Mantle exhumation at magma-poor passive continental margins. Part I. 3D architecture and metasomatic evolution of a fossil exhumed mantle domain (Urdach Iherzolite, north-western Pyrenees, France)

Type Article
Date 2019-07
Language English
Author(s) Lagabrielle Yves1, Asti Riccardo1, Fourcade Serge1, Corre Benjamin1, Poujol Marc1, Uzel Jessica1, Labaume Pierre2, Clerc Camille3, Lafay RomainORCID4, Picazo Suzanne4, Maury Rene5
Affiliation(s) 1 : Univ Rennes, CNRS, UMR Geosci Rennes 6118, Campus Beaulieu, F-35000 Rennes, France.
2 : Univ Montpellier, CNRS, Geosci Montpellier, F-34095 Montpellier, France.
3 : Univ Nouvelle Caledonie, LIVE, BPR4, F-98851 Noumea, France.
4 : Univ Lausanne, Inst Earth Sci, CH-1015 Lausanne, Switzerland.
5 : Inst Univ Europeen Mer, Univ Brest, CNRS, UMR Geosci Ocean 6538, Pl Nicolas Copernic, F-29280 Plouzane, France.
Source Bsgf-earth Sciences Bulletin (0037-9409) (Edp Sciences S A), 2019-07 , Vol. 190 , N. 1 , P. 8 (26p.)
DOI 10.1051/bsgf/2019007
WOS© Times Cited 23
Keyword(s) North Pyrenean Zone, Urdach, mantle exhumation, fluid-rock interactions, listvenites, greenschist facies, detachment faults, Late Cretaceous
Abstract

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 Saraille 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 decollement 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 decollement is a 30-m thick fault zone which also includes metasomatic rocks of greenschist facies, such as serpentinecalcite 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 decollement 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.

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Lagabrielle Yves, Asti Riccardo, Fourcade Serge, Corre Benjamin, Poujol Marc, Uzel Jessica, Labaume Pierre, Clerc Camille, Lafay Romain, Picazo Suzanne, Maury Rene (2019). Mantle exhumation at magma-poor passive continental margins. Part I. 3D architecture and metasomatic evolution of a fossil exhumed mantle domain (Urdach Iherzolite, north-western Pyrenees, France). Bsgf-earth Sciences Bulletin, 190(1), 8 (26p.). Publisher's official version : https://doi.org/10.1051/bsgf/2019007 , Open Access version : https://archimer.ifremer.fr/doc/00637/74920/