Current models for Miocene backarc extension of the Aegean region generally suggest that stretching was accommodated mainly by NEdipping low-angle normal faults with N to NE sense of shear. A crustal-scale low-angle normal fault system trending over a length of more than 200 km forms the North Cycladic detachment system, which records a NE-directed normal shear sense separating the Cycladic Blueschist unit in the footwall from the Upper Cycladic unit in the hanging wall. Based on new structural fi eld data, we propose the existence of another large-scale low-angle normal fault system, the West Cycladic detachment system, which is exposed on Kea, Kythnos, and Serifos, strikes over a length of at least 100 km, and has a possible extension to the SE, where the existence of a South Cycladic detachment system has been recently postulated. The West Cycladic detachment system shares many similarities with the North Cycladic detachment system, with the notable exception that the structure dips toward the SW with top-to-the-SSW kinematics. New 40 Ar/ 39 Ar and U-Th/He thermochronological data suggest that the West Cycladic detachment system accommodated extension throughout the Miocene. Since both the North and the West Cycladic detachment systems were active until the late Miocene but exhibit opposing shear sense, we propose that a large part of the stretching of the Aegean crust was accommodated by these two bivergent crustal-scale detachment systems.

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[1] New structural, petrologic, and thermochronologic data from Kea, West Cyclades, define a crustal-scale ductile shear zone and ductile/brittle low-angle normal fault (LANF) system. Both the greenschist-facies shear zone forming the footwall and the overlying LANF zone formed during constrictional strains, with a consistent top-to-SW-S shear sense, with increasing finite strains toward higher structural levels but decreasing temperatures from footwall to hanging wall. The tectonostratigraphy comprises a ∼450 m thick footwall of shallowly dipping schists and calcite marbles representing the Intermediate Unit of the Attic-Cycladic Crystalline (ACC). Above the footwall is a ∼60 m thick highly strained LANF zone, consisting of phyllonites, cataclastic schists, ultramylonitic calcite marbles, (proto) mylonitic calcite marbles, and cohesive cataclasites that arch over the whole island. These fault rocks exhibit multistage LANFs, evolving from ductile to brittle conditions. An up to ∼50 m thick brecciated limestone and dolostone sequence forms the unmetamorphosed hanging wall which is most probably part of the Upper Unit of the ACC. Multiequilibrium P-T estimates on chlorite-white mica pairs in the footwall yield 7-5.5 kbar/360°C-450°C for inclusions in albite and epidote, 5.5-3 kbar/400°C-350°C for the main foliation, and 3-2 kbar/350°C-280°C in localized shear bands (C and C′ foliations). The 40 Ar/ 39 Ar white mica footwall cooling ages demonstrate that greenschist-facies retrogression occurred between ∼21 and 17 Ma. Localized, late decimeter thick shear zones were active and dynamically recrystallized before ∼15 to 13 Ma. The LANF on Kea, together with similar structures in South Attica and the West Cyclades define the West Cycladic Detachment System, characterized by ductile to brittle top-SW-S shear sense.

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At the northwestern margin of the Gurktal Alps (Eastern Alps), Eoalpine (Cretaceous) thrusting of carbonaceous material (CM) bearing metasediments formed a very low- to low-grade metamorphic nappe stack above higher-grade metamorphic basement nappes. Sedimentary burial as well as progressive metamorphism transformed the enclosed CM to anthracite, metaanthracite and semigraphite. In a kinematically well-constrained section at the northwestern frontal margin of the nappe stack, this transformation has been investigated by vitrinite reflectance measurements and Raman spectroscopy of carbonaceous materials (RSCM). Automated, interactive fitting of Raman spectra estimates the metamorphic peak temperatures in a complete section through the upper part of the Upper Austroalpine unit. A RSCM trend indicates a temperature profile of ca. 250–600 °C. The top part of the gradient is reconstructed by one-dimensional thermal modeling. The certainty of ca. ± 25 °C at a confidence level of 0.9 resembles the data variability within a sample location. Due to the large calibration range, the method is able to reconstruct a thermal crustal profile in space and time. The study highlights the versatility of RSCM, which characterizes almost 250 Ma of a complex and polyphase tectonic history. RSCM data characterize the Variscan metamorphic grade in nappes now imbricated in the Eoalpine nappe stack. They additionally constrain a numerical model which emphasizes the significance of an increased thermal gradient in a continental margin towards the western Neotethyan ocean during Permo-Triassic lithospheric extension. It finally characterizes the Eoalpine metamorphic gradient during nappe stacking and a significant metamorphic jump related to exhumation and normal faulting.