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The Meso-Cenozoic thermo-tectonic evolution of the Eastern Pyrenees: an 40Ar/39Ar fission track and (U–Th)/He thermochronological study of the Canigou and Mont-Louis massifs

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Abstract

Vertical displacements on the SW–NE Têt fault (Eastern Pyrenees Axial Zone, France), which separates the Variscan Canigou-Carança and Mont-Louis massifs, were constrained using a thermochronologic multi-method approach. 40Ar/39Ar data from the granitic Mont-Louis massif record its Variscan cooling history and reveal no ages younger than Early Cretaceous, while the Canigou-Carança gneiss massif records systematically younger 40Ar/39Ar ages. These younger 40Ar/39Ar ages in the Canigou-Carança gneiss massif are the result of partial to total rejuvenation of argon isotopic systems related to a thermal flow coeval with the Cretaceous HT-BP metamorphism in the North Pyrenean Zone. Only the deepest rocks from the Canigou-Carança suffered this extensive Mid-Cretaceous thermal overprint probably due to differential burial around 4 km at that time. The post Mid-Cretaceous vertical displacements along the Têt fault are recorded by “low” temperature thermochronology using K-feldspar 40Ar/39Ar, zircon and apatite fission track and (U–Th)/He datings. The Mont-Louis granite samples experienced a long period of protracted cooling reflecting a lack of thermo-tectonic activity in this area from Late Palaeozoic to Early Cenozoic, followed by cooling from 55–60 Ma to Late Eocene at a mean rate of 15–20°C/Ma in the final stage. This cooling stage corresponds to Têt fault reactivation with a reversed component, promoting exhumation of the Mont-Louis roof zone contemporaneously with the south-vergent Pyrenean thrusting. In the Canigou-Carança massif, the main cooling event occurred from 32 to 18 Ma at a maximum rate of 30°C/Ma during Early Oligocene followed by a more moderate rate of 3°C/Ma from Late Oligocene to Early Burdigalian, coeval with the normal reactivation of the Têt fault in brittle conditions that accommodated the final exhumation of the massif during the opening of the Gulf of Lion.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank W.-C. Dullo and an anonymous reviewer for their very constructive comments on this manuscript. This work is a contribution to GdR Marges “Atelier Golfe du Lion” and a part of the analyses were supported by BRGM (Orléans) within the framework of France 1/50,000e geological map program.

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  1. Laboratoire Dynamique de la Lithosphère, UMR 5573 cc 058, Université Montpellier II, Place E. Bataillon, 34095, Montpellier cédex 5, France

    O. Maurel, P. Moniè, N. Arnaud, M. Brunel & M. Jolivet

  2. CRPG-CNRS, UPR 2300, 15, rue N.D. des Pauvres, B.P. 20, 54501, Vandoeuvre-Lès-Nancy, France

    R. Pik

  3. 21 bis rue de la Cadelle, 34680, Saint-Georges d’Orques, France

    O. Maurel

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Maurel, O., Moniè, P., Pik, R. et al. The Meso-Cenozoic thermo-tectonic evolution of the Eastern Pyrenees: an 40Ar/39Ar fission track and (U–Th)/He thermochronological study of the Canigou and Mont-Louis massifs. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 97, 565–584 (2008). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-007-0179-x

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