Unravelling basin shoulder dynamics through detrital apatite fission-track signature: the case of the Quaternary Mugello Basin, Italy

2017 ◽  
Vol 155 (7) ◽  
pp. 1413-1426
Author(s):  
MARIA LAURA BALESTRIERI ◽  
MARCO BENVENUTI ◽  
RITA CATANZARITI

AbstractDetrital apatite fission-track (AFT) thermochronology has been applied to lower Pleistocene lacustrine fan-delta sediments of the NE shoulder of the Mugello Basin, the youngest and closest to the main watershed among the Northern Apennines intermontane basins. The aim was to decode the shoulder uplift dynamics during the development of the basin through the analysis of the Quaternary fluvio-lacustrine deposits. Bedrock shoulder analysis, performed to match the detrital AFT data with their source, revealed the presence of a unexpected only partially annealed portion of a turbidite foredeep unit (AFT ages >7–5 Ma) belonging to the structural complex that constitutes the shoulder bedrock. These data disagree with the AFT age distribution pattern of the well-studied Northern Apennines chain, suggesting a segmentation of the foredeep basin. The latter may have been related to the presence of a tectonically induced topographic high (pre-late Langhian) in the area limiting the thickness of the overriding Ligurian lid. On the other hand, detrital AFT data provided arguments for understanding the dynamics of Mugello Basin shoulder uplift and rotation. The proportion in the different stratigraphic units of the fan-delta sediments of single grains showing young (reset) and old (non-reset) ages points to late Early Pleistocene timing of the development of the SW-verging backthrust that characterizes the study area. These data confirm and detail the picture of an early Quaternary development of the Mugello Basin under a compressional setting, only later (middle Pleistocene to present) superimposed by normal faultings.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erica D. Erlanger ◽  
Maria Giuditta Fellin ◽  
Sean D. Willett

Abstract. Analysis of new detrital apatite fission-track (AFT) ages from modern river sands, published bedrock and detrital AFT ages, and bedrock apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe) ages from the Northern Apennines provide new insights into the spatial and temporal pattern of erosion rates through time across the orogen. The pattern of time-averaged erosion rates derived from AHe ages from the Ligurian side of the orogen illustrates slower erosion rates relative to AFT rates from the Ligurian side and relative to AHe rates from the Adriatic side. These results are corroborated by an analysis of paired AFT and AHe thermochronometer samples, which illustrate that erosion rates have generally increased through time on the Adriatic side, but decreased through time on the Ligurian side. Using an updated kinematic model of an asymmetric orogenic wedge, with imposed erosion rates on the Ligurian side that are a factor of two slower relative to the Adriatic side, we demonstrate that cooling ages and maximum burial depths are able to replicate the pattern of measured cooling ages across the orogen and estimates of burial depth from vitrinite reflectance data. These results suggest that horizontal motion is an important component of the overall rock motion in the wedge, and that the asymmetry of the orogen has existed for at least several million years.


Minerals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 1095
Author(s):  
Roman V. Veselovskiy ◽  
Róbert Arató ◽  
Tanya E. Bagdasaryan ◽  
Alexander V. Samsonov ◽  
Alexandra V. Stepanova ◽  
...  

For a long time, the thermal history of northeastern (NE) Fennoscandia in the Phanerozoic and Precambrian remained unknown, since no thermochronological studies were carried out within the Kola Peninsula area. Two years ago, we developed the first model of tectono-thermal evolution of the Kola Peninsula territory for the last 1.9 Gyr using a set of newly obtained apatite fission-track (AFT) and Ar/Ar thermochronological data. However, the low-temperature history of the most ancient tectonic unit of the northeastern part of the Kola Peninsula—the Archean Murmansk craton—remained poorly constrained due to the lack of AFT data. In this paper, we present the first results of AFT studies of 14 samples representing intrusive and metamorphic Precambrian rocks, located within the Murmansk craton of NE Fennoscandia. AFT ages and track length distributions indicate a similar tectono-thermal evolution of Precambrian tectonic units in NE Fennoscandia over the last 300 Myr. The AFT ages are distributed between ca. 177 and ca. 384 Ma; their median value, ~293 Ma, confirms the presence of a previously identified hidden thermal event that took place at about 300 Ma. However, a detailed analysis of the AFT age distribution shows the presence of three statistically distinguishable age components: 180–190 Ma (C1), 290–320 Ma (C2) and 422 Ma (C3). We assume that the relatively young AFT ages of C1 may originate from apatite crystals with low thermal resistivity. Remarkably, this value coincides with the initial stage of the Barents Sea magmatic province activity during large-scale plume-lithospheric interaction, as well as with the assumed age of an enigmatic remagnetization event throughout the Kola Peninsula. C2 ages can be observed in both the gabbroic and non-gabbroic samples, whereas C3 ages can only be found in gabbro. It is supposed that C2 ages, similarly to the Central Kola terrane, correspond to a cooling event related to the denudation of a thick sedimentary cover, representing a continuation of the Caledonian foreland basin towards NE Fennoscandia. C3 ages may be associated with a thermal event corresponding to the Caledonian collisional orogeny.


1999 ◽  
Vol 31 (1-6) ◽  
pp. 673-676 ◽  
Author(s):  
E. Abbate ◽  
M.L. Balestrieri ◽  
G. Bigazzi ◽  
B. Ventura ◽  
M. Zattin ◽  
...  

Diversity ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (2) ◽  
pp. 47
Author(s):  
Eric Buffetaut ◽  
Delphine Angst

A large incomplete ostrich femur from the Lower Pleistocene of North China, kept at the Muséum National d’Histoire Naturelle (Paris), is described. It was found by Father Emile Licent in 1925 in the Nihewan Formation (dated at about 1.8 Ma) of Hebei Province. On the basis of the minimum circumference of the shaft, a mass of 300 kg, twice that of a modern ostrich, was obtained. The bone is remarkably robust, more so than the femur of the more recent, Late Pleistocene, Struthio anderssoni from China, and resembles in that regard Pachystruthio Kretzoi, 1954, a genus known from the Lower Pleistocene of Hungary, Georgia and the Crimea, to which the Nihewan specimen is referred, as Pachystruthio indet. This find testifies to the wide geographical distribution of very massive ostriches in the Early Pleistocene of Eurasia. The giant ostrich from Nihewan was contemporaneous with the early hominins who inhabited that region in the Early Pleistocene.


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 604
Author(s):  
Evgeny V. Vetrov ◽  
Johan De Grave ◽  
Natalia I. Vetrova ◽  
Fedor I. Zhimulev ◽  
Simon Nachtergaele ◽  
...  

The West Siberian Basin (WSB) is one of the largest intracratonic Meso-Cenozoic basins in the world. Its evolution has been studied over the recent decades; however, some fundamental questions regarding the tectonic evolution of the WSB remain unresolved or unconfirmed by analytical data. A complete understanding of the evolution of the WSB during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras requires insights into the cooling history of the basement rocks as determined by low-temperature thermochronometry. We presented an apatite fission track (AFT) thermochronology study on the exposed parts of the WSB basement in order to distinguish tectonic activation episodes in an absolute timeframe. AFT dating of thirteen basement samples mainly yielded Cretaceous cooling ages and mean track lengths varied between 12.8 and 14.5 μm. Thermal history modeling based on the AFT data demonstrates several Mesozoic and Cenozoic intracontinental tectonic reactivation episodes affected the WSB basement. We interpreted the episodes of tectonic activity accompanied by the WSB basement exhumation as a far-field effect from tectonic processes acting on the southern and eastern boundaries of Eurasia during the Mesozoic–Cenozoic eras.


1972 ◽  
Vol 2 (4) ◽  
pp. 473-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce G. Gladfelter

A suite of four terraces in the upper Rio Henares drainage system (Rio Tajo basin) now provides a partial geomorphological link between the Middle Pleistocene, Lower Paleolithic archeological sites at Ambrona and Torralba (upper Ebro basin) and those in the vicinity of Madrid. The Campiña and Low Terrace features are shown by radiocarbon dating to be of Holocene and Würm ages, respectively, while the Middle and High Terraces are best designated as being Middle and Lower Pleistocene ages, respectively. Stratigraphic relationships between the upper and lower Rio Henares segments need to be established.


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