10.6084/m9.figshare.3454181.v1
J.P. Platt
J.P.
Platt
T.W. Argles
T.W.
Argles
A. Carter
A.
Carter
S.P. Kelley
S.P.
Kelley
M.J. Whitehouse
M.J.
Whitehouse
L. Lonergan
L.
Lonergan
Exhumation of the Ronda peridotite and its crustal envelope: constraints from thermal modelling of a <em>P</em>–<em>T</em>–time array
Geological Society of London
2016
asthenospheric heat source
lithospheric
Overlying crustal rocks show
66 km depth
Exhumation
Ma
mantle
array
exhumation
crustal envelope
modelling
Betic
orogenic
zircon
Ronda peridotite
unmetamorphosed rocks 5 km
Ar
Geology
2016-06-21 11:57:23
Dataset
https://geolsoc.figshare.com/articles/dataset/Exhumation_of_the_Ronda_peridotite_and_its_crustal_envelope_constraints_from_thermal_modelling_of_a_em_P_em_em_T_em_time_array/3454181
<p>The Ronda peridotite in the Betic Cordillera of southern Spain is a relic of the sub-orogenic lithospheric mantle that was
exhumed during earliest Miocene time from about 66 km depth. Overlying crustal rocks show an apparently coherent metamorphic
zonation from high-pressure granulite-facies rocks at the contact to unmetamorphosed rocks 5 km higher in the structural sequence,
indicating drastic tectonic thinning of the whole orogenic crust during exhumation. <em>P</em>–<em>T</em> paths from the peridotite and its crustal envelope indicate decompression with rising temperature to shallow depths. U–Pb
ion microprobe dating of zircon, Ar/Ar dating of hornblende, Ar/Ar laserprobe dating of muscovite and biotite, and fission-track
analysis of zircon and apatite reveal that cooling was extremely rapid in the interval 21.2–20.4 Ma. One-dimensional thermal
modelling of the array of <em>P</em>–<em>T</em>–time paths indicates that an asthenospheric heat source at an initial depth of about 67.5 km is required to explain heating
during exhumation, and that the main period of exhumation lasted 5 Ma, starting at around 25 Ma. Exhumation must therefore
have directly followed removal of most, but not all, of the lithospheric mantle beneath the Betic orogen, and was coeval with
a period of late orogenic extension that profoundly modified the crustal structure and created the present-day Alboran Sea
in the western Mediterranean.
</p>