Summary The kinematic understanding of the relationship between relative plate motion and the structure of orogenic belts depends upon a knowledge of relative plate motion across the plate boundary system, the relative motion of small blocks and flakes within the system, an evaluation of orogenic body forces, and an understanding of the thermomechanical evolution of the upper part of the orogenic lithosphere in determining strength and detachment levels. We have built a preliminary model for the Cenozoic kinematic evolution of the western Mediterranean oceanic basins and their peripheral orogens that integrates (1) the motion of Africa relative to Europe based upon a new study of Atlantic fracture zones using SEASAT data and the Lamont-Doherty magnetic anomaly database, (2) a new interpretation of the rotation of Corsica/Sardinia and the opening of the Balearic and Tyrrhenian oceanic basins, (3) sedimentary facies sequences in the Apennines, Calabria, and Sicily, and (4) Apennine/Calabrian structure and structural sequence.

Kinematics of the western Mediterranean

Relative motions of Africa, Iberia and Europe during Alpine orogeny

Slab breakoff is the buoyancy-driven detachment of subducted oceanic lithosphere from the light continental lithosphere that follows it during continental collision. In a recent paper Davies and von Blanckenburg [1994] have assessed the physical conditions leading to breakoff by quantitative thermomechanical modeling and have predicted various consequences in the evolution of mountain belts. Breakoff will lead to heating of the overriding lithospheric mantle by upwelling asthenosphere, melting of its enriched layers, and thus to bimodal magmatism. Breakoff will also lead to thermal weakening of the subducted crustal lithosphere, thereby allowing buoyant rise of released crustal slices from mantle depths. In this paper we present a test of this model in the Tertiary evolution of the European Alps. In the Alps, both basaltic and granitoid magmatism occur between 42 and 25 Ma, following the closure of oceanic basins by subduction and continental collision. The granitoids are now well established to result from mixing of basalt with assimilated continental crust. To identify the tectonically crucial origin of the partial mantle melts, we have compiled all published geochemical and isotopic data of numerous mafic dykes occurring throughout the whole Alpine arc. Their trace element and isotopic composition suggests that they have been formed by low-degree melting of the mechanically stable lithospheric mantle. We see no evidence for melting of asthenospheric mantle. It was thus not decompressed to depths shallower than 50 km. Once initiated, rapid lateral migration of slab breakoff will result in a linear trace of magmatism in locally thermal weakened crust. This explains why all Alpine magmatic rocks intruded almost synchronously along a strike-slip fault, the Periadriatic Lineament. A compilation of ages from Penninic high-pressure rocks subducted to depths of up to 100 km shows that subduction took place at circa 55–40 Ma, followed by uplift at 40–35 Ma. From the short time interval between their uplift and the onset of magmatism we infer that both processes have been induced by the breakoff. The slab breakoff model fulfills its predictions in the case of the Alps and therefore supports the assumptions made in the theoretical model on a geological basis. We believe that the characteristic association of magmatic activity with the return of high-pressure rocks to the surface allows the identification of this process in the Earth's mountain belts.

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Slab breakoff: A model for syncollisional magmatism and tectonics in the Alps

The main principle of the conventional K-Ar method is very simple. 40K decays to 40Ar, and assuming we know the decay constants and are capable of measuring parent and daughter isotopes rather precisely, we should succeed in calculating an age.

Potassium Argon Dating

The Zermatt–Saas-Fee ophiolites (ZSFO) are one of the best preserved slices of eclogitic oceanic crust in the Alpine chain. They formed during the opening of the Mesozoic Tethys and underwent subduction to HP/UHP conditions during Alpine compression. A cathodoluminescence-based ion microprobe (SHRIMP) dating of different zircon domains from metagabbros and oceanic metasediments was carried out to constrain the timing of formation and subduction of this ophiolite, two fundamental questions in Alpine geodynamics. The formation of the ophiolitic sequence is constrained by the intrusion ages of the Mellichen and the Allalin metagabbros (164.0 ± 2.7 Ma and 163.5 ± 1.8 Ma) obtained on magmatic zircon domains. These data are in line with the maximum deposition age for Mn-rich metasediments which overlie the mafic rocks at Lago di Cignana (161 ± 11 Ma) and at Sparrenflue (ca. 153–154 Ma). An Eocene age of 44.1 ± 0.7 Ma was obtained for whole zircons and zircon rims from an UHP eclogite and two metasediments at Lago di Cignana. One of the Eocene zircons contains a rutile inclusion indicating formation at HP conditions. As the temperature and pressure peak of these rocks nearly coincide, the Eocene zircons probably constrain the age for the deepest subduction of the ZSFO. This Eocene age for the UHP metamorphism implies that the ZSFO were subducted later than the Adriatic margin (Sesia-Lanzo Zone) and before the Late Eocene subduction of the European continental crust below Apulia. A scenario with three subduction episodes propagating in time from SE to NW is proposed for the geological evolution of the Central and Western Alps.

Jurassic formation and Eocene subduction of the Zermatt-Saas-Fee ophiolites: implications for the geodynamic evolution of the Central and Western Alps

The results of 63 new radiometric K-Ar and Rb-Sr measurements on metamorphic minerals from the internal units of the Western Alps show Hercynian, Permian, as well as three Alpine age groups. The first of the Alpine ages cover the period between 78 and 100 m.y. and refer to high pressure parageneses. The second group comprises K-Ar 39 to 50 m.y. ages; these values are affected by some inherited argon, as indicated by Rb-Sr measurements which point to 35–36±4–5 m.y., i.e. similar to the culmination of the Lepontine crystallization. The final group includes 15 to 30 m.y. ages. It is not yet clear which geologic processes have led to this isotope re-equilibration. Large amounts of inherited argon have been found in Alpine metamorphic minerals of the basement rocks.

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K-Ar and Rb-Sr Dating of Blue Amphiboles, Micas, and Associated Minerals from the Western Alps

Mn- (and Ca-) enriched border fringes around resorbed garnets, and Mn-enriched zones along cracks in resorbed garnets and along intergranular boundaries in resorbed sievegarnets, indicate a limited diffusion of Mn (and some Ca) into the garnet structure.

Jacqueline Bocquet

Papers

K-Ar and Rb-Sr Dating of Blue Amphiboles, Micas, and Associated Minerals from the Western Alps

Diffusion processes in resorbed garnets