Neoproterozoic to Holocene tectonothermal evolution of the southern Cantabrian Mountains NW Iberia, revealed by apatite fission-track thermochronology
type: CreativeWork
description: The southern Cantabrian Mountains expose sedimentary rocks having experienced uplift coeval with alpidic, Variscan and in the south, possibly Cadomian orogenic cycles; these rocks are referred to by their Variscan tectonic expressions: the Cantabrian Zone and Narcea Antiform. This thesis yields new experimental and geologic information from 32 AFT samples there gathered. The Cantabrian Zone, a nearly complete Palaeozoic succession has been characterised as the thin-skinned tectonism dominated arcuate foreland fold-and-thrust belt. South of the León Line fault system non-metamorphic conditions dominate, to the North anchizone to epizone conditions are recorded. The Narcea Antiform, unconformably overlain by the Palaeozoic succession, represents as a Neoproterozoic sedimentary basement, the Variscan foreland-hinterland transition. Metamorphic conditions increase from anchizone to greenschist facies coincident with hinterland directed increasing deformation. Unconformable and deformed, discontinuous Stephanian intramontane fills, overlay pre-Stephanian successions in both the Narcea Antiform and Cantabrian Zone. At the foreland-hinterland transition, they record anchizone to epizone metamorphic signatures, while those confined to the Cantabrian Zone infer lowest metamorphic grades. Experimental results show uranium concentration may be used in the absence of data for more often observed substitutions to the apatite chemical formula [Ca_10(PO_4)_6(F,Cl,OH)_2], to predict correlation between AFT grain-ages and their respective D_par values. Graphs constructed for AFT central-age versus latitude and elevation yield negative slopes, indicating a complex elevation dependent cooling profile affected by differential topography, recent tectonic activity and time dependent changing geomorphic conditions. AFT grain-ages from the Narcea Antiform, the Cantabrian Zone and Stephanian basins reveal thermal conditions coeval with the Variscan orogenic cycle may have been insignificant…
abstract: The southern Cantabrian Mountains expose sedimentary rocks having experienced uplift coeval with alpidic, Variscan and in the south, possibly Cadomian orogenic cycles; these rocks are referred to by their Variscan tectonic expressions: the Cantabrian Zone and Narcea Antiform. This thesis yields new experimental and geologic information from 32 AFT samples there gathered. The Cantabrian Zone, a nearly complete Palaeozoic succession has been characterised as the thin-skinned tectonism dominated arcuate foreland fold-and-thrust belt. South of the León Line fault system non-metamorphic conditions dominate, to the North anchizone to epizone conditions are recorded. The Narcea Antiform, unconformably overlain by the Palaeozoic succession, represents as a Neoproterozoic sedimentary basement, the Variscan foreland-hinterland transition. Metamorphic conditions increase from anchizone to greenschist facies coincident with hinterland directed increasing deformation. Unconformable and deformed, discontinuous Stephanian intramontane fills, overlay pre-Stephanian successions in both the Narcea Antiform and Cantabrian Zone. At the foreland-hinterland transition, they record anchizone to epizone metamorphic signatures, while those confined to the Cantabrian Zone infer lowest metamorphic grades. Experimental results show uranium concentration may be used in the absence of data for more often observed substitutions to the apatite chemical formula [Ca_10(PO_4)_6(F,Cl,OH)_2], to predict correlation between AFT grain-ages and their respective D_par values. Graphs constructed for AFT central-age versus latitude and elevation yield negative slopes, indicating a complex elevation dependent cooling profile affected by differential topography, recent tectonic activity and time dependent changing geomorphic conditions. AFT grain-ages from the Narcea Antiform, the Cantabrian Zone and Stephanian basins reveal thermal conditions coeval with the Variscan orogenic cycle may have been insignificant…
author: Carrière, Kevin L.
date published: 2006-07-10
date modified: 2026-07-24T02:30:27Z
provider: Universität Heidelberg
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: Universität Heidelberg