Decoding low-temperature thermochronology signals in Alpine-type orogens: modelling the role of rift thermal imprint into continental collision
Resolving the timing of initiation and propagation of continental accretion associated with increasing topography and exhumation is a genuinely challenging task using low-temperature thermochronology. We present an integrated thermo-mechanical and low-temperature thermochronology modelling study of tectonically-inverted hyper-extended rift systems. Model low-temperature thermochronology data sets for four widely used thermochronological systems are generated from fourteen locations across a model doubly-vergent orogen. Our approach allows prediction of specific, distinct low-temperature thermochronological signatures for each domain of the two rifted margins that, in turn, enable deciphering which parts of the margins are involved in orogenic wedge development. Our results show that a combination of zircon (U-Th)/He and apatite fission-track data allows diagnostic investigation of model orogen tectonics and offers the most valuable source of thermochronological information for the reconstruction of the crustal architecture of the model inverted rifted margins. Comparison of model data for inverted rifted margins with model data for non-inverted, purely thermally-relaxed rifted margins enables assessing the actual contribution of tectonic inversion with respect to thermal relaxation to cooling during convergence. Similarities between our modelling results and published low-temperature thermochronology data from the Pyrenees provide new insights into the evolution of Alpine-type, double-wedged orogenic systems from rifting to collision. In particular, they suggest that the Pyrenean Axial Zone mainly consists of the inverted lower plate necking and hyper-extended domains while the North Pyrenean Zone represents the inverted upper plate distal rifted margin. This is in good agreement with previous, independent reconstructions from literature, showing the power that our integrated study offers in identifying processes involved in orogenesis, especially early inversion, as well as reconstruction of pre-orogenic crustal architecture of hyper-extended rifted margins.