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Thermochronometric constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Serifos detachment, Aegean Sea, Greece

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Abstract

We constrain the timing and kinematics of the Serifos detachment in the southwestern Cyclades, Greece, using low-temperature thermochronometry. Fission-track dating shows that the Serifos detachment was active between ~13 and 6 Ma and that the Serifos granodiorite in its footwall intruded at or before ~12–11 Ma into the extensional shear zone and initially cooled very rapidly at rates >180°C per million year. The mylonite zone at the top of the granodiorite and mylonitic structures in its country rocks record a consistent top-SSW shear sense in the ductile crust. In the brittle regime top-NNE shear-sense indicators occur as well. Conjugate top-SSW and top-NNE high-angle normal faults are the youngest deformational features and cut across the detachment. Age–distance relationships for the fission-track data display a relatively flat pattern. We discuss a model advocating initial top-SSW movement on the Serifos detachment before and during emplacement of the granodiorite. Updoming of the detachment during exhumation and cooling caused subsequent bivergent extension in the brittle crust.

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Acknowledgments

Funded by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (grants Ri 538/16,/18,/23 and Graduiertenkolleg 392) and the Brian Mason technical trust of New Zealand. We are grateful to K.A. Farley and L. Hedges for assistance during apatite (U–Th)/He dating at the California Institute of Technology. Johannes Glodny, Gideon Rosenbaum, and Thomas Will provided constructive and helpful reviews; Douwe van Hinsbergen also commented on the manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Joint Research School of Earth Sciences, University and Birkbeck College, London, WC1E7HX, UK

    Stephanie Brichau

  2. Department of Geosciences, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ, 85721-0077, USA

    Stuart Thomson

  3. Department of Geological Sciences, University of Canterbury, Christchurch, 8140, New Zealand

    Uwe Ring

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  1. Stephanie Brichau
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Correspondence to Stephanie Brichau.

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Brichau, S., Thomson, S. & Ring, U. Thermochronometric constraints on the tectonic evolution of the Serifos detachment, Aegean Sea, Greece. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 99, 379–393 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-008-0386-0

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