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Burial and exhumation of Corsica (France) in the light of fission track data
Author(s) -
Danišík Martin,
Kuhlemann Joachim,
Dunkl István,
Székely Balázs,
Frisch Wolfgang
Publication year - 2007
Publication title -
tectonics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.465
H-Index - 134
eISSN - 1944-9194
pISSN - 0278-7407
DOI - 10.1029/2005tc001938
Subject(s) - geology , fission track dating , thermochronology , basement , cretaceous , rift , paleontology , subduction , zircon , flysch , cenozoic , nappe , sedimentary rock , mesozoic , denudation , stack (abstract data type) , structural basin , geochemistry , tectonics , archaeology , computer science , programming language , history
The Mesozoic and Cenozoic exhumation and cooling history of Corsica is reconstructed by fission track (FT) data on basement and sedimentary rocks. Apatite ages are 105–16 Ma; zircon ages are 160–145 Ma. The Jurassic and Cretaceous ages show that parts of the Variscan basement escaped Alpine influence. The basement was thermally affected by rifting prior to Jurassic opening of the Ligurian‐Piedmont Ocean; then it cooled to near‐surface temperatures. In Paleocene‐Eocene times, subduction buried parts of the basement and overlying flysch to greater depth. In the Oligocene, both collapse of the nappe stack and rifting prior to opening of the Ligurian‐Provençal Basin affected the apatite FT system of the basement in different, partly overlapping areas causing a complex age pattern. The study shows that thorough analysis of FT data and thermal modeling allow to assign age populations to distinct cooling processes even when several thermotectonic events contributed to generate an intricate age pattern.