Maurice Brunel

Mesozoic and Cenozoic tectonics of the northern edge of the Tibetan plateau: fission-track constraints

Abstract Fission-track analysis on zircons and apatites yields new information about the timing of deformation of the northern Tibetan plateau. Ages on zircons, ranging from 221±22 to 96±4 Ma are indicative of a general late Triassic–early Jurassic cooling probably driven by the collision between the Qiantang and Kunlun blocks. Mid-Jurassic slow cooling is recorded also in the apatites in regions not affected by later Cenozoic deformation. This Jurassic denudation was followed by a period of sedimentation during the Cretaceous, except along the Altyn Tagh fault (ATF) zone, and in some restricted areas of the western and eastern Qilian Shan. This long and relatively quiet period ended at about 40±10 Ma along the major Altyn Tagh and Kunlun strike-slip fault zones, which were activated by the India–Asia collision. This first movement along lithospheric faults resulted in the eastward extrusion of the Tibet plateau, which was followed, in late Oligocene–Miocene times, by a major compression event, initiating the formation of the high relief of north Tibet. A final compressional event took place at 9–5 Ma and is well correlated with high sedimentation rates in the basins of this region. This compression induced continental subduction in the Kunlun ranges, the Altun Shan belt, and possibly the Qilian Shan belt.

Kongur Shan normal fault: Type example of mountain building assisted by extension (Karakoram fault, eastern Pamir)

The northernmost segment of the Karakoram fault is an active normal dextral wrench fault that bounds the Muji-Tashgurgan Pliocene-Quaternary basin (eastern Pamir). The Kongurshan (7719 m) and Mustaghata (7546 m) mountains are interpreted as twin crustal ramp anticlines formed en echelon on the eastern side of the Karakoram fault by subduction of the Tarim lithosphere under the Pamir. West-dipping S/C mylonitic gneisses that have downdip stretching lineations form the western flank of Kongur Mountain. Kinematic criteria consistently indicate a top-to-the-west sense of shear. The mylonitic foliation is cut by a steeper active normal fault, which is marked by prominent triangular facets on west-facing spurs. The ductile normal shearing deformation occurred during the interval 5-1 Ma. Therefore, like the Himalayas, the Pamir mountain range shows the coeval development of frontal thrusting and rear normal faulting. The Kongur fault thus appears to be an excellent example of synorogenic extension where normal faulting contributes to relief.

High cooling and denudation rates at Kongur Shan, Eastern Pamir (Xinjiang, China) revealed by 40Ar/39Ar alkali feldspar thermochronology

Orthogneiss samples taken from the Kongur antiform show ages varying from 2 Ma to 1 Ma for 40Ar/39Ar ages of biotites and muscovites and fission tracks on apatites, leading to cooling rates of 150°C/m.y. Modeling of K-feldspars highlights the effect of a range of diffusion domains with contrasting diffusion characteristics, yielding closure temperatures from 400° to 150°C. The feldspar data document the cooling history since 5 Ma and indicate a sudden change in cooling rates of the antiform at 2 Ma. At that time, cooling increases by a factor of 5, from an average of 20°C/m.y. to a minimum of 150°C/m.y. Consideration of the regional thermal history, ongoing uplift, and erosional history of the antiform during the Quaternary suggests that denudation rates have been of the order of 5–7 km/m.y. since 2 m.y. ago and could be associated with significant upward surface movement triggered by major normal faulting. The antiform is interpreted to have formed during thrusting at the Pamir front as a result of the development of thrust ramps and normal faulting at the crustal scale. Ramp stacking is an important process of mountain building, and normal faulting in this context must be regarded as a very efficient way of building high relief.

Extensional faulting on Tinos island, Aegean sea, Greece: How many detachments?

Zircon and apatite fission track (ZFT and AFT) and (U-Th)/He, 40Ar/39Ar hornblende, and U-Pb zircon ages from the granites of Tinos Island in the Aegean Sea, Greece, suggest, together with published ZFT data, that there are three extensional detachments on Tinos. The Tinos granites crosscut the Tinos detachment. Cooling of the granites was controlled by the Livadi detachment, which occurs structurally above the Tinos detachment. Our U-Pb zircon age is 14.6 ± 0.2 Ma and two 40Ar/39Ar hornblende ages are 14.4 ± 0.4 and 13.7 ± 0.4 Ma. ZFT and AFT ages go from 14.4 ± 1.2 to 12.2 ± 1.0 Ma and 12.8 ± 2.4 to 11.9 ± 2.0 Ma. (U-Th)/He ages are from 10.4 ± 0.2 to 9.9 ± 0.2 Ma (zircon) and 11.9 ± 0.5 to 10.0 ± 0.3 Ma (apatite). All ages decrease northeastward in the direction of hanging wall transport on the Livadi detachment and age-distance relationships yield a slip rate of 2.6 (+3.3 / −1.0) km Ma−1. This rate is smaller than a published slip rate of 6.5 km Ma−1 for the Vari detachment, which is another detachment structurally above the Tinos detachment. Because of the different rates and because published ZFT ages from the footwall of the Vari detachment are ∼10 Ma, we propose that the Vari detachment has to be distinguished from the older Livadi detachment. We discuss various models of how the extensional detachments may have evolved and prefer a scenario in which the Vari detachment cut down into the footwall of the Livadi detachment successively exhuming deeper structural units. The thermochronologic ages demonstrate the importance of quantitative data for constraining localization processes during extensional deformation.

Timing, slip rate, displacement and cooling history of the Mykonos detachment footwall, Cyclades, Greece, and implications for the opening of the Aegean sea basin

We constrain the slip and cooling history of the Mykonos detachment footwall using thermochronometry. A U–Pb zircon age of 13.5 ± 0.3 Ma dates intrusion of the Mykonos monzogranite. 40Ar/39Ar hornblende and biotite ages from the monzogranite are 12.7 ± 0.6 Ma and 10.9 ± 0.6 Ma, whereas zircon and apatite fission-track ages range from 13 ± 0.8 Ma to 10.7 ± 0.8 Ma and 12.5 ± 2.2 Ma to 10.5 ± 1.8 Ma. (U–Th)/He ages range from 13.6 ± 0.6 Ma to 9.0 ± 0.7 Ma for zircon and 11.1 ± 0.5 Ma to 8.9 ± 0.4 Ma for apatite. The ages in part overlap within 2σ errors and together with the long apatite fission-track lengths (>14 μm) support rapid cooling at rates >100 °C Ma−1. The low-temperature thermochronometric ages decrease east-northeastwards in the direction of hanging-wall transport on the Mykonos detachment. Age–distance relationships show that the Mykonos detachment slipped at an average rate of 6.0 +9.2/−2.4 km Ma−1 causing c. 30 km of offset and c. 12 km of exhumation. This result indicates that Miocene low-angle normal faulting was not important for the exhumation of the Cycladic blueschist unit. The opening of the Aegean Sea basin in the Miocene was controlled by a few large-magnitude low-angle normal faults.

The Miocene elevation of Mount Everest

The Neogene elevation history of the Mount Everest region is key for understanding the tectonic history of the worlds highest mountain range, the evolution of the Tibetan Plateau, and climate patterns in East and Central Asia. In the absence of fossil surface deposits such as paleosols, volcanic ashes, or lake sediments, we conducted stable isotope paleoaltimetry based on the hydrogen isotope ratios (dD) of hydrous minerals that were deformed in the South Tibetan detachment shear zone during the late Early Miocene. These minerals exchanged isotopically at high temperature with meteoric water (dDwater = m156p p 5p) that originated as high-elevation precipitation and infiltrated the crustal hydrologic system at the time of detachment activity. When compared to age-equivalent near-sea-level foreland oxygen isotope (d18O) paleosol records (d18Owater = m5.8p p 1.0p), the difference in d18Owater is consistent with mean elevations of g5000 m for the Mount Everest area. Mean elevations similar to modern suggest that an early Himalayan rain shadow may have influenced the late Early Miocene climatic and rainfall history to the north of the Himalayan chain.

Discovery of coesite in the North Qaidam Early Palaeozoic ultrahigh pressure (UHP) metamorphic belt, NW China

Abstract Coesite and graphite were discovered as inclusions in zircon separates from pelitic gneiss associated with a large eclogite body in the North Qaidam UHP terrane. This finding suggests UHP metamorphism at pressures below the diamond stability field. This supports previous indirect UHP evidences, such as polycrystalline quartz inclusions in eclogitic garnet, quartz lamellae in omphacite and P–T estimates for both eclogite and garnet peridotite. The U/Pb and Sm/Nd isotopic ages from the North Qaidam eclogite indicated that continental subduction occurred in Early Palaeozoic, most probably in relation with the collision between the Sino-Korean and Yangtze plates.

Discovery of the Paleo-Tethys residual peridotites along the Anyemaqen–KunLun suture zone (North Tibet)

Abstract The spinel peridotite from the Anyemaqen suture contains ⩾5% residual clinopyroxene and is characterized by a high abundance of the magmaphile elements Fe, Al and Ti in the primary mineral phases. Our data demonstrate that this rock represents residual mantle material, which has been affected by less than 10% partial melting prior to its emplacement. Its textural features indicate that the rock has been plastically deformed in a non-coaxial regime under lithospheric physical conditions at a relatively cool thermal regime below solidus temperature. We suggest that the peridotites from the Anyemaqen suture represent mantle material, which was either emplaced during incipient rifting on the Palaeozoic passive margin of Asia, or uplifted at slow spreading ridge setting in Paleo-Tethyan Ocean. Further researches are needed to make a definite choice between these two alternatives. To cite this article: E.A. Konstantinovskaia et al., C. R. Geoscience 335 (2003).

Transpressional tectonics and Carboniferous magmatism in the Limousin, Massif Central, France: Structural and 40Ar/39Ar investigations

New structural, microstructural, and 40Ar/39Ar data from the NW Massif Central (France) provide additional constraints on the timing and tectonic setting of late Variscan granite magmatism. Previous studies had emphasized the role of late orogenic extension in the emplacement of granite plutons in the Limousin region. In contrast, the new data set is consistent with syntectonic emplacement of magma in a dextral simple shear active from 350 to 300 Ma in a transpressional regime. As an alternative hypothesis to late orogenic extension, we propose that magmas migrated into tensional bridges between active P shears associated with a lithospheric shear zone comparable to a pop-up structure. The Galician region, in the western end of the Ibero-Armorican tectonic arc, exhibits major left-lateral ductile shear zones which can be interpreted as conjugate structures to the Limousin and Armorican shear zones. Citation: Ge´belin, A., M. Brunel, P. Monie´, M. Faure, and N. Arnaud (2007), Transpressional tectonics and Carboniferous magmatism in the Limousin, Massif Central, France: Structural and 40Ar/39Ar investigations

Exhumation cénozoı̈que des massifs du Canigou et de Mont-Louis (Pyrénées orientales, France)

The onset of exhumation of the Canigou massif, related to the reactivation of the Tet Fault during the Gulf of Lion opening, is dated at 26–27 Ma, using apatite fission track method and lasts until the Aquitanian, at a rate of 0.29±0.07 mmyr−1. The subsequent evolution is necessarily followed by a slower rate of exhumation to account for total exhumation. At the hanging-wall of this fault, the granite of Mont-Louis records an older exhumation history, where the crossing of the 110 °C isotherm at 40±4 Ma is related to the Pyrenean thrusting. To cite this article: O. Maurel et al., C. R. Geoscience 334 (2002) 941–948.