Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Oxford University Press (OUP)
Résumé : International audience
Convergent plate margins typically experience a transition from subduction to collision dynamics as massive continental blocks enter the subduction channel. Studies of high-pressure rocks indicate that tectonic fragments are rapidly exhumed from eclogite facies to mid-crustal levels, but the details of such dynamics are controversial. To understand the dynamics of a subduction channel we report the results of a petrochronological study from the central Sesia Zone, a key element of the internal Western Alps. This comprises two polymetamorphic basement complexes (Eclogitic Micaschist Complex and Gneiss Minuti Complex) and a thin, dismembered cover sequence (Scalaro Unit) associated with pre-Alpine metagabbros and metasediments (Bonze Unit). Structurally controlled samples from three of these units (Eclogitic Micaschist Complex and Scalaro-Bonze Units) yield unequivocal petrological and geochronological evidence of two distinct high-pressure stages. Ages (U-Th-Pb) of growth zones in accessory allanite and zircon, combined with inclusion and textural relationships, can be tied to the multi-stage evolution of single samples. Two independent tectono-metamorphic 'slices' showing a coherent metamorphic evolution during a given time interval have been recognized: the Fondo slice (which includes Scalaro and Bonze rocks) and the Druer slice (belonging to the Eclogitic Micaschist Complex). The new data indicate separate stages of deformation at eclogite-facies conditions for each recognized independent kilometer-sized tectono-metamorphic slice, between ∼85 and 60 Ma, with evidence of intermittent decompression (ΔP ∼ 0*5 GPa) within only the Fondo slice. The evolution path of the Druer slice indicates a different P-T-time evolution with prolonged eclogite-facies metamorphism between ∼85 and 75 Ma. Our approach, combining structural, petrological and geochronological techniques, yields field-based constraints on the duration and rates of dynamics within a subduction channel.
ISSN: 0022-3530

hal-01054335
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01054335
DOI : 10.1093/petrology/egu029

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Understanding subduction rheology in both space and time has been a challenge since the advent of plate tectonics. We herein focus on "subduction infancy", that is the first ~1-5 My immediately following subduction nucleation, when a newly born slab penetrates into the upper plate mantle and heats up. The only remnants of this critical yet elusive geodynamic step are thin metamorphic soles, commonly found beneath pristine, 100-1000 km long portions of oceanic lithosphere emplaced on continents (i.e., ophiolites).Through the (i) worldwide compilation of pressure-temperature conditions of metamorphic sole formation augmented by pseudosection thermodynamic modeling, (ii) calculations of the viscosity of materials along the plate interface and (iii) generic numerical thermal models, we provide a conceptual model of dynamic plate interface processes during subduction infancy (and initiation s.l.).We show in particular how major rheological switches across the subduction interface control slab penetration, and the formation of metamorphic soles. Due to the downward progression of hydration and weakening of the mantle wedge with cooling, the lower plate (basalt, sediment) and the upper plate (mantle wedge) rheologies equalize and switch over a restricted temperature-time-depth interval (e.g., at ~800°C and ~1 GPa, during 0.1-2 My, for high-temperature metamorphic sole formation). These switches result in episodes of maximum interplate mechanical coupling, thereby slicing the top of the slab and welding pieces (basalt, sediment) to the base of the mantle wedge. Similar mechanical processes likely apply for the later, deeper accretion and exhumation of high-temperature oceanic eclogites in serpentinite mélanges, or for the accretion of larger tectonic slices.This model provides constraints on the effective rheologies of the crust and mantle and general understanding, at both rock and plate scale, for accretion processes and early slab dynamics.
AGU Fall Meeting 2015
San Francisco, United States

insu-01242103
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01242103

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Metamorphic soles correspond to m to 500m thick tectonic slices welded beneath most of the large-scale ophiolites.They typically show a steep inverted metamorphic structure where the pressure and temperature conditions ofcrystallization increase upward (from 500100ºC at 0.50.2 GPa to 800100ºC at 1.00.2 GPa), with isogradssubparallel to the contact with the overlying ophiolitic peridotite. The proportion of mafic rocks in metamorphicsoles also increases from the bottom (meta-sediments rich) to the top (approaching the ophiolite peridotites). Thesesoles are interpreted as the result of heat transfer from the incipient mantle wedge toward the nascent slab (associatedwith large-scale fluid transfer and possible shear heating) during the first My of intra-oceanic subduction(as indicated by radiometric ages). Metamorphic soles provide therefore major constraints on early subductiondynamics (i.e. thermal structure, fluid migration and rheology along the nascent slab interface).We present a detailed structural and petrological study of the metamorphic sole from 4 major cross-sections alongthe Oman ophiolite. We show precise pressure–temperature estimates obtained by pseudosection modelling andEBSD measurements performed on both the garnet-bearing and garnet-free high-grade sole. Results allow quantificationof the micro-scale deformation and highlight differences in pressure–temperature–deformation conditionsbetween the 4 different locations, showing that the inverted metamorphic gradient through the sole is not continuousin all locations.Based on these new constraints, we suggest a new tectonic–petrological model for the formation of metamorphicsoles below ophiolites. This model involves the stacking of several homogeneous slivers of oceanic crust leadingto the present-day structure of the sole. In this view, these thrusts are the result of rheological contrasts between thesole and the peridotite as the plate interface progressively cools down. These slivers later underwent several stagesof retrogression (partly mediated by ascending fluids from the slab) from amphibolite- to prehnite/pumpellite-faciesconditions.
Geophysical Research Abstracts
Vienne, Austria

insu-01309369
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01309369

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Slices of polycyclic metasediments (marbles and meta-cherts) are tectonically amalgamated with the polydeformed basement of the Dent Blanche tectonic system along a major Alpine shear zone in the Western Alps (Becca di Salé area, Valtournenche Valley). A combination of techniques (structural analysis at various scales, metamorphic petrology, geochronology and trace element geochemistry) was applied to determine the age and composition of accessory phases (titanite, allanite and zircon) and their relation to major minerals. The results are used to reconstruct the polyphase structural and metamorphic histories, comprising both pre-Alpine and Alpine cycles. The pre-Alpine evolution is associated with low-pressure high-temperature metamorphism related to Permo-Triassic lithospheric thinning. In meta-cherts, microtextural relations indicate coeval growth of allanite and garnet during this stage, at ~ 300 Ma. Textures of zircon also indicate crystallisation at HT conditions; ages scatter from 263 to 294 Ma, with a major cluster of data at ~ 276 Ma. In impure marble, U-Pb analyses of titanite domains (with variable Al and F contents) yield apparent 206Pb/238U dates range from Permian to Jurassic. Chemical and isotopic data suggest that titanite formed at Permian times and was then affected by (extension-related?) fluid circulation during the Triassic and Jurassic, which redistributed major elements (Al and F) and partially opened the U-Pb system. The Alpine cycle lead to early blueschist facies assemblages, which were partly overprinted under greenschist facies conditions. The strong Alpine compressional overprint disrupted the pre-Alpine structural imprint and/or reactivated earlier structures. The pre-Alpine metamorphic record, preserved in these slices of metasediments, reflects the onset of the Permo-Triassic lithospheric extension to Jurassic rifting.
ISSN: 0024-4937

hal-00758123
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00758123
DOI : 10.1016/j.lithos.2012.05.007

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
The Pyrenean peridotites (lherzolites) form numerous small bodies of subcontinental mantle, a few meters to 3 km across, exposed within the narrow north Pyrenean zone (NPZ) of Mesozoic sediments paralleling the north Pyrenean Fault. Recent studies have shown that mantle exhumation occurred along the future NPZ during the formation of the Albian-Cenomanian Pyrenean basins in relation with detachment tectonics. This paper reviews the geological setting of the Pyrenean lherzolite bodies and reports new detailed field data from key outcrops in the Bearn region. Only two types of geological settings have to be distinguished among the Pyrenean ultramafic bodies. In the first type (sedimented type or S type), the lherzolites occur as clasts of various sizes, ranging from millimetric grains to hectometric olistoliths, within monogenic or polymictic debris flow deposits of Cretaceous age, reworking Mesozoic sediments in dominant proportions as observed around the Lherz body. In the second type (tectonic type or T type), the mantle rocks form hectometric to kilometric slices associated with crustal tectonic lenses. Both crustal and mantle tectonic lenses are in turn systematically associated with large volumes of strongly deformed Triassic rocks and have fault contacts with units of deformed Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous sediments belonging to the cover of the NPZ. These deformed Mesozoic formations are not older that the Aptian-early Albian. They are unconformably overlain by the Albian-Cenomanian flysch formations and have experienced high temperature-low pressure mid-Cretaceous metamorphism at variable grades. Such a tectonic setting characterizes most of the lherzolite bodies exposed in the western Pyrenees. These geological data first provide evidence of detachment tectonics leading to manle exhumation and second emphasize the role of gravity sliding of the Mesozoic cover in the preorogenic evolution of the Pyrenean realm. In the light of such evidence, a simple model of basin development can be inferred, involving extreme thinning of the crust, and mantle uprising along a major detachment fault. We demonstrate coeval development of a crust-mantle detachment fault and generalized gravitational sliding of the Mesozoic cover along low-angle faults involving Triassic salt deposits as a tectonic sole. This model accounts for the basic characteristics of the precollisional rift evolution in the Pyrenean realm.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00512818
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00512818
DOI : 10.1029/2009TC002588

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD American Geophysical Union (AGU)
Résumé : International audience
The Calabro-Peloritan belt constitutes the eastward termination of the southern segment of the Alpine Mediterranean belt. This orogenic system was built up during the convergence between the Eurasian and the African plates, roughly directed North-South since the Upper Cretaceous. It was subsequently fragmented during the opening of the Western Mediterranean basins since Oligocene times. The curved shape of the Calabro-Peloritan belt was acquired during the opening of the Tyrrhenian basin since Tortonian. The origin, kinematics and significance of the Calabro-Peloritan tectonic pile are still debated. Our data in the Aspromonte Massif of Southern Calabria reveal an Alpine history marked by two main superimposed kinematic regimes. (i) A first phase corresponds to the piling up of basement nappes with a top-to-the-SE vergence, i.e in a direction orthogonal to the belt trend and towards the Adriatic foreland. This external vergence is similar to what is observed in both Northeastern Sicily and Northern Calabria. In Sicily, the age of nappe piling is Alpine, as evidenced by pinched slices of Mesozoïc sediments. In the Aspromonte Massif, thrusting age is less constrained. Our data suggest remnants of late Hercynian structuration before the Alpine stacking. (ii) A second phase corresponds to the thinning of the continental crust, dated at around 30 Ma by both geochronological and stratigraphical data. This extension is mainly localized on two low-angle detachment contacts, with top-to-the-NE displacement. The lower one corresponds to the reworking of the former main nappe contact. The upper one is a large detachment fault cutting across the pile from upper sedimentary levels down to metamorphic basement. Extension of similar Alpine age and similar internal vergence has been already recognized in other parts of the Calabro-Peloritan Arc: in the basement nappes of Northeastern Sicily and in the ophiolitic units of Northern Calabria. Coming back to the original geometry and position of the Calabro-Peloritan belt, before its bending and the opening of the Liguro-Provençal and Tyrrhenian basins, we evidence a homogeneous Oligocene NE-SW extension all along the Calabro-Peloritan segment of the Alpine Mediterranean belt. This tectonometamorphic history is best explained within the framework of the continuous Tertiary westward dipping subduction of the Tethyan oceanic domain below the European active margin and the progressive eastward retreat of the Apennine trench since Oligocene times.
ISSN: 0278-7407

hal-00283182
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00283182
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00283182/document
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00283182/file/Heymes_et_al_2008.pdf
DOI : 10.1029/2007TC002157

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : International audience
Understanding subduction rheology in both space and time has been a challenge since the advent of plate tectonics.We herein focus on "subduction infancy", which corresponds to the first 0-2 My immediately following subductionnucleation, when a newly born slab penetrates into the overriding plate mantle and heats up.The only remnants of this critical, yet elusive, geodynamic step are thin metamorphic soles, commonly found beneathpristine, 100-1000 km long portions of oceanic lithosphere emplaced on top of continents (i.e. ophiolites).In this study, we show how, during subduction infancy, transient mechanical properties of both the mantle and crustacross the subduction plate interface (during 100s ky) control and hinder the penetration of tectonic plates intothe mantle, and how this results in strong peaks of resistance and even slicing of their surface — leaving behindthin, chopped-off metamorphic slivers (i.e. metamorphic soles).These findings constrain the mechanical behaviour of the subduction plate interface (with implications for couplingprocesses and earthquake generation) as well as the properties of the crust and mantle. They also highlight the roleof fluids in enabling subduction to overcome this early resistance.
Geophysical Research Abstracts
Vienne, Austria

insu-01309386
https://hal-insu.archives-ouvertes.fr/insu-01309386

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Recent geochemical work shows that subduction-zone serpentinites are repositories for fluid-mobile elements absorbed during interaction with sediment-derived fluids. Unraveling the geochemical fingerprint of these rocks helps to define timing of tectonic accretion of sediments along the subduction interface and the role of serpentinite in element recycling to volcanic arcs. Here we present the trace element and isotopic composition (B–O–H, Sr, Pb) of high-pressure serpentinites from the Voltri Massif (Ligurian Western Alps, Italy), to discuss their role as incompatible element carriers and their contribution to recycling of sediment-derived components in subduction zones.The serpentinites presented here record metamorphic olivine growth during eclogite-facies metamorphism and show undeformed and mylonitic textures. Field relations show that undeformed rocks are enclosed in deformed ones and that no metasedimentary rocks are present nearby. Undeformed serpentinite has very high δ11BSRM951 (from +26‰ to +30‰), low Sr and Pb isotope ratios (87Sr/86Sr = 0.7053–0.7069; 206Pb/204Pb = 18.131–18.205) and low As and Sb contents (0.1 and 0.01 μg/g, respectively). Oxygen and hydrogen isotope compositions are +4.5‰ and −67‰, respectively. In contrast, mylonitic serpentinite shows lower δ11B (from +22‰ to +17‰), significant enrichment in radiogenic Sr and Pb isotopes (87Sr/86Sr up to 0.7105; 206Pb/204Pb up to 18.725), and enrichment in As and Sb (1.3 and 0.39 μg/g, respectively). δ18O of the mylonitic serpentinites reaches values of +5.9‰, whereas δD is comparable with that of undeformed rocks (approximately −70‰). In mylonitic serpentinites, the B and Sr isotopic values and the fluid-mobile element (FME) concentrations are near those for the Voltri metasedimentary rocks (calc- and mica-schists). Pb systematics also reveal influx of a crust-derived component.Our dataset shows that undeformed serpentinite still preserves an oceanic geochemical fingerprint, whereas mylonitic serpentinite is reset in its concentrations of FME and its B, Sr and Pb isotope compositions, due to interaction with sediment- and crust-derived fluids. The environment of this interaction is either compatible with (i) an outer-rise zone setting, with percolation of seawater-derived fluids enriched in sedimentary components into bending-related fault structures, or with (ii) subduction channel domains, where ascending sediment-derived slab fluids infiltrate slices of former oceanic serpentinite accreted to the plate interface domain. Influx of sediment-derived subduction fluids along major deformation zones in serpentinite modifies the element budget of the rocks, with important implications for element recycling and the tectonic history of serpentinite. The B, Sr and Pb isotopic systematics, coupled with FME concentration in serpentinites are particularly helpful geochemical tracers of interaction between different reservoirs in subduction-interface environments, and are more sensitive than the traditionally applied stable oxygen and hydrogen isotope compositions.
ISSN: 0016-7037

hal-01419940
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01419940
DOI : 10.1016/j.gca.2016.06.034

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Tectonic mixing of slab- and mantle-derived materials at the interface between converging plates highly enhances fluid-mediated mass transfer from the slab to the overlying mantle. Subduction mélanges can provide information about the interaction among different slices accreted at plate interface domains, with implications on the tectonic and geochemical evolution of the plate-interface itself. At Cima di Gagnone, pelitic schists and gneiss enclose chlorite harzburgite and garnet peridotite lenses, like in subduction mélanges located in-between downgoing slabs and overlying mantle. These peridotites host MORB-type eclogite and metarodingite, and derive from dehydration of serpentinized mantle protoliths. Their enrichment in fluid-mobile B, As, Sb, U, Th is the result of an early-stage oceanic serpentinization, followed by interaction with host metasediments during subduction burial. Here we define the element exchange process in the Gagnone mélange by means of the B, Sr and Pb isotope analysis of its main lithologies (ultramafic, mafic rocks and paragneiss). The 87Sr/86Sr and 206Pb/204Pb ratios of ultramafic rocks (0.7090–0.7124 and 18.292–18.837, respectively) show enrichments in radiogenic Sr and Pb after exchange with the host paraschist (up to 0.7287 87Sr/86Sr; 18.751 206Pb/204Pb). The δ11B values of peridotites (down to −10‰) point to a combined effect of (1) 11B release to deserpentinization fluids (serpentinized protoliths likely had positive δ11B and lower radiogenic Sr, Pb), and of (2) exchange with fluids from the surrounding metasediments. The whole Gagnone rock-suite is finally overprinted by retrograde fluids that essentially bring to an increase in radiogenic Pb (about 19.0 206Pb/204Pb) and to values of 0.710 87Sr/86Sr and of −10‰ δ11B. The recognition of different stages of interaction between mantle rocks and sedimentary/crustal reservoirs allows us to define the geochemical effects related to the early coupling of such rocks along the plate-interface. Our study shows that ultramafic rocks involved in subduction-zone metamorphism and serpentinization uptake radiogenic Pb and Sr released by associated sedimentary reservoirs. The exchange process envisioned here is not only representative of subduction mélanges: it can also be a proxy of mass transfer between slab and serpentinized supra-subduction mantle, as occurs in forearcs. Dehydration of the Gagnone-type serpentinized mantle releases crust-derived components to arcs, without direct involvement of metasediment dehydration and/or melting in subarc environments. The retention of appreciable amounts of fluid-mobile elements, radiogenic Pb and Sr in dehydrated Gagnone peridotites has implications on element recycling in the deep Earth’s mantle.
ISSN: 0016-7037

hal-01174137
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01174137
DOI : 10.1016/j.gca.2015.04.024