Continental accretion and incremental deformation in the thermochronologic evolution of the Lesser Caucasus

Apatite fission-track analysis and thermochronologic statistical modeling of Precambrian\u2013Oligocene plutonic and metamorphic rocks from the Lesser Caucasus resolve two discrete cooling episodes. Cooling occurred during incremental crustal shortening due to obduction and continental accretion along the margins of the northern branch of the Neotethys. (1) The thermochronometric record of a Late Cretaceous (Turonian\u2013Maastrichtian) cooling/exhumation event, coeval to widespread ophiolite obduction, is still present only in a relatively small area of the upper plate of the Amasia-Sevan-Akera (ASA) suture zone, i.e. the suture marking the final closure of the northern Neotethys during the Paleogene. Such area has not been affected by significant later exhumation. (2) Rapid cooling/exhumation occurred in the Early-Middle Miocene in both the lower and upper plates of the ASA suture zone, obscuring previous thermochronologic signatures over most of the study area. Miocene contractional reactivation of the ASA suture zone occurred contemporaneously with the main phase of shortening and exhumation along the Bitlis suture zone marking the closure of the southern branch of the Neotethys and the ensuing Arabia-Eurasia collision. Miocene collisional stress from the Bitlis suture zone was transmitted northward across the Anatolian hinterland, which was left relatively undeformed, and focused along preexisting structural discontinuities such as the eastern Pontides and the ASA suture zone

New detrital petrographic and thermochronologic constraints on the Late Cretaceous-Neogene erosional history of the equatorial margin of Brazil: Implications for the surface evolution of a complex rift margin

The equatorial margin of Brazil is an example of a rift margin with a complex landscape, dominated by an escarpment perpendicular to the continental margin, which testifies to an equally complex rift and post-rift surface and tectonic evolution. This has been the focus of a long debate on the driving mechanism for post-rift tectonics and on the amount of exhumation. This study contributes to this debate with new petrographic and thermochronologic data on 152 samples from three basins, Para-Maranhao, Barreirinhas and Ceara, on the offshore continental platform. Our detrital record goes back to the rift time at ca. 100 Ma ago and outlines three major evolutionary phases of a changing landscape: a rift phase, with the erosion of a moderate rift escarpment, a Late Cretaceous-Palaeogene post-rift phase of major drainage reorganization and significant vertical erosion and a Late Oligocene-to-Recent post-rift phase of moderate vertical erosion and river headwater migration. We estimate that along the equatorial margin of Brazil, over a large onshore area, exhumation since the Late Cretaceous has totalled locally up to 2-2.5 km and since the late Oligocene did not exceed 1 km

From cylindrical to non‐cylindrical foreland basin: Pliocene–Pleistocene evolution of the Po Plain–Northern Adriatic basin (Italy)

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Antarctic ice sheet sensitivity to atmospheric CO2 variations in the early to mid-Miocene

Geological records from the Antarctic margin offer direct evidence of environmental variability at high southern latitudes and provide insight regarding ice sheet sensitivity to past climate change. The early to mid-Miocene (23-14 Mya) is a compelling interval to study as global temperatures and atmospheric CO2 concentrations were similar to those projected for coming centuries. Importantly, this time interval includes the Miocene Climatic Optimum, a period of global warmth during which average surface temperatures were 3-4 °C higher than today. Miocene sediments in the ANDRILL-2A drill core from the Western Ross Sea, Antarctica, indicate that the Antarctic ice sheet (AIS) was highly variable through this key time interval. A multiproxy dataset derived from the core identifies four distinct environmental motifs based on changes in sedimentary facies, fossil assemblages, geochemistry, and paleotemperature. Four major disconformities in the drill core coincide with regional seismic discontinuities and reflect transient expansion of grounded ice across the Ross Sea. They correlate with major positive shifts in benthic oxygen isotope records and generally coincide with intervals when atmospheric CO2 concentrations were at or below preindustrial levels (∼280 ppm). Five intervals reflect ice sheet minima and air temperatures warm enough for substantial ice mass loss during episodes of high (∼500 ppm) atmospheric CO2. These new drill core data and associated ice sheet modeling experiments indicate that polar climate and the AIS were highly sensitive to relatively small changes in atmospheric CO2 during the early to mid-Miocene

Exhumation of the western Qinling mountain range and the building of the northeastern margin of the Tibetan Plateau

This study presents new apatite fission-track data collected from intrusive and sedimentary rocks of the western Qinling mountain range. Results show a large range of data, with ages spanning from Upper Jurassic to Oligocene. No particular age-elevation relationships have been detected. Thermal modelling shows clearly that the region was affected by a nearly steady-state slow cooling starting from the Jurassic. This is particularly true for samples collected north of the West Qinling Fault whereas samples collected to the south show a re-heating event, followed by enhanced exhumation. As a whole, these data testify that the studied part of the western Qinling region was relatively stable for a long period and relatively insensitive to the tectonics related to the growth of the Tibetan Plateau. The present-day relief is mainly the result of transtensional tectonics that occurred in the Eocene