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Torgersen, Espen
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Torgersen, Espen
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- PublicationOpen AccessSyn‐Orogenic Exhumation of High‐P Units by Upward Extrusion in an Accretionary Wedge: Insights From the Eastern Elba Nappe Stack (Northern Apennines, Italy)(2021-05)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; The E-vergent Northern Apennines formed by Oligocene-Miocene convergence and westward subduction of Adria beneath Europe. Extension ensued in the Mid-Late Miocene reflecting lower plate roll-back and causing opening of the back-arc Northern Tyrrhenian Sea. Post-orogenic extension is commonly advocated as the main driver of the exhumation of the belt's inner domain highpressure/ low-temperature (HP-LT) rock units. The Acquadolce Subunit of the Eastern Elba nappe stack contains HP-LT rocks recording peak blueschist conditions of 1.5–1.8 GPa at 320°C–370°C loosely dated to the Oligocene-Early Miocene. It is sandwiched by two Late Miocene, out-of-sequence top-to-the E thrusts between Jurassic LP serpentinites on top and HT–LP contact metamorphosed marbles at its base. We document widespread W-verging ductile asymmetries within the Acquadolce Subunit, which correspond to top-to-the W extensional shearing for the nappe stack current orientation. This allowed for early syn-orogenic exhumation from blueschist- to greenschist-facies conditions, wherein coeval W-directed extension at the top of the exhuming units acted synchronously with E-directed thrusting at their base causing exhumation by extrusion in an overall contractional setting. The basal, E-vergent thrusting is, however, challenging to document as the wedge has since been reworked by Late Miocene, E-verging compressive tectonics, contact metamorphism, and later extension, obliterating much of the evidence supporting exhumation by extrusion during the early stages of wedge build-up. Syn-orogenic exhumation by extrusion from deep structural levels within the orogenic wedge is a viable mechanism to account for other exhumed HP-LT units in the inner part of the belt.166 27 - PublicationOpen AccessStructural characterization and K–Ar illite dating of reactivated, complex and heterogeneous fault zones: lessons from the Zuccale Fault, Northern Apennines(2022-08-30)
; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; We studied the Zuccale Fault (ZF) on Elba, part of the Northern Apennines, to unravel the complex deformation history that is responsible for the remarkable architectural complexity of the fault. The ZF is characterized by a patchwork of at least six distinct, now tightly juxtaposed brittle structural facies (BSF), i.e. volumes of deformed rock characterized by a given fault rock type, texture, colour, composition, and age of formation. ZF fault rocks vary from massive cataclasite to foliated ultracataclasite, from clay-rich gouge to highly sheared talc phyllonite. Understanding the current spatial juxtaposition of these BSFs requires tight constraints on their age of formation during the ZF lifespan to integrate current fault geometries and characteristics over the time dimension of faulting. We present new K–Ar gouge dates obtained from three samples from two different BSFs. Two top-to-the-east foliated gouge and talc phyllonite samples document faulting in the Aquitanian (ca. 22 Ma), constraining east-vergent shearing along the ZF already in the earliest Miocene. A third sample constrains later faulting along the exclusively brittle, flat-lying principal slip surface to < ca. 5 Ma. The new structural and geochronological results reveal an unexpectedly long faulting history spanning a ca. 20 Myr time interval in the framework of the evolution of the Northern Apennines. The current fault architecture is highly heterogeneous as it formed at very different times under different conditions during this prolonged history. We propose that the ZF started as an Aquitanian thrust that then became selectively reactivated by early Pliocene out-of-sequence thrusting during the progressive structuring of the Northern Apennine wedge. These results require the critical analysis of existing geodynamic models and call for alternative scenarios of continuous convergence between the late Oligocene and the early Pliocene with a major intervening phase of extension in the middle Miocene allowing for the isostatic re-equilibration of the Northern Apennine wedge. Extension started again in the Pliocene and is still active in the innermost portion of the Northern Apennines. In general terms, long-lived, mature faults can be very architecturally complex. Their unravelling, including understanding the dynamic evolution of their mechanical properties, requires a multidisciplinary approach combining detailed structural analyses with dating the deformation events recorded by the complex internal architecture, which is a phenomenal archive of faulting and faulting conditions through time and space.96 9