Abstract. Apatite (U-Th-Sm)/He (AHe) thermochronometry is widely used to constrain 35 thermal histories and rates of tectonic, exhumation, and erosion processes. However, data 36 interpretation is often challenging, especially when the thermal history includes extended 37 residence time in the He partial retention zone (HePRZ), with highly dispersed dates revealing 38 the complexity of diffusion processes in natural systems. This study investigates chemical and 39
In North Africa, the Algerian margin is made of basement blocks that drifted away from the European margin, namely the Kabylia, and docked to the African continental crust in the Early Miocene. This young margin is now inverted, as dated Miocene (17 Ma) granites outcrop alongshore, evidencing kilometre-scale exhumation since their emplacement. Age of inversion is actually unknown, although Pliocene is often considered in the offshore domain. To decipher the exhumation history of the margin between 17 and 5 Ma, we performed a coupled apatite fission track (AFT) and (U-Th-Sm)/He (AHe) study in the Cap Bougaroun Miocene granite. AFT dates range between 7 ± 1 and 10 ± 1 Ma, and mean AHe dates between 8 ± 2 and 10 ± 1 Ma.These data evidence rapid and multi-kilometre exhumation during Tortonian times.This event cannot be related to slab break-off but instead to the onset of margin inversion that has since developed as an in-sequence north-verging deforming prism.
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