Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Platt, J. P. Articles by Thirlwall, M. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

Early Miocene continental subduction and rapid exhumation in the western Mediterranean

¹ Department of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California 90089-0740, USA
² Institute of Geological Sciences Polish Academy of Sciences, Kraków Research Centre, Ul. Senacka 1, 31-002 Kraków, Poland
³ Departamento de Geodinamica, Universidad de Granada, Campus Fuentenueva, 18071-Granada, Spain
⁴ Department of Earth Sciences, Open University, Walton Hall, Milton Keynes MK7 6AA, UK
⁵ Department of Geology, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, Surrey TW20 0EX, UK

New Lu-Hf garnet growth ages from high-pressure rocks from the structurally lowest terrane (Nevado-Filábride Complex) in the Betic Cordillera of southern Spain indicate early Miocene subduction of continental crust, requiring significant revision of the timing and processes of orogeny in the western part of the Alpine orogenic system. Mafic eclogite and pelitic schist give Lu-Hf ages in the range 18–14 Ma, and fission-track data show that the terrane was exhumed by 12–8 Ma. The overlying terrane (Alpujárride Complex) shows early Tertiary high pressure-temperature metamorphism; this was followed by a thermal event that accompanied rapid crustal extension at 22–18 Ma, leading to the formation of the Alboran Sea backarc basin. The evidence therefore suggests two phases of continental subduction separated by a phase of large-scale intraorogenic extension. The two terranes are now separated by a mid-late Miocene low-angle extensional fault. The timing and paleogeographic setting suggest that the Nevado-Filábride terrane originally was close to the rifted South Iberian margin, and was subducted during westward motion of the extending upper terrane between the converging African and Iberian plates.

Key Words: eclogite • geochronology • garnet • subduction • exhumation • Betic Cordillera

This article has been cited by other articles:

				S.J.P. Clark and T.J. Dempster The record of tectonic denudation and erosion in an emerging orogen: an apatite fission-track study of the Sierra Nevada, southern Spain Journal of the Geological Society, January 1, 2009; 166(1): 87 - 100. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				M. Brown Metamorphic patterns in orogenic systems and the geological record Geological Society, London, Special Publications, January 1, 2009; 318(1): 37 - 74. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				J.P. PLATT From orogenic hinterlands to Mediterranean-style back-arc basins: a comparative analysis Journal of the Geological Society, March 1, 2007; 164(2): 297 - 311. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]