Chapter 20 Lower thrust sheets in the Caledonide orogen, Sweden: Cryogenian–Silurian sedimentary successions and underlying, imbricated, crystalline basement

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 495-515 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Gee ◽  
Michael B. Stephens

AbstractThe Jämtlandian Nappes and their equivalents further north, belonging to the lower thrust sheets in the Caledonide orogen of Sweden, comprise a mega-duplex of Cryogenian–Silurian sedimentary rocks sandwiched between structurally higher allochthons and a basal décollement. Further west towards the hinterland, crystalline basement is increasingly involved in this thrusting, imbricate stacking occurring beneath the décollement in antiformal windows. The sedimentary successions were derived from the Cryogenian rifted margin of Baltica, the Ediacaran–Cambrian drifted margin, and Ordovician and Silurian foreland basins. During the Early–Late Ordovician (Floian–Sandbian), hinterland-derived turbidites were deposited in response to early Caledonian accretion of subducted complexes belonging to the outermost margin of Baltica, now preserved in the higher allochthons. Following a quiescent period during the Late Ordovician (Hirnantian) and early part of the Llandovery, collision of Laurentia and Baltica reactivated the foreland basins, with flysch and molasse deposition during the Llandovery–Wenlock. Collisional shortening during this Scandian orogenic episode continued into the Devonian. High- and ultrahigh-pressure (HP/UHP) metamorphism accompanied Baltica's underthrusting of Laurentia in the deep hinterland, and prominent basement-cored antiforms developed towards the foreland during the advance of the orogenic wedge over the foreland basin onto the Baltoscandian platform.

2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 577-599 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Gee

AbstractCaledonian collision of continents Laurentia and Baltica, with at least 1000 km of lateral shortening, dominates the bedrock along the northern margins of the North Atlantic Ocean. Scandian (Silurian–Devonian) underthrusting of Laurentia by Baltica resulted in stacking of the main orogenic wedge and its migration onto the platform edge of Baltica. Complementary thrust sheets, exposed in northeastern Greenland, telescoped the Laurentian continental margin. The Swedish part of the Caledonides, comprising the foreland segment along the central half of this mountain belt, includes the key components of: (1) the Baltoscandian inner margin, including Ordovician and Silurian foreland basins; (2) the Neoproterozoic extended outer margin dominated by mafic magma and continent–ocean transition zone; (3) Iapetus oceanic terranes; and (4) evidence that substantial parts of the outermmost Baltoscandian margin experienced deep subduction and high- and ultrahigh-pressure (HP/UHP) metamorphism during late Cambrian–Ordovician accretion. This evidence, integrated with the Norwegian Caledonides, defines an orogenic pro-wedge comparable to that in the Himalaya today. Orthogonal Scandian collision, lasting for about 60 million years (c. 440–380 Ma), involved late Silurian–Early Devonian HP/UHP metamorphism of the underthrusting Baltoscandian basement. By the Middle Devonian, the hinterland was experiencing orogen-parallel folding and axial extension, accompanying exhumation, while the orogenic pro-wedge continued to migrate eastwards on to the platform.


2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (12) ◽  
pp. 1473-1490 ◽  
Author(s):  
F -A Comeau ◽  
D Kirkwood ◽  
M Malo ◽  
E Asselin ◽  
R Bertrand

In the Quebec Appalachians, disruption, imbrication, and thrusting of the Taconian foreland basin sequence are responsible for the development of chaotic units within the turbiditic sequence of the Caradocian Sainte-Rosalie Group, the main lithologic assemblage of the parautochthonous zone. These chaotic units have been termed olistostromes or tectonosomes on the basis of field criteria and following Pini's (1999) classification. Olistostromal units containing blocks of the middle mudstone (Utica Shale) and upper turbidite units (Ste-Rosalie Group) of the foreland basin and spanning the Caradocian N. gracilis, C. americanus, O. ruedemanni, and C. spiniferus graptolite zones were deposited and incorporated into the Sainte-Rosalie Group. Disruption of more competent beds of the flyschic sequence and fault stacking and slicing of older rock units occurred along major thrust faults and now form structurally aligned corridors or tectonosomes. Graptolites and new chitinozoan data from both olistostromes and tectonosomes indicate older ages (early Late Ordovician) than the flysch units of Sainte-Rosalie Group (mid Late Ordovocian). Lithological, stratigraphic, and structural criteria indicate that tectonosome slices are imbricated foreland basin rocks that are correlative to the Black River, Trenton, Utica, Sainte-Rosalie, and Lorraine groups of the Laurentian platform. Thermal maturation data indicates that disruption of the autochthonous sequence, and folding and thrusting of the entire foreland basin sequence, must have occurred shortly after their deposition. Contrary to what had been suggested, blocks in the olistostromes and tectonosomes were not derived from the allochthonous Chaudière thrust sheet, even though it presently marks the southern contact with the parautochthonous zone. Imbrication of the foreland basin sequence must have occurred before emplacement of the Chaudière thrust sheet.


Geology ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Soret ◽  
K.P. Larson ◽  
J. Cottle ◽  
A. Ali

The mechanisms and processes active during the transition from continental subduction to continental collision at the plate interface are largely unknown. Rock records of this transition are scarce, either not exposed or obliterated during subsequent events. We examine the tectono-metamorphic history of Barrovian metamorphic rocks from the western Himalayan orogenic wedge. We demonstrate that these rocks were buried to amphibolite-facies conditions from ≤47 Ma to 39 ± 1 Ma, synchronously with the formation (46 Ma) and partial exhumation (45–40 Ma) of the ultrahigh-pressure eclogites. This association indicates that convergence during continental subduction was accommodated via development of a deep orogenic wedge built through successive underplating of continental material, including the partially exhumed eclogites, likely in response to an increase in interplate coupling. This process resulted in the heating of the subduction interface (from ~7 to ~20 °C/km) through advective and/or conductive heat transfer. Rapid cooling of the wedge from 38 Ma, coeval with the formation of a foreland basin, are interpreted to result from indentation of a promontory of thick Indian crust.


2020 ◽  
Vol 50 (1) ◽  
pp. 517-548 ◽  
Author(s):  
David G. Gee ◽  
Iwona Klonowska ◽  
Per-Gunnar Andréasson ◽  
Michael B. Stephens

AbstractNappes of continental outer and outermost margin affinities (Middle Allochthon) were transported from locations west of the present Norwegian coast and thrust eastwards onto the Baltoscandian foreland basin and platform. They are of higher metamorphic grade than underlying thrust sheets and most are more penetratively deformed. These allochthons are treated here in three groups. The lower thrust sheets comprise Paleoproterozoic crystalline basement (e.g. Tännäs Augen Gneiss Nappe) and greenschist facies, Neoproterozoic, siliciclastic metasedimentary rocks (e.g. Offerdal Nappe). These are overthrust by a Cryogenian−Ediacaran succession intruded by c. 600 Ma dolerites (Baltoscandian Dyke Swarm) with an affinity to mid-ocean ridge basalt containing normal to enriched incompatible element contents (Särv Nappes). The upper sheets are dominated by higher-grade allochthons (Seve Nappe Complex) with similar, mainly siliciclastic sedimentary protoliths, more mafic magmatism and some solitary ultramafic bodies. Within this early Ediacaran continent−ocean transition zone (COT) assemblage, generally metamorphosed in amphibolite facies, some nappes experienced migmatization, and eclogites are present. Evidence of ultrahigh-pressure metamorphism has been obtained from garnet peridotites and eclogites; recently, microdiamonds have been discovered in paragneisses. Subduction of the COT started by the late Cambrian and accretion continued through the Ordovician, prior to the Baltica–Laurentia collision. Thrusting of all these Middle allochthons onto the foreland basin exceeds a distance of 400 km.


Author(s):  
Christian Pålsson ◽  
Kristina Månsson ◽  
Stig M. Bergström

ABSTRACTAlthough only about 20m thick, the Andersö Shale contains one of the most diverse, if not the most diverse, late Middle-early Late Ordovician faunas known in Baltoscandia. It includes more than 20 trilobite species, more than 20 species of other shelly fossils, about 10 graptolite species, and about 20 conodont species. Based on its lithology, its geographical position near the foreland basin margin, and the presence of trilobites of the raphiophorid association and conodonts of the Periodon-Pygodus biofacies, this formation is interpreted to represent an outer shelf-upper slope (ramp) deposit laid down in moderately deep water. The co-occurrence of some widespread and biostratigraphically diagnostic conodonts, graptolites and trilobites makes it possible directly to compare distribution patterns of these fossils, establish ties between graptolite and conodont zones, and correlate the formation with units elsewhere in Europe, North America and China. Stratigraphically and faunally, the Andersö Shale is of particular interest in straddling the Middle-Upper Ordovician Series boundary as this boundary is recognised in the new global classification of the Ordovician System.


Geosciences ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 23
Author(s):  
Andrea Di Capua ◽  
Federica Barilaro ◽  
Gianluca Groppelli

This work critically reviews the Eocene–Oligocene source-to-sink systems accumulating volcanogenic sequences in the basins around the Alps. Through the years, these volcanogenic sequences have been correlated to the plutonic bodies along the Periadriatic Fault System, the main tectonic lineament running from West to East within the axis of the belt. Starting from the large amounts of data present in literature, for the first time we present an integrated 4D model on the evolution of the sediment pathways that once connected the magmatic sources to the basins. The magmatic systems started to develop during the Eocene in the Alps, supplying detritus to the Adriatic Foredeep. The progradation of volcanogenic sequences in the Northern Alpine Foreland Basin is subsequent and probably was favoured by the migration of the magmatic systems to the North and to the West. At around 30 Ma, the Northern Apennine Foredeep also was fed by large volcanogenic inputs, but the palinspastic reconstruction of the Adriatic Foredeep, together with stratigraphic and petrographic data, allows us to safely exclude the Alps as volcanogenic sources. Beyond the regional case, this review underlines the importance of a solid stratigraphic approach in the reconstruction of the source-to-sink system evolution of any basin.


2012 ◽  
Vol 25 (2) ◽  
pp. 149-171 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eduard Saura ◽  
Jean-Christophe Embry ◽  
Jaume Vergés ◽  
David W. Hunt ◽  
Emilio Casciello ◽  
...  

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tom Vincent Schintgen ◽  
Inga Sigrun Moeck

Abstract The Molasse Basin in Southern Germany is part of the North Alpine Foreland Basin and hosts the largest accumulation of deep geothermal production fields in Central Europe. Despite the vast development of geothermal energy utilization projects especially in the Munich metropolitan region, the evolution of and control factors on the natural geothermal field are still debated. Especially seismic and deep well data from extensive oil and gas exploration in the Molasse Basin led to conceptual hydrogeological and thermal-hydraulic models. Corrected borehole-temperature data helped to constrain subsurface temperatures by geostatistical interpolation and facilitated the set-up of 3D temperature models. However, within the geothermally used Upper Jurassic (Malm) carbonate aquifer, temperature anomalies such as the Wasserburg Trough anomaly to the east of Munich and their underlying physical processes are yet poorly understood. From other foreland basins like the Alberta Basin in Western Canada, it is known that climate during the last ice age has a considerable effect even on subsurface temperatures up to two kilometres depth. Therefore, we study the impact of paleoclimatic changes on the Molasse Basin during the last 130 ka including the Würm glaciation. We consider the hydraulic and thermal effects of periglacial conditions like permafrost formation and the impact of the numerous glacial advances onto the Molasse Basin. The major difference between the thermal-hydraulic regime in the western and eastern parts of the Southern German Molasse Basin are delineated by calculating two contrasting permeability scenarios of the heterogeneously karstified Malm carbonate aquifer. Thermal-hydraulic modelling reveals the effect of recurrent glacial periods on the geothermally drillable subsurface, which is minor compared to the effect of permeability-related, continuous gravity-driven groundwater flow as a major heat transport mechanism. Practically, the results might help to reduce the exploration risk for geothermal energy projects in the Molasse Basin. More importantly, this study serves as a reference for the comparison and understanding of the interplay of high permeability aquifers, gravity-driven groundwater flow and paleoclimate in other orogenic foreland basins worldwide.


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