Extensional Flow during Gravitational Collapse: A Tool for Setting Plate Convergence (Padrón Migmatitic Dome, Variscan Belt, NW Iberia)

Plate convergence analysis in collisional orogens is usually based on the study of major contractional structures and strike-slip shear zones. Here we show how the structural analysis of extensional structures may report the regional or far stress field during relatively local, gravity-driven extens...

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Detalhes bibliográficos
Autores: Díez Fernández, Rubén, Martínez Catalán, J. R., Gómez Barreiro, Juan, Arenas, Ricardo
Tipo de documento: artigo
Data de publicação:2012
País:España
Recursos:Consejo Superior de Investigaciones Científicas (CSIC)
Repositório:DIGITAL.CSIC. Repositorio Institucional del CSIC
OAI Identifier:oai:digital.csic.es:10261/75837
Acesso em linha:http://hdl.handle.net/10261/75837
Access Level:Acceso aberto
Palavra-chave:Metamorphic core complexes
Unit ordenes complex
Late-orogenic collapse
Gneiss domes
Tectonic evolution
Continental crust
Tibetan plateau
Geodynamic evolution
Northern Gondwana
Nortwest Iberia
Descrição
Resumo:Plate convergence analysis in collisional orogens is usually based on the study of major contractional structures and strike-slip shear zones. Here we show how the structural analysis of extensional structures may report the regional or far stress field during relatively local, gravity-driven extensional collapse of a thickened continental crust and how this information may be used to constrain the broad vectors of plate convergence at that time. The Padrón migmatitic dome is a synconvergent extensional system developed in the axial zone of the Variscan belt exposed in the NW part of the Iberian Massif of Spain. This system affected the allochthonous and autochthonous sequences involved in Pangaea’s assembly in Southern Europe. It includes three major extensional shear zones, which have been analyzed in detail to provide a wide ground data set for the discussion of the proposed model. The tectonic flow in the Padrón migmatitic dome and in other coeval structures is characterized by vectors ranging from parallel to oblique, in the latter case with a counterclockwise azimuth in relation to the trend of the orogenic belt. Our model suggests that the extensional collapse of the Variscan belt in NW Iberia would have developed if the convergence between Gondwana and Laurussia had not stopped and that it would have included a dextral component.