3-D numerical models of viscous flow applied to fold nappes and the Rawil depression in the Helvetic nappe system (western Switzerland)

The Helvetic nappe system exhibits three-dimensional (3-D) features such as the lateral variation in geometry between the Morcles and Doldenhorn fold nappes or the Rawil depression. We perform 3-D finite element simulations of linear and power-law viscous flow to investigate fold nappe formation during shortening of a half graben with laterally varying thickness. 3-D ellipsoids and corresponding 2-D intersection ellipses are used to quantify finite strain. Fold nappes which formed above a thicker graben have (i) larger amplitudes, (ii) a less sheared and thinned overturned limb, and (iii) a larger thickness than fold nappes formed above a thinner graben. These results agree with observations for the Morcles and Doldenhorn nappes. We also perform 3-D simulations for a tectonic scenario suggested for the evolution of the Rawil depression. The basement is shortened and extended laterally and includes a graben which is oblique to the shortening direction and acts as mechanical weak zone. The graben causes laterally varying basement uplift generating a depression whose amplitude depends on the graben orientation and the stress exponent of basement and sediments. The axial plunge of the depression is smaller (approximately 10°) than the observed plunge (approximately 30°) indicating that additional processes are required to explain the geometry of the Rawil depression.     

Cretaceous flysch and pelagic sequences of the Eastern Alps: correlations, heavy minerals, and palaeogeographic implications

Flysch and pelagic sedimentation of the Penninic and Austroalpine tectonic units of the Eastern Alps are results of the closure of the Tethyan-Vardar and the Ligurian-Piemontais Oceans as well as of the progressive deformation of the Austroalpine continental margin. The Austroalpine sequences are characterized by Lower Cretaceous pelagic limestones or minor carbonate flysch and various siliciclastic mid- and Upper Cretaceous flysch formations. Chrome spinel is the most characteristic heavy mineral delivered by the southern Vardar suture, the northern obduction belt at the South Penninic-Austroalpine margin and its continuation into the Klippen belt sensu lato of the Carpathians. The South Penninic sequences, e.g. the Arosa zone, the Ybbsitz Klippen zone and some flysch nappes also contain chrome spinel, whereas the sediments of the North Penninic Rhenodanubian flysch zone are characterized by stable minerals and garnet.     

Tertiary metallogenesis in the Eastern Alps: the Waldenstein hematite deposit (Austria)

The specularite deposit at Waldenstein is an epigenetic replacement/vein-type hematite mineralization with distinct alteration zones. It is situated in highly metamorphosed schists and, gneisses of the Koralm Crystalline Complex. Sericitization and chloritization are strictly bound to this alteration and occur within a few meters of the hematite veins. Radiometric dating of the sericitization and the implicity of the mineralization yield a Middle Eocene age. Petrographic evidence proves an early, relatively reduced paragenesis (magnetite, ilmenite) being partly replaced by hematite and chlorite during the main phase of ore formation. Fluid inclusion and stable isotope investigations indicate that formation temperatures were approximately 300°C during the main stage and decreased to 200°C in the latest stage of the hydrothermal event. The H-isotope compositions of chlorites and of fluid inclusions in quartz indicate the influence of seawater. This also explains the high salinities determined by fluid inclusion studies (20–30% NaCl equiv.). According to the genetic model presented in this paper the hydrothermal activity started when the deformation accompanying the uplift of the Koralm Crystalline Complex passed from a ductile to brittle regime (Middle Eocene). The brittle faults acted as channelways for rising, deep fluids, probably of metamorphic origin. Temperature differences between the different uplifting crustal segments supported fluid circulation. Precipitation of the ore occurred at shallow crustal levels where the hydraulic regime was dominated by seawater, and oxidation of the original reducing fluids took place.     

The upper Hawasina nappes in the central Oman Mountains: stratigraphy,palinspastics and sequence of nappe emplacement

Abstract

In the Oman mountains, a succession of sedimentary decollement nappes, the Hawasina nappes, is sandwiched between the Samail ophiolite nappe and its underlying melange and the “autochthonous” sequences of the Arabian platform. The sediments of the Hawasina nappes document the Mesozoic evolution of the northeastern Arabian continental margin and the adjacent Tethys Ocean. In earlier paleogeographic reconstructions, based on simple telescoping of the tectonic units, the upper Hawasina nappes represent the distal part and the lower nappes the proximal part of the margin. New stratigraphic data suggest a revision of the paleogeography and a more complex model for nappe emplacement in the central Oman mountains. The lower Hawasina nappes with their Jurassic and Cretaceous base of slope and basin sediments (Hamrat Duru, Wahrah) form the original cover of part of the upper Hawasina nappes. In the latter (Al Ayn, Haliw), Triassic pelagic sediments, locally overlain by massive sandstone successions are preserved. Complete Mesozoic sequences with pelagic Cenomanian sediments as youngest dated elements are found in the highest Hawasina units (Al Aridh and Oman Exotics). The stratigraphic data indicate polyphase thrusting in the central Oman mountains. Downward propagation of thrusting in front of the Samail is responsible for cutting the original stratigraphie sequence into a number of thrust-sheets, involving successively older and more external formations. This kind of thrust propagation eventually leads to the observed superposition of originally lower stratigraphie units onto their original cover. Regional deformation of the nappe contacts in post-nappe culminations (J. Akhdar, Saih Hatat) is related to ramp-flat-systems in the Arabian foreland.     

Characterization of polymetamorphism in the Austroalpine basement east of the Tauern Window using garnet isopleth thermobarometry

Garnet in metapelites from the Wölz and Rappold Complexes of the Austroalpine basement east of the Tauern Window typically shows two distinct growth zones. A first garnet generation usually forms the cores of garnet porphyroblasts and is separated by a prominent microstructural and chemical discontinuity from a second garnet generation, which forms rims of variable width. Whereas the rims were formed during the Eo-Alpine metamorphic overprint, the garnet cores represent remnants of at least two pre-Eo-Alpine metamorphic events. The pressure and temperature estimates obtained from garnet isopleth thermobarometry applied to the first growth increments of the pre-Eo-Alpine garnet cores from the Wölz and Rappold Complexes cluster into two distinct domains: (i) in the Wölz Complex, incipient growth of the first-generation garnet occurred at 4 ± 0.5 kbar and 535 ± 20 °C, (ii) in the Rappold Complex, incipient growth of the oldest garnet cores took place at 5.3 ± 0.3 kbar and 525 ± 15 °C. The Eo-Alpine garnet generation started to grow at 6.5 ± 0.5 kbar and 540 ± 10 °C. According to radiometric dating, the low-pressure garnet from the Wölz complex was formed during a Permian metamorphic event. The first-generation garnet of the Rappold Complex is probably of Variscan age.     

The nappe structure of the central Northern Calcareous Alps and its disintegration during Miocene tectonic extrusion—a contribution to understanding the orogenic evolution of the Eastern Alps

The classical concept of the nappe structure of the central Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA) is in contradiction with modern stratigraphic, structural, metamorphic and geochronological data. We first perform a palinspastic restoration for the time before Miocene lateral tectonic extrusion, which shows good continuity of structures, facies and diagenetic/metamorphic zones. We present a new nappe concept, in which the Tirolic unit practically takes the whole area of the central NCA and is divided into three subunits (nappes): Lower and Upper Tirolic subunit, separated by the Upper Jurassic Trattberg Thrust, and the metamorphic Ultra-Tirolic unit. The Hallstatt (Iuvavic) nappe(s) formed the highest unit, but were completely destroyed by erosion after nappe stacking. Remnants of the Hallstatt nappes are only represented by components of up to 1 km in size in Middle/Upper Jurassic radiolaritic wildflysch sediments ("Hallstatt Mélange" belonging to the Tirolic unit). Destruction of the continental margin started in Middle to Upper Jurassic time and prograded from the oceanic side towards the shelf. The original substratum of the external nappes (Bavaric units) of the NCA was largely the Austroalpine crystalline basement, of the internal nappes (Tirolic units) the weakly metamorphosed Palaeozoic sequences (Greywacke Zone and equivalents). Eocene movements caused limited internal deformation in the Tirolic unit.     

Geology and petrology of the Austroalpine Châtillon slice,Aosta valley,western Alps

Slices of continental crust pertinent to the lower Austroalpine domain of the western Alps, crop out within the ophiolitic Piemonte Zone. Among them, the Châtillon slice was studied in detail. The slice consists of orthogneiss with subordinate metabasics and very minor paraschist. The garnet-phengite-epidote-albite orthogneiss is characterised by polyphase garnet porphyroclasts. Metabasics consist of prasinite lenses and eclogite relics. Phengite-clinozoisite eclogite is characterised by small garnet idioblasts with prograde zoning; jadeite content in omphacite increases towards the rim; Si content in phengite decreases towards the rim. Garnet-glaucophane-phengiteparagonite micaschist is characterised by polymetamorphic garnet porphyroclasts, and small Alpine garnet idioblasts. A pre-Alpine amphibolite-facies metamorphism is inferred for the polymetamorphic rocks of the Châtillon slice. Paragneiss and micaschist probably derive from pre-Alpine “kinzigites”; the orthogneiss protolith was a late-Variscan porphyritic granitoid. Thermobarometry in the eclogite constrains the metamorphic peak at T ≤ 560 °C and P = 16 kbar. The HP minerals were partly retrogressed to greenschist-facies assemblages during the late Alpine tectono-metamorphic recrystallisation. The inferred Alpine P-T conditions are consistent with those for other Penninic and Austro-Alpine nappes of the northwestern internal Alps. The Châtillon slice is very similar to the Eclogitic Micaschists Complex of the Sesia-Lanzo Zone and to the other eclogite-facies Austroalpine slices of the Dent Blanche Nappe, but it could also represent a portion of the Sesia-Lanzo Zone basement, which experienced a somewhat different subduction depth. The tectonic position of the Châtillon slice within the Piemonte Zone is essential to reconstruct the geometric relationships in the Austroalpine-Piemonte nappe stack of the northwestern internal Alps.     

Horizontal contraction or horizontal extension? Heterogeneous Late Eocene and early Oligocene general shearing during blueschist and greenschist facies metamorphism at the Pennine-Austroalpine boundary zone in the Western Alps

Mylonitic structures related to two orogenic events are described from the upper and lower contacts of the Combin zone and the immediately overlying upper Austroalpine Dent Blanche nappe/Mont Mary klippe and the directly underlying lower Austroalpine Etirol-Levaz slice. The first event, Late Eocene in age, commenced during blueschist facies P-T conditions, but pre-dated the peak of subsequent greenschist facies overprint. The second event, Early Oligocene in age, took place during retrograde greenschist facies conditions. Most sense of shear indicators associated with the retrograde mylonites indicate top SE shearing, but subordinate top NW displacing shear sense indicators have also been mapped. Mylonitic top SE shearing appears to be restricted to the Combin zone and its upper and lower contacts. Within the Dent Blanche nappe and Mont Mary klippe and at the base of the Etirol-Levaz slice, structures were observed which developed during blueschist/greenschist facies conditions and are, in conjunction with the P-T-t history of these rocks, inferred to be older. Associated kinematic data indicate a top NW shear sense. Comparable blueschist/greenschist facies shear sense indicators have not been observed in the Combin zone. Nonetheless, the foliation in the Combin zone shows a progressive evolution from blueschist facies to greenschist facies to retrograde greenschist facies conditions. This indicates that the Combin zone and the immediately over- and underlying Austroalpine units shared a common tectono-metamorphic evolution since the Late Eocene. Finite strain data reveal oblate strain fabrics, which are thought to result from a true flattening strain geometry. Flow path modelling reveals a general non-coaxial deformation régime and corroborates significant departures from a simple shear deformation. In the study area, mylonitic top SE shearing in the Combin zone is attributed to Early Oligocene backfolding and backthrusting of the Mischabel phase. Temperature-time curves suggest slight reheating in the Monte Rosa nappe underneath and cooling in the Dent Blanche nappe above the Combin zone, hence confirming a thrust interpretation for this event. The top NW displacing structures are thought to result from Late Eocene emplacement of the Dent Blanche nappe and the Combin zone onto the Middle Pennine Barrhorn series along the Combin fault. As related structures initiated during mildly blueschist facies conditions in the Dent Blanche nappe and the underlying Combin zone and both were emplaced together onto the greenschist facial Barrhorn series, it is concluded that the structures developed as the nappes moved upward relative to the earth's surface. Thus the Combin fault is regarded as a thrust. The geometry of this structure indicates that the Combin fault is an out of sequence thrust that locally cut down section. Hence, top NW out of sequence thrusting caused local thinning of the metamorphic/structural section in association with horizontal shortening. Out of sequence thrusts cutting down section, and back-thrusts, offer the possibility of explaining the pronounced break in the grade of metamorphism across the Combin fault, i.e. the contact between the eclogite facial Zermatt-Saas zone and the overlying lower grade Combin zone, by contractional deformation.