Abstract
Apatite fission-track thermochronology is applied to 31 samples from various components of the uppermost tectonic unit of the Island of Crete, Greece. This unit is one of several that presently lie in the hanging wall to a major extensional detachment fault that juxtaposes rocks metamorphosed at high pressure and low temperature during the Late Oligocene — Early Miocene below against rocks that lack any Oligo-Miocene metamorphism. The data reveal a phase of accelerated Middle Miocene denudation that can be linked to erosion between ca. 17 Ma and 11 Ma. The discovery of the base of a denuded apatite partial annealing zone limits the total amount of denudation during this time period to ca. 4km. This implies a mean denudation rate of ca. 650 m/m.y.
Apatite fission-track ages of up to ca. 30 Ma and shortened confined tracks from high-grade metamorphic rocks of the uppermost tectonic unit require that no significant denudation of these rocks occurred during accretion of the other Cretan tectonic units in the Oligocene/Early Miocene. This information means that significant reevaluation of previous tectonic models of the post-Eocene tectonic development of the Cretan segment of the Hellenic Subduction Zone is required. It is proposed that the Hellenic Subduction Zone has acted as a retreating plate boundary since at least the Late Eocene.
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Thomson, S.N., Stöckhert, B., Rauche, H., Brix, M.R. (1998). Apatite Fission-Track Thermochronology of the Uppermost Tectonic Unit of Crete, Greece: Implications for the Post-Eocene Tectonic Evolution of the Hellenic Subduction System. In: van den Haute, P., de Corte, F. (eds) Advances in Fission-Track Geochronology. Solid Earth Sciences Library, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9133-1_12
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