No abstract

International audienceOrogens resulting from the closure of narrow oceans, such as the Alps or the Pyrenees, usually lack voluminous synsubduction and synorogenic magmatism. Such orogenies are essentially controlled by mechanical processes in which the initial architecture of the original rifted margins strongly controls the architecture of the orogen. In this paper we first provide a synthesis of the structure, dimensions, and lithology of hyperextended rift systems and oceans, based on recent seismic and petrologic data. We then investigate how rift-related inheritance influences crustal characteristics and mantle geochemistry of orogens related to the closure of narrow oceans, and compare them to orogens resulting from the closure of wide and/or mature oceans. Our results show that narrow oceans usually lack a mature spreading system forming Penrose-type oceanic crust (i.e., 6–7-km-thick basaltic oceanic crust typical of steady-state spreading systems; see Anonymous, 1972), in contrast to wide oceans. However, there is statistically no difference in the structural and lithological architecture of their passive continental margins. Thus, the main difference between narrow and wide oceans is whether the margins are separated by a significant amount of oceanic crust and underlying depleted mantle. In addition, due to the lack of significant magmatism during the closure of narrow oceans, the mantle wedge is likely to remain relatively fertile compared to the wedge above long-lasting subduction of wide oceans. This difference in mantle composition may dictate the magmatic budget of subsequent orogenic collapse or rifting events

In two companion papers, we report the detailed geological and mineralogical study of two emblematic serpentinized ultramafic bodies of the western North Pyrenean Zone (NPZ), the Urdach massif (this paper) and the Saraillé massif (paper 2). The peridotites have been exhumed to lower crustal levels during the Cretaceous rifting period in the future NPZ. They are associated with Mesozoic pre-rift metamorphic sediments and small units of thinned Paleozoic basement that were deformed during the mantle exhumation event. Based on detailed geological cross-sections and microprobe mineralogical analyses, we describe the lithology of the two major extensional fault zones that accommodated: (i) the progressive exhumation of the lherzolites along the Cretaceous basin axis; (ii) the lateral extraction of the continental crust beneath the rift shoulders and; (iii) the decoupling of the pre-rift cover along the Upper Triassic (Keuper) evaporites and clays, allowing its gliding and conservation in the basin center. These two fault zones are the (lower) crust-mantle detachment and the (upper) cover décollement located respectively at the crust-mantle boundary and at the base of the detached pre-rift cover. The Urdach peridotites were exposed to the seafloor during the Late Albian and underwent local pervasive carbonation and crystallization of calcite in a network of orthogonal veins (ophicalcites). The carbonated serpentinized peridotites were partly covered by debris-flows carrying fragments of both the ultramafics and Paleozoic crustal rocks now forming the polymictic Urdach breccia. The mantle rocks are involved in a Pyrenean overturned fold together with thin units of crustal mylonites. Continent-derived and mantle-derived fluids that circulated along the Urdach crust-mantle detachment led to the crystallization of abundant metasomatic rocks containing quartz, calcite, Cr-rich chlorites, Cr-rich white micas and pyrite. Two samples of metasomatized material from the crust-mantle detachment yielded in situ zircon U/Pb ages of 112.9 ± 1.6 Ma and 109.4 ± 1.2 Ma, thus confirming the Late Albian age of the metasomatic event. The cover décollement is a 30-m thick fault zone which also includes metasomatic rocks of greenschist facies, such as serpentine-calcite association and listvenites, indicating large-scale fluid-rock interactions implying both ultramafic and continental material. The lowermost pre-rift cover is generally missing along the cover décollement due to tectonic disruption during mantle exhumation and continental crust elision. Locally, metasomatized and strongly tectonized Triassic remnants are found as witnesses of the sole at the base of the detached pre-rift cover. We also report the discovery of a spherulitic alkaline lava flow emplaced over the exhumed mantle. These data collectively allow to propose a reconstruction of the architecture and fluid-rock interaction history of the distal domain of the upper Cretaceous northern Iberia margin now inverted in the NPZ.

No abstract