Magnetic reorientation induced by pressure solution: A potential mechanism for orogenic-scale remagnetizations

New paleomagnetic analyses of Triassic, Cretaceous and Eocene strata in the south-central Pyrenees show evidence for a widespread remagnetization, located along the southern border of the Axial Zone, the Internal Sierras, and the northern part of the Jaca-Pamplona basin. This remagnetization, always reversed in polarity, was acquired after an extensive period of Late Eocene–Early Oligocene folding and tilting in the area, and affects limestones, sandstones, marls and red beds. In addition, a characteristic prefolding component was identified in 30% of Upper Cretaceous and Triassic red beds. These results, together with a revaluation of previously published paleomagnetic data from the central Pyrenees, indicate that the spatial distribution of the postfolding remagnetization coincides with that of a domain of pressure solution cleavage. A relationship between the intensity of the remagnetization and the characteristic (prefolding component) with respect to the density of cleavage surfaces, leads us to propose a mechanism for the remagnetization related to the development of pressure solution cleavage that is framed within the tectonic evolution of the central Pyrenees. Partial dissolution of rock under tectonic compression leads to the liberation and subsequent accumulation of insoluble minerals in cleavage planes. Magnetic grains are part of the relatively insoluble residue, and they reorient in the presence of the ambient field after they are freed during dissolution of the rock matrix. Chemical reequilibrium (dissolution and/or neoformation of magnetic carriers) during this process cannot be excluded. The remagnetization mechanism we propose can help to explain widespread remagnetizations in low to moderately deformed rocks without the need of large-scale migration of orogenic fluids.