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Tectonothermal evolution of the northeastern Cantabrian zone (Spain)

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Abstract

A tectonothermal study of the northeastern sector of the Cantabrian zone (Ponga-Cuera and Picos de Europa units) using the conodont color alteration index (CAI) and Kübler index (KI) methods shows a variation from diagenetic to anchizonal conditions. The latter are illustrated in geological maps and cross sections. The greater part of the studied area has CAI values lower than 2, caused by two long periods of burial separated by a compressive interval (corresponding to the Variscan deformation), in which thrusts were the dominant structures. Tectonic superimposition was balanced by intense and fast erosion and had little effect on the CAI values. In contrast, a high thermal gradient was produced in the southern outcrops that led to recognize the transition between diagenetic and anchizonal conditions through CAI values near the basal thrust of the Picos de Europa unit. The diagenesis/anchizone boundary appears a little further south through the determination of the Kübler index in phyllosilicate minerals (KI = 0.42). CAI isograds cut the Variscan structures as a consequence of a thermal episode that occurred near the Carboniferous–Permian boundary at the beginning of an extensional regime. The thermal source was located further south, in the adjacent Pisuerga-Carrión unit. Alterations in the CAI values, as well as dolomitization and ore deposits, locally resulted from Permian–Mesozoic hydrothermal activity. Microtextural analysis of the conodonts allowed us to relate several types of apatite overgrowth to diagenetic conditions and recrystallization to anchizonal ones, whereas dissolution was common during hydrothermalism. Alpine deformation hardly produced any changes in the previous thermal pattern, but was responsible of the northwards tilting of the structure and CAI isograds.

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Acknowledgments

The authors would like to express their gratitude to Dr. M. Luz Valín (University of Oviedo). She prepared and analyzed samples with clay minerals to determine the KI values used in the present study. We are grateful to John E. Repetski and to an anonymous reviewer for their constructive reviews that greatly improved the original manuscript. John R. Hardwick made valuable comments and suggestions in the language review. The work has been supported by Spanish Project CGL-2009-09109, funded by the ‘Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación’ and ‘Fondo Europeo de Desarrollo Regional’ (FEDER). Field work was made possible thanks to the collaboration of the Picos de Europa National Park.

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  1. Departamento de Geología, Universidad de Oviedo, c/Jesús Arias de Velasco s/n, 33005, Oviedo, Spain

    Silvia Blanco-Ferrera, Javier Sanz-López, Susana García-López & Fernando Bastida

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  1. Silvia Blanco-Ferrera
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  2. Javier Sanz-López
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  3. Susana García-López
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  4. Fernando Bastida
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Correspondence to Silvia Blanco-Ferrera.

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Blanco-Ferrera, S., Sanz-López, J., García-López, S. et al. Tectonothermal evolution of the northeastern Cantabrian zone (Spain). Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 106, 1539–1555 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-016-1365-5

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