Crustal splitting and the emplacement of Pyrenean lherzolites and granulites

Pyrenean lherzolites representing fragments of the upper mantle are embedded in Mesozoic sediments along the 500-km-long, 20-km-wide “North Pyrenean Zone”. These ultramafics and the nearby occurrence of granulites, the presence of undersaturated rocks intrusive in the Cretaceous, and the development of a narrow elongate zone of “Pyrenean metamorphism”, confer a fundamental orogenic and geodynamic significance to this zone. These phenomena and the emplacement of the lherzolites may be attributed to an important phase of crustal thinning followed by a succession of compressive stages. The crustal thinning involved in the North Pyrenean Zone is possibly related to a transcurrent movement mainly during Albian and Senonian times, indicating a transform zone 24]. The ascent and emplacement of lherzolites in Albian sediments may have occurred in response to alternating tensional and compressional stresses operating in transcurrent zones. The Pyrenean metamorphism in Mesozoic sediments may be related to convective (emplacement of lherzolites) as well as conductive (thermal anomaly in connection with the rifting) processes. This model is compared with existing transform domains. Finally, it is suggested that crustal thinning may permit the incorporation of lower crust-upper mantle associations in the upper levels of the crust during subsequent compressive stages.