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Fission-Track Thermochronology and its Application to Geology pp 295–314Cite as

Detrital Thermochronology Using Conglomerates and Cobbles

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Abstract

Detrital thermochronology data from cobbles, either within modern sediments or basin stratigraphy, can provide excellent constraints on the exhumation history of the adjacent orogen or hinterland. This approach is especially powerful if multiple techniques are applied to each cobble. With cobbles, all grains have a common thermal history; thus, for apatite fission-track (AFT) thermochronology, ages are better defined than those for single-grains, and track-length measurements permit meaningful thermal models. Well-constrained basin stratigraphy is required to generate lag-time plots that combined with thermal modelling may constrain the rate and timing of cooling/exhumation events in the orogen, as well as later basin inversion. Limitations in this approach include the number of cobbles that need to be analysed to provide a representative sampling of the source region and to capture the pre-depositional exhumation history. Caveats also apply regarding closure temperature assumptions, integrated exhumation rates, time from erosion to basin deposition, variable provenance of the cobbles, paleo-relief in the source area, as well as burial-related partial annealing. Two examples illustrate this detrital cobble approach applied to basin stratigraphy. On the southern flank of the Pyrenean orogen, cobble AFT thermochronology from Eocene-to-Oligocene syntectonic conglomerates records three episodes of cooling/exhumation in the hinterland due to progressive movement of thrust sheets, followed by burial and Late Miocene re-excavation. The cobble thermochronologic record complements in-situ thermochronologic data from the orogen. South of the European Alps, thermochronology on conglomeratic clasts in the Gonfolite basin record exhumation in the Bergell region of the Central Alps. There, a stationary peak at ~30 Ma records the emplacement of plutonic and volcanic rocks, whereas a moving peak starting at ~25 Ma that decreases in age up-section records exhumation-related cooling.

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Acknowledgements

Fitzgerald acknowledges support from grants NSF grants EAR95-06454 and EAR05-38216 that initiated this work on detrital cobble thermochronology. Fitzgerald also acknowledges Jarg Pettinga and the Erskine Program at the University of Canterbury where much of this paper was written. Malusà thanks E. Garzanti and I.M. Villa for insightful discussions on the Bergell-Gonfolite system. Muñoz acknowledges support from the SALTECRES project (CGL2014-54118-C2-1-R MINECO/FEDER, UE) as well as the Grup de Recerca de Geodinàmica i Anàlisi de Conques (2014SRG467). This paper has benefitted from discussions with Suzanne Baldwin. Thorough and thoughtful reviews by Jeff Rahl and Peter van der Beek greatly improved this paper, and we acknowledge their suggestions and comments with thanks.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Earth Sciences, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, 13244, USA

    Paul G. Fitzgerald

  2. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, 20126, Milan, Italy

    Marco G. Malusà

  3. Departament de Dinàmica de la Terra i de l’Oceà, Universitat de Barcelona, 08028, Barcelona, Spain

    Joseph A. Muñoz

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  1. Paul G. Fitzgerald
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Correspondence to Paul G. Fitzgerald .

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  1. Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Milano-Bicocca, Milan, Italy

    Marco G. Malusà

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York, USA

    Paul G. Fitzgerald

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Fitzgerald, P.G., Malusà, M.G., Muñoz, J.A. (2019). Detrital Thermochronology Using Conglomerates and Cobbles. In: Malusà, M., Fitzgerald, P. (eds) Fission-Track Thermochronology and its Application to Geology. Springer Textbooks in Earth Sciences, Geography and Environment. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-89421-8_17

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