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Laser microprobe 40 Ar– 39 Ar analysis of pseudotachylyte and host‐rocks from the Tatra Mountains, Slovakia: evidence for late Palaeogene seismic/tectonic activity
Author(s) -
Kohút Milan,
Sherlock Sarah C.
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
terra nova
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.353
H-Index - 89
eISSN - 1365-3121
pISSN - 0954-4879
DOI - 10.1046/j.1365-3121.2003.00514.x
Subject(s) - geology , paleogene , basement , fault (geology) , tectonics , structural basin , paleontology , geochemistry , subsidence , archaeology , history
Laserprobe 40 Ar– 39 Ar data from fault‐related pseudotachylytes and granitic host‐rocks from the Tatra Mountains (Central Western Carpathians) resolve the controversy over the age of propagation of the sub‐Tatra detachment fault. This major structure has resulted in exhumation of crystalline basement to the north‐west, and subsidence and sediment deposition in the Palaeogene Central Carpathians Basin to the south‐east. Host‐rock biotite ages range from 331 Ma to 322 Ma, and pseudotachylyte spot ages range from 164 Ma to 28 Ma. Of these, the youngest group identify the maximum timing of the early stages of Tatra Mountains uplift, which continued in the Miocene (20–10 Ma) and culminated during the Quaternary. The wide‐ranging older ages are an artefact of an unsupported 40 Ar component that is most likely a combination of both inherited and excess argon.