Cooling and uplift patterns in the Lepontine Alps South Central Switzerland and an age of vertical movement on the Insubric fault line

96 new fission track (FT) apatite and zircon, K/Ar and Rb/Sr biotite and muscovite ages are presented for 19 samples (mainly acid gneisses) from a 40 km traverse through the Lepontine Alps in the Maggia Valley, South Central Switzerland. Plotting measured mineral ages against assumed system closure temperatures yields cooling rates for each sample. The entire profile shows a fairly uniform Late Neogene-Recent mean uplift rate of 0.5 mm/a, confirmed by a gradient of FT apatite age with elevation. Cooling from higher temperatures occurred earlier in the south, where uplift rates of 2.2 mm/a in the Steep Belt (root zone) indicate >9 km Early Miocene uplift of the northern Pennine block. This uplift started before 23 Ma and is interpreted as resulting from a major phase of backthrusting along the Insubric Line, and as dating the formation of the mylonite belt. Estimated cooling rates constrain the timing of Lepontine Mid-Tertiary metamorphism: 3 schematic models are proposed which also consider published Rb/Sr, K/Ar mica and hornblende and U/Pb monazite ages. Slow cooling, differential initial heating and subsequent cooling of different parts of the Central Alps and post-38 Ma cooling with syntectonic metamorphism at 27 Ma are postulated as alternative interpretations of isotopic data and geologic evidence. From extrapolation between K/Ar and Rb/Sr mica ages and apatite FT ages, 240±50° C is proposed as the closure temperature for the retention of fission tracks in zircon.     

The role of viscous heating in Barrovian metamorphism of collisional orogens: thermomechanical models and application to the Lepontine Dome in the Central Alps

Thermal models for Barrovian metamorphism driven by doubling the thickness of the radiogenic crust typically meet difficulty in accounting for the observed peak metamorphic temperature conditions. This difficulty suggests that there is an additional component in the thermal budget of many collisional orogens. Theoretical and geological considerations suggest that viscous heating is a cumulative process that may explain the heat deficit in collision orogens. The results of 2D numerical modelling of continental collision involving subduction of the lithospheric mantle demonstrate that geologically plausible stresses and strain rates may result in orogen‐scale viscous heat production of 0.1 to >1 μW m^?3, which is comparable to or even exceeds bulk radiogenic heat production within the crust. Thermally induced buoyancy is responsible for crustal upwelling in large domes with metamorphic temperatures up to 200 °C higher than regional background temperatures. Heat is mostly generated within the uppermost mantle, because of large stresses in the highly viscous rocks deforming there. This thermal energy may be transferred to the overlying crust either in the form of enhanced heat flow, or through magmatism that brings heat into the crust advectively. The amplitude of orogenic heating varies with time, with both the amplitude and time‐span depending strongly on the coupling between heat production, viscosity and collision strain rate. It is argued that geologically relevant figures are applicable to metamorphic domes such as the Lepontine Dome in the Central Alps. We conclude that deformation‐generated viscous dissipation is an important heat source during collisional orogeny and that high metamorphic temperatures as in Barrovian type metamorphism are inherent to deforming crustal regions.     

Alpine metamorphism of pelitic schists in the Nufenen Pass area, Lepontine Alps

Abstract The effects of Tertiary Alpine metamorphism on pelitic Mesozoic cover rocks have been studied along a cross-section in the central Lepontine Alps in the Nufenen Pass area, Switzerland. Greenschist facies to amphibolite facies conditions are indicated by the formation of the index minerals chloritoid, garnet, staurolite and kyanite in pelitic rocks. Regional metamorphism reached maximum conditions during the interkinematic period between a main Alpine penetrative (D2) and a late Alpine (D3) crenulation type deformation phase or synchronous with the late Alpine deformation. Based on AFM phase relationships four different metamorphic zones can be distinguished: (1) chloritoid zone; (2) staurolite + chlorite zone; (3) staurolite + biotite zone; and, (4) kyanite zone. The isograds that separate these zones can be modelled by univariant reactions in the KFMASH system. The conditions of metamorphism calculated from geological ther-mobarometers for the maximum post-D2 por-phyroblast stage are from North to South: 500° C at 5-6 kbar and 600° C at 7-8 kbar. Detailed thermobarometry of garnet por-phyroblasts with complex textures suggests that maximum temperature was reached later than maximum pressure. Early garnet growth occurred along a prograde P-T-path, post-D2 rims grew with increasing temperature but decreasing pressure, and finally post-D3 garnet formed along a retrograde P-T-path. It may be concluded from the calculated pressure and temperature difference over a short distance (3 km) across the mapped area that the isogradic surfaces of the post-D2 metamorphism are steeply oriented. The data also suggest that isobaric and isothermal surfaces are parallel. Much of the observed metamorphic pattern can be explained as the result of a significant post-D2 differential uplift of the hot Pennine area relative to the Helvetic area along a tectonic contact zone. The closely spaced isograds (isotherms) in the North may then be interpreted as a thermal effect owing to the emplacement of the hot Pennine rocks against the Got-thard massif with its cover. Whereas, in the Pennine metasediments, post-D2 porphyroblast formation can be related to the decompression path which was steep enough for dehydration reactions to proceed. It is also remarkable that late kyanite porphyroblasts probably formed with decreasing pressure. The interpretation given here for the Nufenen Pass area may also apply to the Luk-manier Pass area where similar metamorphic patterns have been reported by Fox (1975). The formation of the ‘Northern Steep Belt’;, as denned by Milnes (1974b), and the associated late Alpine fold zones may, therefore, have significantly modified the metamorphic pattern of the Helvetic-Penninic contact zone.     

Thermorheological model for the European Central Alps: brittle–ductile transition and lithospheric strength

A two‐dimensional thermorheological model of the Central Alps along a north–south transect is presented. Thermophysical and rheological parameters of the various lithological units are chosen from seismic and gravity information. The inferred temperature distribution matches surface heat flow and results in Moho temperatures between 500 and 800 °C. Both European and Adriatic lithospheres have a ‘jelly‐sandwich’ structure, with a 15–20 km thick brittle upper crust overlying a ductile lower crust and a mantle lid whose uppermost part is brittle. The total strength of the lithosphere is of the order of 0.5–1.0 × 10¹³ N m⁻¹ if the upper mantle is dry, or slightly less if the upper mantle is wet. In both cases, the higher values correspond to the Adriatic indenter.     

Magnetic fabric evolution in ductile shear zones: examples in metagranites of the Aar Massif (Swiss Central Alps)

The Aar Massif forms part of the polycyclic basement of the External Crystalline Massifs in central Switzerland. Strong heterogeneous Alpine deformation produced a network of broad, anastomosing shear zones, with deformation strongly localized in mylonitic domains. This study investigates the combined effects of high‐strain deformation and synkinematic metamorphism on magnetic fabric evolution in Tertiary shear zones of the Aar granite and Grimsel granodiorite. In transects across several mesoscale shear zones with large strain gradients, magnetic fabric orientations are in excellent agreement with principal strain orientations determined from outcrop fabrics and strain markers. However, the magnitude and shape of the magnetic anisotropy do not change systematically with increasing finite strain, likely as a result of recrystallization and metamorphism. The overall pattern of steeply dipping fabrics is consistent with the main shortening stage of regional Alpine kinematics, while some mylonite structures reflect a local component of dextral shearing.     

Neglected basement ductile deformation in balanced-section restoration: An example from the Central Southern Alps (Northern Italy)

In the construction of balanced sections through thick-skinned belts, basement bodies are frequently assumed to be rigid and internally undeformed (with the exception of regional scale fault-bend-folding) and only backstripping of thrust faults is performed during their retrodeformation, possibly leading to underestimations of the regional shortening. This simplifying assumption is generally made because reliable information on internal strain in basement is lacking and the sedimentary cover of the internal parts of thrust belts has been removed by erosion.In a basement exposure in the eastern Orobic Alps, Alpine-age ductile structures (mainly chevron to sub-isoclinal folds rarely associated with cleavage formation) were recognized on the basis of overprinting criteria, folding style and fabric orientation and their areal distribution was determined by foliation trace mapping. Although unevenly distributed in different lithologies, ductile deformation is considerable (average shortening is 47%). Neglecting such internal strain during construction of balanced sections leads, for this area, to an underestimation of at least 10%, but could be more than 40% if the observed basement shortening is extrapolated to other basement-involved thrust bodies across the entire width of the deformed belt.It is concluded that detailed structural studies of the basement, for example those using a foliation trace mapping technique, are necessary to define the internal strain of basement bodies so that the shortening of thick-skinned belts can be more accurately calculated.     

Water in garnet of garnetite (metarodingite) and eclogite from the Erzgebirge and the Lepontine Alps

Little is known about water in nominally anhydrous minerals of orogenic garnet peridotite and enclosed metabasic rocks. This study is focused on peridotite-hosted eclogite and garnetite (metarodingite) from the Erzgebirge (EG), Germany, and the Lepontine Alps (LA), Switzerland. Newly discovered, peridotite-hosted eclogite in the Erzgebirge occurs in the same ultra-high pressure (UHP) unit as gneiss-hosted coesite eclogite, from which it is petrologically indistinguishable. Garnet is present in all mafic and ultramafic high pressure (HP) rocks providing for an ideal proxy to compare the H₂O content of the different rock types. Garnet composition is very similar in EG and LA samples and depends on the rock type. Garnet from garnetite, compared to eclogite, contains more CaO (garnetite: 10.5–16.5 wt%; eclogite: 5–11 wt%) and is also characterized by an anomalous REE distribution. In contrast, the infrared (IR) spectra of garnet from both rock types reveal the same OH absorption bands that are also identical to those of previously studied peridotitic garnet from the same locations. Two groups of IR bands, SW I (3,650 ± 10 cm⁻¹) and SW II (3,570–3,630 cm⁻¹) are ascribed to structural hydroxyl (colloquially ‘water’). A third, broad band is present in about half of the analysed garnet domains and related to molecular water (MW) in submicroscopic fluid inclusions. The primary content of structural H₂O, preserved in garnet domains without fluid inclusions (and MW bands), varies systematically—depending on both the location and the rock type. Garnet from EG rocks contains more water compared to LA samples, and garnet from garnetite (EG: 121–241 wt.ppm H₂O; LA: 23–46 wt.ppm) hosts more water than eclogitic garnet (EG: 84 wt.ppm; LA: 4–11 wt.ppm). Higher contents of structural water (SW) are observed in domains with molecular water, in which the SW II band (being not restricted to HP conditions) is simultaneously enhanced. This implies that fluid influx during decompression not only led to fluid inclusions but also favoured the uptake of secondary SW. The results signify that garnet from all EG and LA samples was originally H₂O-undersaturated. Combining the data from eclogite, garnetite and previously studied peridotite, H₂O and CaO are positively correlated, pointing to the same degree of H₂O-undersaturation at peak metamorphism in all rock types. This ubiquitous water-deficiency cannot be reconciled with the derivation of any of these rocks from the lowermost part of the mantle wedge that was in contact with the subducting plate. This agrees with the previously inferred abyssal origin for part of the rocks from the LA (Cima di Gagnone). A similar origin has to be invoked for the Erzgebirge UHP unit. We suggest that all mafic and ultramafic rocks of this unit not only shared the same metamorphic evolution but also a common protolith origin, most probably on the ocean floor. This inference is supported by the presence of peridotite-hosted garnetite, representing metamorphosed rodingite.     

Polyphase thrusting and dyke emplacement in the central Southern Alps (Northern Italy)

The Triassic succession of the central Southern Alps (Italy) is stacked into several units bounded by south-verging low-angle thrust faults, which are related to two successive steps of crustal shortening. The thrust surfaces are cut by high-angle extensional and strike-slip faults, which controlled the emplacement of hypabissal magmatic intrusions that post-date thrusts motions. Intrusion ages based on SHRIMP U–Pb zircon dating span between 42 ± 1 and 39 ± 1 Ma, suggesting close time relationships with the earliest Adamello intrusion stages and, more in general, with the widespread calc-alkaline magmatism described in the Southern Alps. Fission-track ages of magmatic apatites are indistinguishable from U–Pb crystallization ages of zircons, suggesting that the intrusion occurred in country rocks already exhumed above the partial annealing zone of apatite (depth < 2–4 km). These data indicate that the central Southern Alps were already structured and largely exhumed in the Middle Eocene. Although we describe minor faults affecting magmatic bodies and local reactivations of older structures, no major internal deformations have occurred in the area after the Bartonian. Neogene deformations were instead concentrated farther south, along the frontal part of the belt.     

3-D assessment of peak-metamorphic conditions by Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous material: an example from the margin of the Lepontine dome (Swiss Central Alps)

This study monitors regional changes in the crystallinity of carbonaceous matter (CM) by applying Micro-Raman spectroscopy to a total of 214 metasediment samples (largely so-called Bündnerschiefer) dominantly metamorphosed under blueschist- to amphibolite-facies conditions. They were collected within the northeastern margin of the Lepontine dome and easterly adjacent areas of the Swiss Central Alps. Three-dimensional mapping of isotemperature contours in map and profile views shows that the isotemperature contours associated with the Miocene Barrow-type Lepontine metamorphic event cut across refolded nappe contacts, both along and across strike within the northeastern margin of the Lepontine dome and adjacent areas. Further to the northeast, the isotemperature contours reflect temperatures reached during the Late Eocene subduction-related blueschist-facies event and/or during subsequent near-isothermal decompression; these contours appear folded by younger, large-scale post-nappe-stacking folds. A substantial jump in the recorded maximum temperatures across the tectonic contact between the frontal Adula nappe complex and surrounding metasediments indicates that this contact accommodated differential tectonic movement of the Adula nappe with respect to the enveloping Bündnerschiefer after maximum temperatures were reached within the northern Adula nappe, i.e. after Late Eocene time.     

Tectonic progradation and plate tectonic evolution of the Alps

Rifting and spreading, trench formation, flysch deposition, subduction and nappe formation prograde from internal to external parts of the Alpine orogen. The progradation is a characteristic feature of the evolution of the Alps. A plate tectonics model based on this cognition is presented and an attempt is made to integrate the plate movements of the Alpine region during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic into the plate pattern of the Western Mediterranean.

Important events in the evolution of the Alps are the successive opening and closing of the Piedmont (South Penninic) and Valais (North Penninic) oceans, and the two continental collisions related to this. The southward drift of the Briançonian plate in the Cretaceous closes the Piedmont and opens the Valais ocean. The evolution of these oceans is related to the plate movements in the North Atlantic. The second continental collision is followed by the formation of an exogeosyncline, the molasse foredeep.

Prograding orogens like the Alps are most likely to evolve in an originally continental environment by rifting. Retrograding orogens, however, indicate an originally oceanic environment with well-developed magmatic arcs and back-arc basins.     

Isograds and P–T evolution in the eastern Lepontine Alps (Graubünden, Switzerland)

Reactions producing Al‐rich index minerals in the south‐eastern part of the Lepontine Dome (Central Alps, Switzerland) are investigated using mineral distribution maps, microstructural observations and equilibrium phase diagrams. The apparent staurolite mineral zone boundary corresponds to the paragonite breakdown reaction Pg + Grt + Qtz = Pl + Al₂O₃ + W. Equilibrium phase diagrams show that most natural metapelites do not contain staurolite or alumosilicates as long as univalent cations are predominantly accommodated in white mica. For a wide range of metapelitic compositions the paragonite breakdown releases sufficient Al for the formation of these minerals. Rare occurrences of staurolite and kyanite, north of the formerly mapped mineral zone boundaries, coexist with paragonite and are restricted to extremely Al‐rich bulk compositions. The stable branch of the kyanite‐forming paragonite breakdown reaction above 660 °C yields an additional mapable isograd. The second set of Al‐releasing reactions is biotite‐producing phengite breakdown. However, these reactions are less suitable to produce well defined reaction isograds in the field as they are more continuous and their progress is strongly dependent on bulk composition. Well developed fibrolite in metapelites does not appear until staurolite starts to breakdown. We conclude that amphibolite facies conditions in the study area were attained by decompression, without substantial heating at low pressures.     

Syn-convergence exhumation of the Central Alps

Abstract

The exhumation of rocks in a plate convergence setting is commonly related to erosion and/or tectonic denudation accompanied by isostatic adjustment. Isostatic compensation is the physical response to denudation. It leads to unroofing of deep levels of the crust. A new model for producing topographic relief is proposed which explains well the rapid exhumation of high-temperature rocks in the Central Alps via erosion and tectonic denudation (i.e. gravitational collapse and normal faulting). It is shown that the forward motion of the cold and rigid Adriatic indenter into the European crust is twofold. Firstly, horizontal compression led to the vertical extrusion of the deepest ductile European basement into shallower levels. This tectonic process induced heat transfer through the southern steep belt as well as heat advection together with the extruded material, resulting in the metamorphic aureole observed in the Central Alps. Secondly, the lower part of the Adriatic crust protruded into the warm European crust as a result of continuous forward motion. Geophysical data suggest that the isostatic response to indentation (i.e. deepening of the alpine root) has been inhibited by the mechanical strength of the cold and rigid Adriatic crust. Then, the indentation process induced a deviation from isostatic equilibrium by creating a tremendous topographic relief. This relief disappeared rapidly, possibly as fast as it forms, by enhanced erosion and tectonic denudation leading to rapid exhumation of the metamorphic dome.     

Oblique tectonic inversion and basement thrusting in the Cameros Massif (Northern Spain)

Abstract

We present the structural study of the Cameros Massif (NW Iberian Chain, Spain), taking into account data from surface geology, deep boreholes and seismic reflection profiles. The main structural feature is a single, I50km-long thrust with a 20-30 km horizontal displacement towards the N-NNW. In the hangingwall the up to 5.000m. thick Mesozoic (Jurassic-Cretaceous) cover forms the Cameros Massif and the Variscan basement constitutes the Sierra de la Demanda to the west of the Cameros Massif. The foreland is the western sector of the Ebro Basin filled with continental Tertiary deposits that reach a maximum thickness of 4.000-5.000m. An important detachment level is constituted by the Keuper marls and gypsum. The age of compression ranges from the Oligocene to the lower part of the Upper Miocene. The Tertiary compressive structures fit into a large-scale process of tectonic inversion : a) An extensional stage with a NE-SW extension direction took place during the Upper Jurassic-Lower Cretaceous, giving rise to the development of the strongly subsiding half-graben Cameros Basin, b) The Tertiary N-S compression brought about a crustal shortening and the transport of the Cameros block towards the Ebro Basin. The NW-SE striking main normal faults that controlled the deposition in the Mesozoic basin during the extensional stage were reactivated as oblique ramps during the Tertiary compressive stage.     

Tectonics of the Simplon massif and Lepontine gneiss dome: deformation structures due to collision between the underthrusting European plate and the Adriatic indenter

This study presents a review of published geological data, combined with original observations on the tectonics of the Simplon massif and the Lepontine gneiss dome in the Western Alps. New observations concern the geometry of the Oligocene Vanzone back fold, formed under amphibolite facies conditions, and of its root between Domodossola and Locarno, which is cut at an acute angle by the Miocene, epi- to anchizonal, dextral Centovalli strike-slip fault. The structures of the Simplon massif result from collision over 50 Ma between two plate boundaries with a different geometry: the underthrusted European plate and the Adriatic indenter. Detailed mapping and analysis of a complex structural interference pattern, combined with observations on the metamorphic grade of the superimposed structures and radiometric data, allow a kinematic model to be developed for this zone of oblique continental collision. The following main Alpine tectonic phases and structures may be distinguished:

Metamorphic field gradients in the Central Alps

Metamorphic field gradients were determined across the entire amphibolite grade Central Alps ( c . 50×100 km). P – T  were calculated from 116 samples acquired from our own field work, from samples provided to us by others, and from rocks with mineral compositions described in the literature. Only fluid-conserved equilibria were used to determine P – T  . The use of an internally consistent thermodynamic database and mineral solid solution models makes the results robust and reduces relative errors. The results are presented in contour maps. Temperature increases from 500 to 550 °C along the limit of amphibolite grade metamorphism in the north and west, to c . 675 °C toward the south at the Insubric line near the town of Bellinzona. Maximum recorded pressures of c . 7 kbar are in a central region c . 20 km north of the Insubric line, and decrease both to the north (5.5 kbar) and south (4.5 kbar). The P–T  results indicate that there is a relatively large area that reached conditions in the sillimanite stability field but developed neither sillimanite nor fibrolite; this is interpreted as a result of kinetic constraints on nucleation and growth because of the small amounts of thermal overstep (<40 °C) of the kyanite-sillimanite phase boundary. Comparison of P–T  conditions with carbonate isograds in the region indicate that fluids present during metamorphism were not dominated by a homogeneous external source. Examination of the two-dimensional distribution of pressure and temperature in the context of thermal and tectonic models indicates that two thermal pulses affected the Central Alps during the Tertiary. In the second, heat affected only the southern parts of the area and overprinted the previously established P–T  gradients.     

Tectonics of the Central Crystallines of western Himalaya

The crystalline sheet of the Higher Himalaya, referred to as the Central Crystallines, is a continuous lithotectonic unit which can be traced from the River Kali of eastern Kumaun in the east to Sankoo in the Suru River valley of Kashmir in the west. The principal lithostratigraphic units of this zone are pelites, psammites, gneisses, amphibolites, migmatites and leucocratic granites. The rocks of this zone show progressive regional metamorphism of normal as well as reverse types, the metamorphic grade ranging from chlorite to sillimanite zone. The Main Central Thrust, which demarcates the southern boundary of the Central Crystallines, has brought the crystalline rocks to rest over the sediments of Deoban Group in Kumaun and Garhwal and over the Outer Crystallines (=Chail-Jutogh Nappe) in Himachal Pradesh. The evidence obtained from metamorphism, deformation and radiometric dating indicate that the Central Crystallines is an old Precambrian basement which has been reactivated during Caledonian and Alpine orogenic movements.