temporal relationship between transpression, crustal melting, rapid exhumation and magma ascent, and cooling of high-grade metamorphic rocks.;Some granites emplaced in the strike-slip shear zone are bounded at their roof by low dip normal faults that strike N-S, perpendicular to the E-W trend of the belt. The abundant crustal magmatism provided a low-viscosity zone that enhanced Variscan orogenic collapse during continued transpression, inducing the development of normal faults in the transpression zone and thrust faults at the front of the collapsed orogen.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-00445260
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00445260
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2009.03.022

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Wiley-Blackwell
Résumé : International audience
New petrographic and microstructural observations, mineral equilibria modelling and U/Pb (monazite) geochronological studies were carried out to investigate the relationships between deformation and metamorphism across the Rehamna massif (Moroccan Variscan belt). In this area, typical Barrovian (muscovite to staurolite) zones developed in Cambrian to Carboniferous metasedimentary rocks that are distributed around a dome-like structure. First assemblages are characterized by the presence of locally preserved andalusite, followed by prograde evolution culminating at 6 kbar and 620 °C in the structurally deepest staurolite zone rocks. This Barrovian sequence was subsequently uplifted to supracrustal levels, heterogeneously reworked at greenschist facies conditions, which was followed locally by static growth of andalusite, indicating heating to 2.5–4 kbar and 530–570 °C. The 206Pb/238U monazite age of 298.3 ± 4.1 Ma is interpreted as minimum age of peak metamorphic conditions, whereas the ages of 275.8 ± 1.7 Ma and 277.0 ± 1.1 Ma date decompression and heating at low pressure, in agreement with previous dating of Permian granitoids intruding the Rehamna massif. The prograde metamorphism occurred during thickening and associated horizontal flow in the deeper crust (S1 horizontal schistosity). The horizontally disposed metamorphic zones were subsequently uplifted by a regional scale antiform during ongoing N–S compression. The re-heating of the massif follows late massive E–W shortening, refolding and retrograde shearing of all previous fabrics coevally with regionally important intrusions of Permian granitoids. We argue that metamorphic evolution of the Rehamna massif occurred several hundred kilometres from the convergent plate boundaries in the interior of continental Gondwanan plate. The tectonometamorphic history of the Rehamna massif is put into Palaeozoic plate tectonic perspective and Late Carboniferous reactivation of (Devonian)–Early Carboniferous basins formed during stretching of the north Gondwana margin and formation of the Palaeotethys Ocean. The inherited heat budget of these magma-rich basins plays a role in the preferential location of this intracontinental orogen. It is shown that rapid transition from lithospheric stretching to compression is characterized by specific HT type of Barrovian metamorphism, which markedly differs from similar Barrovian sequences along Palaeozoic plate boundaries reported from Variscan Europe.
ISSN: 0263-4929

hal-01468009
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01468009
DOI : 10.1111/jmg.12214

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The 40Ar/39Ar geochronological technique has significantly contributed to the study of crustal deformation. However, the frequent occurrence of extraneous argon in high-pressure terrains can make the interpretation of 40Ar/39Ar ages problematic. This contribution attempts to: i) characterize the distribution and origin of extraneous argon in the Cycladic Blueschist Unit (CBU, Greece) by applying the 40Ar/39Ar dating technique on three Cycladic islands, Syros, Tinos and Ios, which span a complete transect of the CBU and ii) discuss regional implications for the tectonometamorphic evolution of the CBU. Our results, combined with ages available in the literature, show that periods of peak-burial conditions (55–49 Ma) and syn- (45–38 Ma) to post-orogenic exhumation (37–21 Ma) are well constrained in the CBU by the 40Ar/39Ar method. Moreover, Variscan apparent ages are preserved in the Cycladic basement of Ios, indicating that the 40Ar/39Ar system was not completely reset during the Eocene metamorphic episode. Additionally, our 40Ar/39Ar data show that the occurrence of extraneous argon is heterogeneously distributed in the CBU. While high-pressure rocks of Syros and Tinos are only locally affected, extraneous argon is clearly evidenced in the CBU of Ios, yielding geologically meaningless ages up to 900 Ma. On each island, the most affected ages were obtained in microstructures where fluid circulation is enhanced such as shear bands or strain shadows around garnets. We suggest that the Cycladic Basement, a polymetamorphic continental unit, behaved as an argon reservoir that has been mobilized by fluid circulation at the Eocene. These argon-enriched fluids have then heterogeneously contaminated metamorphic rocks when percolating through the CBU. Finally, we claim that a minimum closure temperature of 550 °C must be accepted for the phengites of the CBU and conclude that volume diffusion is not the main process resetting the argon isotopic system in high-pressure rocks compare to recrystallization enhanced by fluid circulation and deformation.
ISSN: 0024-4937

Droits : http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/
insu-01424268
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01424268
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01424268/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01424268/file/Valentin-Lithos-Accepted-2016.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.lithos.2016.12.013

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : International audience
The equilibrium phase relations of a mafic durbachite (53 wt.% SiO2) from the TA (TM) ebi pluton, representative of the Variscan ultrapotassic magmatism of the Bohemian Massif (338-335 Ma), have been determined as a function of temperature (900-1,100A degrees C), pressure (100-200 MPa), and H2O activity (1.1-6.1 wt.% H2O in the melt). Two oxygen fugacity ranges were investigated: close to the Ni-NiO (NNO) buffer and 2.6 log unit above NNO buffer (a dagger NNO + 2.6). At 1,100A degrees C, olivine is the liquidus phase and co-crystallized with phlogopite and augite at 1,000A degrees C for the whole range of investigated pressure and water content in the melt. At 900A degrees C, the mineral assemblage consists of augite and phlogopite, whereas olivine is not stable. The stability field of both alkali feldspar and plagioclase is restricted to low pressure (100 MPa) at nearly water-saturated conditions (< 3-4 wt.% H2O) and T < 900A degrees C. A comparison between experimental products and natural minerals indicates that mafic durbachites have a near-liquidus assemblage of olivine, augite, Ti-rich phlogopite, apatite and zircon, followed by alkali feldspar and plagioclase, similar to the mineral assemblage of minette magma. Natural amphibole, diopside and orthopyroxene were not reproduced experimentally and probably result from sub-solidus reactions, whereas biotite re-equilibrated at low temperature. The crystallization sequence olivine followed by phlogopite and augite reproduces the sequence inferred in many mica-lamprophyre rocks. The similar fractionation trends observed for durbachites and minettes indicate that mafic durbachites are probably the plutonic equivalents of minettes and that K- and Mg-rich magmas in the Bohemian Massif may have been generated from partial melting of a phlogopite-clinopyroxene-bearing metasomatized peridotite. Experimental melt compositions also suggest that felsic durbachites can be generated by simple fractionation of a more mafic parent and mixing with mantle-derived components at mid crustal pressures.
ISSN: 0010-7999

hal-00618418
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00618418
DOI : 10.1007/s00410-009-0430-5

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : International audience
The ENE-WSW Autun Shear Zone in the northeastern part of the French Massif Central has been interpreted previously as a dextral wrench fault. New field observations and microstructural analyses document a NE-SW stretching lineation that indicates normal dextral motions along this shear zone. Further east, similar structures are observed along the La Serre Shear Zone. In both areas, a strain gradient from leucogranites with a weak preferred orientation to highly sheared mylonites supports a continuous Autun-La Serre fault system. Microstructural observations, and shape and lattice-preferred orientation document high-temperature deformation and magmatic fabrics in the Autun and La Serre granites, whereas low- to intermediate-temperature fabrics characterize the mylonitic granite. Electron microprobe monazite geochronology of the Autun and La Serre granites yields a ca. 320 Ma age for pluton emplacement, while mica 40Ar-39Ar datings of the Autun granite yield plateau ages from 305 to 300 Ma. The ca. 300 Ma 40Ar-39Ar ages, obtained on micas from Autun and La Serre mylonites, indicate the time of the mylonitization. The ca. 15-Ma time gap between pluton emplacement and deformation along the Autun-La Serre fault system argue against a synkinematic pluton emplacement during late orogenic to postorogenic extension of the Variscan Belt. A ductile to brittle continuum of deformation is observed along the shear zone, with Lower Permian brittle faults controlling the development of sedimentary basins. These results suggest a two-stage Late Carboniferous extension in the northeastern French Massif Central, with regional crustal melting and emplacement of the Autun and La Serre leucogranites around 320 Ma, followed, at 305-295 Ma, by ductile shearing, normal brittle faulting, and subsequent exhumation along the Autun-La Serre transtensional fault system.
ISSN: 1437-3254

insu-00596918
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00596918
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00596918/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00596918/file/Article_Morvan_v_INIST.pdf
DOI : 10.1007/s00531-011-0673-z

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Résumé : We present detailed biostratigraphy based on conodonts and palaeoenvironmental trends deduced from microfacies and conodont abundance through the Famennian (Late Devonian) at Col des Tribes (Montagne Noire, France). The succession is characterized by micritic limestones deposited in settings oscillating between mid to outer ramp. Facies contain poor fauna, widely dominated by nektonic organisms. This section is complete and one of the most conodont-rich for the Famennian of the north Gondwana-related area. The Upper Kellwasser event (Frasnian–Famennian boundary) and the Hangenberg (Devonian–Carboniferous boundary) have been lithologically identified. They are characterized by decimetre-thick black dysoxic to anoxic argillaceous sediments. The Condroz and annulata events, although not materialized by lithological changes, have been positioned due to the precise stratigraphy. The first event occurred during the deposition of condensed ferruginous facies (griotte limestones) and the second event during the deposition of micrites barren of benthic fauna. The combination of information from both facies and conodont biofacies changes allows a general sea-level curve through the entire Famennian for north Gondwana to be proposed for the first time. At Col des Tribes, the general trend is a slight deepening upwards from triangularis to trachytera zones, then a pronounced shallowing-upwards trend from upper trachytera to praesulcata zones. This curve correlates with the well-known reference curve from Euramerica concerning the late Famennian (trachytera to praesulcata Zones). There are some discrepancies in minor cycles which can be explained by tectonical phenomena at the onset of the edification of the Variscan belt in Europe.
ISSN: 0016-7568

hal-01115222
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01115222
DOI : 10.1017/S0016756813000927

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Seismic anisotropy of the south Iberian upper mantle is investigated using shear-wave splitting of SKS phases. We analyzed teleseismic events recorded by sixteen permanent broadband stations installed on the southern Iberian Peninsula and in northern Africa, and we determined fast polarization directions phi, and delay times delta t between fast and slow components. The area of investigation extends across two important geological structures in the Variscan Iberian Peninsula: the Variscan Iberian Massif in its center, and the Gibraltar arc in the Southeast, that represents the most westerly Alpine belt in the western Mediterranean. Shear-wave splitting measurements from stations in the Betic domain show homogeneous ENE-WSW fast directions nearly parallel to the trend of the mountain belt, and smooth spatial variations. Stations in the North, toward the southern part of the Variscan Iberian Massif show homogeneous fast directions however trending NS to NE-SW, different from those recorded in the Betic. These observations may reflect a post-Hercynian (Variscan) deformation of the Ossa-Morena zone, related to the main stages in the tectonic evolution of this part, namely transpressional stage, transtensional stage and shortening episode, or a deformation related to the posterior Alpine orogeny. Along the Gibraltar arc, we observe a smoothly varying phi trend changing from ENE-WSW in the Eastern Betics to NS in the area of Gibraltar and Ceuta, following more or less the general trend of the mountain belt around the Alboran Sea, and the coastline. Since a similar rotation is also visible in results from Pn anisotropy, this suggests that the anisotropy is vertically coherent starting from just below the Moho. Comparing the anisotropy pattern expected from various geodynamic models with the observed SKS splitting suggests that the anisotropy is best explained by a model of slab rollback, rather than by delamination models.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-00412175
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00412175
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00412175/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00412175/file/Buontempo_SKS_gibraltar_EPSL2008_hal.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2008.06.024

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Souttoufide belt is situated between the High-Atlas in the north, the Mauritanides in the south and the West African Craton as well as the Tindouf basin in the east. Thus, this belt is a part of the West African fold belt system which surrounds the West African Craton. Outcrops occur only in three areas, while the rest of the Souttoufide belt is covered by Meso- to Cenozoic sediments. These areas are, from the south to the north, the Adrar Souttouf Massif, the Smara Zemmour area, and the western part of the Anti-Atlas. Because of the continuing processing and numerous publications, the Anti-Atlas cannot be dealt with in detail. Fundamental geological work in both of the other areas was mainly done during the second third of the 20th century, followed by several decades of inactivity. Numerous studies were done in the Adrar Souttouf massif during the last decade, while the Smara-Zemmour area still remains poorly investigated. Most of them were focused on geochronological analyses and geochemistry. Accordingly, the obtained data led to a new interpretation. The Adrar Souttouf is interpreted as a Pan-African belt exhibiting a Neoproterozoic island arc reworked by the Variscan collision between the North American Craton (NAC) and the West African Craton (WAC). The Smara-Zemmour area is considered as the external part of this Variscan belt thrusted onto the Palaeozoic Tindouf basin. The western Anti-Atlas as considered as a Pan-African active margin reworked during the Variscan orogen. Together, these three areas, lead to the hypothesis of a Late Pan-African belt capped by the Early and Middle Palaeozoic covers and then affected by the Middle Carboniferous tectonic event (330 Ma) related to the Pangaean assembly. Correlations with adjacent belts (Mauritanides and Anti-Atlas) are considered.
ISSN: 0899-5362

hal-01382815
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01382815
DOI : 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2015.04.016

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : In this work we combined apatite fission track and biotite/K-feldspar 40Ar/39Ar ages with tectonic data in the west central part of the Axial Zone of the Pyrenees. We discuss the exhumation ages and rates of the Néouvielle, Bordère-Louron, and Bielsa Variscan granites and their relationships with the timing and sequence of south vergent basement thrusting within the Pyrenean orogenic prism. The 40Ar/39Ar ages on K-feldspars from the Néouvielle massif (sample NV7) seem to indicate tectonic movements on the Eaux-Chaudes thrust during the early middle Eocene. Fission track results suggest that the exhumation of the Néouvielle massif occurred around 35 Ma and exhumation of the Bordère-Louron massif around 32 Ma in relation to thrusting on the Gavarnie thrust. The Bielsa massif was exhumed from around 19 Ma by out-of-sequence movements on the Bielsa thrust. We thus show that whereas most of the Pyrenean basement thrust faults (here the Eaux-Chaudes, Gavarnie, and Guarga thrusts) were active in sequence toward the southern foreland from the early Eocene to the earliest Miocene, some of them (here the Bielsa thrust) were activated out of sequence in the hinterland, later than the generally accepted Aquitanian age for the end of the Pyrenean compression. Finally, the apatite fission track modeling indicate a last cooling episode starting around 5 Ma which is most certainly related to the Pliocene reexcavation of the southern and northern flanks of the Pyrenees
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00406582
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00406582
DOI : 10.1029/2006TC002080

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oxford University Press (OUP): Policy B - Oxford Open Option A Oxford University Press (OUP)
Résumé : International audience
Peridotite xenoliths exhumed by Quaternary alkaline magmatism in the Tahalgha district, southern Hoggar, represent fragments of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle beneath the boundary between the two major structural domains of the Tuareg Shield: the ‘Polycyclic Central Hoggar’ to the east and the ‘Western Hoggar’, or ‘Pharusian Belt’, to the west. Samples were collected from volcanic centres located on both sides of a major lithospheric shear zone at 4°35' separating these two domains. Although showing substantial variations in their deformation microstructures, equilibrium temperatures and modal and chemical compositions, the studied samples do not display any systematic changes of these features across the 4°35' fault. The observed variations rather record small-scale heterogeneities distributed throughout the study area and reflecting the widespread occurrence of vein conduits and metasomatized wall-rocks related to trans-lithospheric melt circulation during the Cenozoic. These features include partial annealing of pre-existing deformation microstructures, post-deformation metasomatic reactions, and trace-element enrichment, coupled with heating from 750–900°C (low-temperature lherzolites) to 900–1150°C (intermediate-T lherzolites and high-T harzburgites and wehrlites). Trace-element modelling confirms that the range of rare earth element (REE) variations observed in the Tahalgha clinopyroxenes may be accounted for by reactive porous flow involving a single stage of basaltic melt infiltration into a light REE (LREE)-depleted protolith. Whole-rock compositions record the final entrapment of disequilibrium metasomatic melts upon thermal relaxation of the veins–wall-rock system. The striking correlations between equilibrium temperatures and trace-element enrichment favor a scenario in which the high-temperature peridotites record advective heat transport along melt conduits, whereas the intermediate- and low-temperature lherzolites reflect conductive heating of the host Mechanical Boundary Layer. This indicates that the lithosphere did not reach thermal equilibrium, suggesting that the inferred heating event was transient and was rapidly erased by thermal relaxation down to the relatively low-temperature present-day geotherm. The low-T (<900°C) deformed lherzolites (porphyroclastic to equigranular) are characterized by only incipient annealing and LREE-depleted clinopyroxene compositions. They were only weakly affected by the Cenozoic events and could represent relatively well-preserved samples from rejuvenated Pan-African lithosphere. Extensive lithospheric rejuvenation occurred either regionally during the Pan-African orogeny, as a result of lithospheric delamination or thermomechanical erosion after thickening, or more locally along the meridional shear zones. The low-T Tahalgha lherzolites are comparable with lherzolites from Etang de Lherz, southern France, interpreted as lithospheric mantle rejuvenated by melt-induced refertilization during a late stage of the Variscan orogeny.
ISSN: 0022-3530

hal-01107410
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01107410
DOI : 10.1093/petrology/egu056

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Oisans Massif, located in the external zones of the western Alps, experienced significant shortening during the Alpine collision. While a series of major top-to-the west shear zones was recently described, the general low grade of the metamorphism has not attracted much petrological and geochronological studies. This paper provides combined temperature and age constraints on the evolution of the Oisans Massif. Temperature was estimated with the Raman Spectrometry of Carbonaceous Material (RSCM) method and chlorite geothermometry. Maximum temperature reached by the Mesozoic cover (Tmax) from Grenoble to the Galibier pass (E-W) and from Saint Jean de Maurienne to Embrun (N-S) yielded almost constant ca. 330 °C temperatures all through the Massif. Temperatures however strongly decrease either westward towards the top of the Vercors sedimentary sequence or eastward towards the Penninic Frontal Thrust. Age constraints were retrieved using 40Ar/39Ar in situ analyses performed on variously strained samples from Alpine shear zones. Over strain gradients, incipient Alpine recrystallizations progressively develop at the expense of former Variscan parageneses. A combined textural and EPMA approach permitted to identify newly formed chlorite and phengite that unequivocally grew in response to deformation or to low grade metamorphism. Chlorites recorded temperatures from ca. 350–150 °C during the activity of shear zones. In parallel, 40Ar/39Ar in situ experiments enabled dating deformation using both synkinematic phengites crystallized below the closure temperature of white-micas and former Variscan muscovite whose isotopic system have been, at least partially re-opened. Activity of top-to-the-west shear zones responsible for the shortening and thickening of the Oisans massif thus occurred between 34 and 33 and 25 Ma. Integrating these new age-constraints, Tmax estimates, and published geological data on the Oisans Massif and neighbouring areas allow proposing a new shortening scenario for the external zones. From ca. 34–33 Ma, the Oisans Massif was buried as a rigid block below more internal units and reached a temperature of ca. 330 °C. Shearing progressively localized along a series of top-to-the-W shear zones in the basement until 25 Ma. Deformation then localized along a major thrust at the base of the ECM massif and propagated along the basement-cover interface below the Vercors massif after 16 Ma.
ISSN: 0264-3707

Droits : info:eu-repo/semantics/OpenAccess
insu-01093878
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01093878
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01093878/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01093878/file/GEOD1326RA.pdf
DOI : 10.1016/j.jog.2014.09.004

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
The current structure of the South Armorican Domain in the French Variscan Belt, provides an excellent record of the late orogenic evolution, as documented by the complex interactions between extensional structures and partial melting. In the Golfe du Morbihan, the South Brittany Migmatite Belt (SBMB), tectonically overlain by non-melted metamorphic units, was studied by combined structural and 40Ar/39Ar methods. The recognition of successive deformation stages points to a strain continuum initiated at depth at the end of a partial melting event, and continued to near-surface brittle faulting, encompassing ductile strain localization over a major top-to-the-ESE extensional shear zone (SSZ) consistent with an overall WNW-ESE orogen-parallel stretching. This multidisciplinary study making the link between structure, texture, microchemistry and 40Ar/39Ar geochronology allow distinguishing between cooling, recrystallization and syn-tectonic crystallization ages. The first extensional insights, witnessed by dyke intrusion were dated at ~319 ± 6 Ma immediately after the SBMB partial melting. Strain localization along the SSZ, occurred until ~302-298 Ma when SBMB crossed the ductile-brittle transition. Moreover, in situ 40Ar/39Ar analysis, of syn-tectonic white micas sampled in the ductile and brittle structures yield similar ~300 Ma. Formation or reactivation of the SSZ may have occurred during the rapid cooling of the SBMB settled at ~305 Ma by conventional 40Ar/39Ar analysis. Large-scale late orogenic extensional event of the previously overthickened Variscan crust thus lasted over ~20 ± 3 Myr in the same extensional tectonic regime guided by the South Armorican Shear Zone.
ISSN: 0278-7407

insu-00628699
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00628699
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00628699/document
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00628699/file/2010TC002788.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2010TC002788

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
New U–Pb monazite, zircon, and xenotime ages date the Late Carboniferous crystallization of the anatectic Vialais granite in the Montagne Noire Axial Zone and the high-temperature deformation and metamorphism of the augen gneiss (Ordovician granite protolith) from which the granite was likely derived. The U–Pb monazite ages obtained from the augen gneiss (308 ± 3 Ma), late kinematic Vialais granite (303 ± 4 Ma), and post-kinematic leucogranite (298 ± 2 Ma), bracket the high-temperature deformation and metamorphism at ~ 310–300 Ma, clearly postdating regional contraction and nappe emplacement (> 320 Ma). The planar–linear and locally linear fabrics in the augen gneiss outline a regional-scale double dome structure (Caroux and Espinouse sub-domes) containing smaller (km-scale) upright folds. Compared to the Caroux sub-dome, the larger, migmatitic Espinouse sub-dome contains abundant leucosome, leucogranite bodies and late-kinematic intrusions (Vialais granite). The Vialais granite displays a weak magmatic foliation that defines the main layering of the Espinouse migmatite. Ellipsoidal quartz–sillimanite nodules concentrated above the roof of the granite recorded an increment of strain (vertical shortening, E–NE elongation) during granite emplacement and crystallization, consistent with the extension event that exhumed the domes. These new geochronological and structural data suggest that the Montagne Noire double dome formed in a pull-apart structure within a dextral strike–slip system. Upright folding in the sub-domes has been traditionally assigned to a regional contraction event; alternatively, we propose that local contraction is associated with the convergence of low-viscosity crust beneath the upper crust pull-apart. Dynamic models of extension of hot crust indicate that contraction at depth is generated by flow of low-viscosity orogenic crust converging and rising to fill the gap created by upper crust extension. This interpretation solves the long-standing problem of apparent coeval contraction and extension in the Montagne Noire double dome and establishes migmatite dome emplacement in strike–slip corridors as a style of late Variscan tectonics.
ISSN: 0040-1951

insu-01112009
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01112009
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2014.12.002

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Mylonite bodies are exhumed extensions at depth of shallow structural level brittle faults. They are characterised by intense strain localisation involving large volumes of middle to lower continental crust. The analysis of shear zone geometry and microstructures is a useful tool to decipher deformation kinematics, though finite strain estimation is still relatively qualitative. Timing of the deformation has also been the focus of numerous studies using the complete spectrum of geochronometers. However, only rare examples provide geochronological data that can be unambiguously interpreted and cooling, recrystallisation and neocrystallisation are difficult to tell from each other. Thus, time-scales over which major mylonite zones develop and remain active under ductile conditions as well as their strain rate often remain poorly documented. We investigated two sections across the South-Armorican Shear Zone (SASZ), a crustal-scale pluri-km thick dextral shear zone active during a single tectonic event of late-Variscan age and associated with syntectonic granite emplacement.. Finite strain profiles on these cross-sections, quantified from average Quartz grain-size in 34 samples, show a strong deformation partitioning towards the center of the SASZ, with a decrease, for each section, from 150µm in slightly deformed zones to less than 7-5 µm in the core of the ultramylonite. Furthermore, toward the core of the SASZ, development of a penetrative shear band network progressively eliminates lenses of less deformed rocks and results in homogenisation of the Quartz grain sizes. In parallel, we performed in-situ UV-laser Ar/Ar dating on the fabric-forming white micas. White micas population can be decomposed into inherited muscovites carried by the folation and newly-formed, syn-tectonic substituted phengites located along the shear bands yielding 2 age groups for each sample. Along the profiles, the difference between these two ages evolves from 10-15 Ma in weakly deformed domains to zero toward the SASZ core. In addition, mylonite-forming phengites yielded the same age irrespectively of their position on the section or of the rock strain.. On the regional point of view, this study brings deformation-ages for the late-orogenic evolution of the South Armorican domain. Strain accumulated along the SASZ in a time-span extending to 300-298 Ma, i.e. contemporaneously with the activity of nearby major extensional shear zones. These results support a new model of crustal-scale shear zone activity, where the whole body of the shear zone is active throughout its history (defined as the largest age difference through the section), i.e. the actively deforming zone does not get progressively narrower. The strain distribution nevertheless evolves with time, with an increasingly large fraction partitioned in the ultramylonitic core.
EGU General Assembly
Vienne, Austria

insu-00839320
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-00839320
BIBCODE : 2010EGUGA..12.9881A

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
We present new Sr-Nd-Pb isotope data of the western Alpujárride metamorphic basement and the pre-Miocene Flysch sediments of the Betic Cordillera (southern Spain). Nd model ages are consistent with an increasing detrital input from the Alborán domain to the Flysch Trough in the western Mediterranean during the late Oligocene. The Alpujárride metamorphic crustal rocks derived from Archean-Paleoproterozoic terranes located along the northern margin of Gondwana in the Neoproterozoic. The heterogeneous isotopic signatures of the Alpujárride units indicate that they have different sedimentary protoliths and underwent contrasted Variscan and pre-Variscan tectono-magmatic evolutions. Melts/fluids derived from the western Alpujárride gneisses contaminated the mantle source of the Ronda high-Mg pyroxenite dykes, implying that the Alpujárride lower crust underthrusted the subcontinental lithospheric mantle of the Alborán domain generating subduction-like magmatism in the late Oligocene. The western Alpujárride upper crust is involved in the Neogene volcanism of the Alborán Sea basin, but only contaminated some LREE-enriched calc-alkaline lavas erupted along the continental margins. On the other hand, tholeiitic lavas in the center of the basin show no isotopic evidence of crustal assimilation. This indicates that most of the crust in the central Alborán Sea accreted by Miocene tholeiitic magmatism and that Alpujárride lower crust is absent and likely foundered close to the continental margins of the basin.
ISSN: 0024-4937

hal-01526912
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01526912
DOI : 10.1016/j.lithos.2016.10.003