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Evolution of Austro-Alpine and Upper Penninic Basement in the Northwestern Alps from Variscan Convergence to Post-Variscan Extension

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Pre-Mesozoic Geology in the Alps

Abstract

The oldest protoliths of the Austro-Alpine nappe system from the Western Alps consist of the intimate association of metapelites, tholeiitic metabasites and marbles which closely recalls the lithology and metamorphic evolution of the lower crustal section of the South-Alpine Ivrea-Verbano kinzigitic complex. This association may tentatively be interpreted as an Early Palaeozoic accretionary wedge, later deformed, thermally reworked and consolidated during the collisional Variscan orogeny; it was further characterized by Permian igneous underplating, low-P/high-T re-equilibration and production of anatectic melts. Similar high-T paragneisses are also the oldest protoliths in the Penninic Monte Rosa and Gran Paradiso nappes, although lesser amounts of mafic rocks and especially of marbles are recorded here; likewise the Penninic basement displays a late evolution characterized by cordierite-rich anatectic melts.

Lithospheric extension, uplift and thermal perturbance were demonstrably active during the Late Palaeozoic, when some basement sections operated as wall/roof rocks for huge intrusions of Late Carboniferous granites (Monte Rosa and Gran Paradiso) or Permian granitoids and ensialic cumulus gabbros (lower Austro-Alpine units), or when they were covered by Permian-Early Triassic clastic deposits. Late Palaeozoic bimodal magmatic activity and graben/ pull-apart opening are also extensively recorded in the surrounding Grand St. Bernard, Canavese and South-Alpine domains and elsewhere in the whole Alpine chain. These Late Palaeozoic processes have traditionally been referred to the Late Variscan orogeny as evidence of an ensialic mobile belt or a trench-arc system. Both these models are rejected here and most of the “Late Hercynian orogenic events” are re-interpreted as post-Variscan metamorphic and magmatic signatures of Late Palaeozoic onset of lithosphere extension and thermal perturbance through simple shear mechanisms along deep low-angle detachment zones, evolving to asymmetric continental rifting. This may account for mantle melting by adiabatic decompression, underplating of gabbros, fast transfer of heat and fluids into the lower crust allowing production and removal of anatectic melts, and low-P/high-T re-equilibration of uplifting lower crustal segments.

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Authors
  1. G. V. Dal Piaz
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Mineralogie und Petrographie, Universität Pérolles, CH-1700, Fribourg, Switzerland

    J. F. von Raumer

  2. Institut für Geologie und Paläontologie, Karl-Franzens-Universität, Heinrichstraße 26, A-8010, Graz, Austria

    Franz Neubauer

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Dal Piaz, G.V. (1993). Evolution of Austro-Alpine and Upper Penninic Basement in the Northwestern Alps from Variscan Convergence to Post-Variscan Extension. In: von Raumer, J.F., Neubauer, F. (eds) Pre-Mesozoic Geology in the Alps. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84640-3_19

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-84640-3_19

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