Detrital zircon geochronology in the Dora‐Maira and Zone Houillère: a record of sediment travel paths in the Carboniferous

In the internal zone of the European Alps, late Carboniferous to Permian sediments have been detached from their basement (e.g. the Zone Houillère in the Briançonnais Zone). The Pinerolo Unit (Dora‐Maira Massif) is the deepest unit exposed in the stack of the Western Alps and is considered to be Carboniferous in age based on lithological considerations. Detrital zircon grains from the Pinerolo Unit and the Zone Houillère display similar age patterns, with the youngest and largest population being Carboniferous (340–330 Ma). The distribution of Carboniferous magmatism in the Alps and surrounding areas suggests that the detritus was transported from Maures‐Corsica and possibly from the Helvetic Zone into the Zone Houillère and the Pinerolo basin. Our results highlight the potential of detrital zircon geochronology for deciphering the sources of detrital material in meta‐sediments, even if they have been affected by metamorphic overprints.     

Geometry and kinematics of the Roisan-Cignana Shear Zone,and the orogenic evolution of the Dent Blanche Tectonic System (Western Alps)

The Dent Blanche Tectonic System (DBTS) is a composite thrust sheet derived from the previously thinned passive Adriatic continental margin. A kilometric high-strain zone, the Roisan-Cignana Shear Zone (RCSZ) defines the major tectonic boundary within the DBTS and separates it into two subunits, the Dent Blanche s.s. nappe to the northwest and the Mont Mary nappe to the southeast. Within this shear zone, tectonic slices of Mesozoic and pre-Alpine meta-sediments became amalgamated with continental basement rocks of the Adriatic margin. The occurrence of high pressure assemblages along the contact between these tectonic slices indicates that the amalgamation occurred prior to or during the subduction process, at an early stage of the Alpine orogenic cycle. Detailed mapping, petrographic and structural analysis show that the Roisan-Cignana Shear Zone results from several superimposed Alpine structural and metamorphic stages. Subduction of the continental fragments is recorded by blueschist-facies deformation, whereas the Alpine collision is reflected by a greenschist facies overprint associated with the development of large-scale open folds. The post-nappe evolution comprises the development of low-angle brittle faults, followed by large-scale folding (Vanzone phase) and finally brittle extensional faults. The RCSZ shows that fragments of continental crust had been torn off the passive continental margin prior to continental collision, thus recording the entire history of the orogenic cycle. The role of preceding Permo-Triassic lithospheric thinning, Jurassic rifting, and ablative subduction processes in controlling the removal of crustal fragments from the reactivated passive continental margin is discussed. Results of this study constrain the temporal sequence of the tectono-metamorphic processes involved in the assembly of the DBTS, but they also show limits on the interpretation. In particular it remains difficult to judge to what extent pre-collisional rifting at the Adriatic continental margin preconditioned the efficiency of convergent processes, i.e. accretion, subduction, and orogenic exhumation.     

Constraining P–T conditions during thrusting of a higher pressure unit over a lower pressure one (Gran Paradiso,Western Alps)

Identifying higher pressure units overlying lower pressure ones is a first order argument to determine the presence of large‐scale thrusting. For the first time, petrology is used to quantify the pressure difference between two stacked units in the Western Alps. In the Gran Paradiso Massif, the Money unit crops out as a tectonic window below the Gran Paradiso unit. The reconstruction of the Alpine evolution of these two units and the history of their tectonic contact has been achieved using a multidisciplinary approach that combines meso‐ and microstructural analysis and pseudosection calculations. In both units, four stages of deformation and metamorphism have been identified. Stage 1 reflects the phase of continental crust subduction and P–T conditions of ~18–20 kbar, 480–520 °C and of ~13–18 kbar, 500–530 °C have been estimated for the Gran Paradiso and the Money units respectively. This yields a maximum difference of ~20 km in the depth reached by these two units during the early Alpine history. Thrusting of the Gran Paradiso unit over the Money unit (stage 2) led to the development of the main foliation and occurred in the high‐P part of the albite stability field at P–T conditions of ~12.5–14.5 kbar and 530–560 °C, identical in both units. The thrust contact was folded during stage 3 together with the entire Money unit, and then both units were exhumed together (stage 4). During this polyphase evolution, detrital garnet has been partially dissolved, while the earliest Na‐bearing phases (glaucophane, paragonite) have been overprinted by the low‐P mineral associations. The uncertainties on derived pressures between the two units are unfortunately larger than hoped, and this is attributed to the muscovite solid‐solution model not incorporating a pyrophyllite component.     

Permian high-temperature metamorphism in the Western Alps (NW Italy)

International Journal of Earth Sciences - During the late Palaeozoic, lithospheric thinning in part of the Alpine realm caused high-temperature low-to-medium pressure metamorphism and partial...     

Permian magmatism and metamorphism in the Dent Blanche nappe: constraints from field observations and geochronology

In the Dent Blanche Tectonic System, the Mont Morion biotite-bearing granite is a km-scale intrusion preserved in a low-strain volume. Zircon saturation thermometry suggests that it crystallised from a melt that reached about 800 °C. U–Pb zircon and allanite geochronology indicates crystallization of the magma in the Permian (290 ± 3 Ma; 280 ± 8 Ma, respectively). Migmatitic biotite-gneiss and amphibolite are found as xenoliths within the Mont Morion granite and constitute its country-rocks. In two samples of migmatitic biotite-gneiss zircon has metamorphic overgrowths that yield U–Pb ages of 285 ± 3 Ma and 281 ± 4 Ma, and are thus contemporaneous with the intrusion of the granite. The Mont Morion granite with its country-rocks of migmatitic biotite-bearing gneiss and amphibolite was thus emplaced at middle crustal levels while amphibolite facies metamorphism affected its country rocks. The magmatic and metamorphic record in the Mont Morion area reflects the high-temperature regime and lithospheric thinning of the Adriatic continental margin during Permian.