unroofing of active metamorphic core complexes in the d entrecasteaux islands papua new guinea metamorphic core complexes in the d9entrecasteaux islands are forming as a result of active extension at the western end of the woodlark basin spreading center high grade metamorphic rocks exist in the cores of gneissic domes including eclogites formed at minimum depths of 45 75 km i e 13 21 kbar high temperatures were maintained during uplift of basement rocks from 13 21 kbar t 730 900 c through 7 11 kbar t 570 730 c to 5 6 kbar t 730 c subsequent rapid cooling 100 c m y of the basement occurred between 1 and 2 ma on the basis of 40 ar 39 ar geochronology the core zone rocks were transected by kilometre scale amphibolite facies ductile shear zones active at depths of 25 35 km extensive intrusion of granodiorite plutons occurred and the age of granodiorite intrusions constrains late stage shear zone activity to 2 ma and younger unroofing was accomplished by faults and shear zones bounding the gneiss domes juxtaposing them against ultramafic rocks and sedimentary deposits surface uplift continues today and has led to topographic elevations of up to 2 5 km

late stage tectonic evolution of the al hajar mountains oman new constraints from palaeogene sedimentary units and low temperature thermochronometry mountain building in the al hajar mountains ne oman occurred during two major shortening stages related to the convergence between africa arabia and eurasia separated by nearly 30 ma of tectonic quiescence most of the shortening was accommodated during the late cretaceous when northward subduction of the neo tethys ocean was followed by the ophiolites obduction on top of the former mesozoic margin this shortening event lasted until the latest santonian early campanian maastrichtian to eocene carbonates unconformably overlie the eroded nappes and seal the cretaceous foredeep these neo autochthonous post nappe sedimentary rocks were deformed along with the underlying cretaceous tectonic pile during the second shortening event itself including two main exhumation stages in this study we combine remotely sensed structural data seismic interpretation field based structural investigations and apatite u th he ahe cooling ages to obtain new insights into the cenozoic deformation stage seismic interpretation indicates the occurrence of a late eocene flexural basin later deformed by an oligocene thrusting event during which the post nappe succession and the underlying cretaceous nappes of the internal foredeep were uplifted this stage was followed by folding of the post nappe succession during the miocene ahe data from detrital siliciclastic deposits in the frontal area of the mountain chain provide cooling ages spanning from 17 3 to 42 ma consistent with available data for the structural culminations of oman our work points out how renewal of flexural subsidence in the foredeep and uplift of the mountain belt were coeval processes followed by layer parallel shortening preceding final fold amplification

dating the subduction of the arabian continental margin beneath the semail ophiolite oman the presence of high pressure p eclogites along the northeast margin of the arabian continental plate beneath the semail ophiolite demonstrates that subduction of thinned continental crust to pressures of 20 kbar 80 km depth has occurred current debate centers on whether this high p metamorphism occurred prior to during or following ophiolite emplacement which is known to have started ca 95 93 ma five concordant u pb zircon ages from a garnet clinopyroxene phengite crossite eclogite from as sifah northeast oman precisely constrain the age of high p metamorphism at 79 1 0 3 ma this age demonstrates that high p metamorphism occurred during continental subduction 15 m y after formation of the ocean floor that subsequently became the semail ophiolite

two high pressure metamorphic events in ne oman evidence from 40 ar 39 ar dating and petrological data the saih hatat tectonic window in ne oman exposes basement and shelf units that structurally underlie the semail ophiolite these units were metamorphosed under high pressure conditions as evidenced by the occurrence of lawsonite schists carpholite bearing metasediments blueschists and eclogites conventional k ar and 40 ar 39 ar dating of whole rocks and white mica separates from the structurally highest region i of saih hatat and the lowest grade blueschists of the northern part of the structurally lowest saih hatat region iii yield ages of 72 80 ma white micas from the high grade blueschists and eclogites of region iii which formed at t 340 c yielded variably discordant age spectra with weighted mean plateau ages of 106 111 ma the age data combined with structural and petrological criteria suggest that many units exposed in saih hatat experienced two high pressure low temperature high p t metamorphic events the first in the early cretaceous was possibly a result of partial su

late cretaceous exhumation of the oman blueschists and eclogites a two stage extensional mechanism the continental material of the saih hatat window has been affected by a late cretaceous obduction related hp lt metamorphism below the oman ophiolite a high rate exhumation process is witnessed by the maastrichtian palaeocene onlap onto the blueschist facies rocks drastic metamorphic omissions are documented between the lowest eclogitic units and the overlying blueschist facies ones widespread late metamorphic shear structures point to a top to the nne detachment in opposition to the sense of the late cretaceous obduction the inversion of the shearing sense occurred under similar low temperature conditions in both the blueschist and eclogite facies units admitting that these hp lt metamorphic rocks formed progressively at various depth in the subducting arabian margin a two stage extensional mechanism of exhumation is suggested i early uplift of the eclogitic rocks up to the blueschists depth by ductile thinning or squeezing of a blind extensional allochthon ii exhumation of the whole hp lt metamorphic core complex by inversion of the obduction sole thrust and isostatic rebound of the lower plate

radial cracks around α quartz inclusions in almandine constraints on the metamorphic history of the oman mountains radiating tensional cracks around quartz inclusions in almandine have been observed in metapelite samples from the southeastern saih hatat tectonic window northeastern oman mountains these almandines show an inclusion rich glaucophane epidote and strongly deformed core with inclusions of different mineral phases the rim of the same almandines is inclusion poor and shows only quartz apatite zircon rutile and baal phosphates as inclusions quartz and apatite inclusions in the rim are single crystals often surrounded by radial cracks these radial cracks developed during uplift by the dilation of quartz 4 5 vol without a phase transformation subsequently these cracks were filled with kaolinite phengite si content 3 4 per formula unit p f u chlorite and fe oxides we calculated the appearance of radial cracks without phase transformation using the mathematical procedure of van der molen and van roermund 1 this calculation involves terms for thermal expansion isothermal compressibility and shear modulus for the example of quartz and almandine for the same p and t interval during a retrograde path published geothermobarometric estimates give pressures of between 1 0 and 2 0 gpa and temperatures of between 450 and 600 c for the peak conditions for these rocks of the saih hatat tectonic window on the basis of these p t data we calculated different retrograde p t paths in the quartz domain initiation of garnet fracturing is dependent on the p t starting conditions and the component of isothermal compression of the retrograde path the calculations yield a set of smooth monotonic curves whose exact position on the p t plane between 0 1 and 0 6 gpa and 40 and 500 c depends on the initial p t conditions and the component of isothermal compressibility of the retrograde p t paths this model can be used in general terms to estimate pressure and temperature for the following cases 1 if independent evidence such as petrological data allow the determination of the final pressure at which radial cracks appeared the initial inclusion pressure can be recalculated 2 if the initial inclusion pressure is known e g from petrological data the conditions of radial cracking can be calculated and the pair initial pressure final pressure leads to an estimate of the shape of the retrograde p t path as a function of its component of isothermal decompression in the example from the northeastern saih hatat tectonic window the late syntectonic growth of albite phengite kaolinite suggests that the final pressure for fracturing ranged between 0 4 gpa and 0 5 gpa at temperatures of 300 c these values correspond to high initial pressures of at least 2 0 gpa at a temperature of 550 c the following geodynamic model is suggested a regionally extended metamorphism led to the growth of inclusion rich garnets in the rocks from the northeastern saih hatat tectonic window at depths of about 30 km 0 1 gpa about 450 c continuing prograde metamorphism at a depth of more than 60 km with p 2 0 gpa and t 550 c affected a metapelite unit that is only exposed immediately south of as sifah village in this area clear rims of almandine grew around the older garnets and entrapped mainly quartz and apatite during uplift along a retrograde p t path with a large component of isothermal decompression radial cracks around quartz inclusions developed in the rims of almandines at a depth of about 12 km 0 4 0 5 gpa 300 c

compression versus extension in the exhumation of the dora maira coesite bearing unit western alps italy abstract several recent papers suggest that uplift and exhumation of high pressure low temperature hp lt metamorphic rocks are due to crustal extension coeval with and or post dating the contraction responsible for the metamorphism a detailed survey of the coesite bearing unit of the southern dora maira massif offers an opportunity to discuss the relative importance of extension and compression in the exhumation tectonics of ultra high pressure uhp rocks this uhp unit consists of pre alpine basement rocks which equilibrated at a depth of 100 km probably 120 100 ma ago it is overlain by two units with a similar lithology and eoalpine metamorphic age and high p t gradients which equilibrated at 60 and 50 km respectively this eoalpine basement complex is intercalated between blueschist facies units the whole pile was affected by a mesoalpine greenschist facies mylonitic deformation during which the early contacts were reactivated as low angle shallow dipping shear zones extension is documented only during the mesoalpine collisional period and is referred to the gravity collapse of a thickened orogenic wedge with an exhumation rate of about 1 mm yr the most important part of the exhumation of the uhp rocks occurred earlier at a higher rate close to 4 mm yr a forced return flow or extrusion tectonics of imbricate slices in an on going subduction setting seems appropriate to account for this early stage the fact that the omission of intermediate pressure rocks between juxtaposed units is an unreliable criterion for demonstrating extension is discussed

detachments in high pressure mountain belts tethyan examples abstract using the case examples of the phyllite quartzite nappe of crete the bundnerschiefer nappe of the engadine window in the alps and the infraophiolitic units of the saih hatat window in the oman mountains we describe the tectono metamorphic signature of large scale extensional detachments in high pressure belts in these three cases retrograde p t paths were accompanied by the formation of large scale extensional shear zones that contributed to the exhumation and extreme thinning of the metamorphic pile the direction of transport along later detachments was parallel to the direction of convergence detachments being first localized within or near the brittle ductile transition zone below the major shear zone or between the shear zones in oman the deformation regime was more coaxial and involved a significant component of vertical shortening metamorphic data mostly derived from the petrology of metapelites show that domains characterized by coaxial strain have nearly isothermal decompression paths type ii while those immediately below the detachments were subjected to more efficient cooling during exhumation type i the detachments thus affect both the deformation history and the p t evolution of the lower plate the existence of the two types of cooling paths is a good test of the extensional nature of a tectonic contact

the petrogenesis of leucogranitic dykes intruding the northern semail ophiolite united arab emirates field relationships geochemistry and sr nd isotope systematics the khawr fakkan block of the semail ophiolite united arab emirates exhibits a suite of 10 100 m scale metaluminous to peraluminous granitic intrusions ranging from cordierite andalusite biotite monzogranites to garnet tourmaline leucogranites which intrude mantle sequence harzburgites and lower crustal sequence cumulate gabbros structural constraints suggest that the subduction of continental sedimentary material beneath the hot proto ophiolite in an intra oceanic arc environment led to granulite facies metamorphism at the subduction front and the generation of granitic melts which were emplaced up to the level of the ophiolite moho compositions indicate the analysed granitoids were largely minimum melts that crystallised at variable a h2o and pressures of 3 to 5 kbar the lile sr rb and ba covariation modelling suggests that the granitoids formed largely by the dehydration melting of muscovite rich metasediments initial 87sr 86sr ratios of analysed dykes vary between 0 710 and 0 706 at initial nd values of between 6 3 and 0 5 cogenetic units of a composite sill from ra s dadnah yield a sm nd isochron age of 98 8 9 5 ma mswd 1 18 geochemical and isotopic characteristics of the analysed granitic intrusions indicate that the subducted continental material was derived from oceanic trench fill haybi complex sediments preserved as greenschist asimah area to granulite facies bani hamid area ophiolitic metamorphic sole terranes the sr nd isotope systematics suggest that hybrid granitic melts were derived from pre magmatic mixing of two contrasting subduction zone sources

kar and 40ar39ar study of metamorphic rocks associated with the oman ophiolite tectonic implications abstract k ar analyses on extracted minerals are reported for a variety of metamorphic rocks associated with the sumail ophiolite amphibolites lying at the sole of the ophiolite yield ages of 95 100 ma which are viewed as reflecting times of crystallization high pressure metamorphics of the saih hatat reveal complex results white micas range in age from 80 to 131 ma whereas blue amphiboles indicate ages that are systematically lower than those of coexisting white micas investigation of a few white micas by the 40 ar 39 ar step heating method yields rather intricate age spectra featuring low apparent ages in the first and the last stages of gas release and high apparent ages in between two explanations can be equally envisaged for these convex upward age spectra the first is the mixing of two generations of micas corresponding to two main metamorphisms the first one m1 is a low to medium temperature high pressure event which conceivably occurred between 130 and 114 m y ago the second m2 overprints m1 and has produced rocks typical of the greenschist facies it took place 80 m y ago and also affected the sole of the ophiolites the second is the presence of excess argon in mica mixtures with complex degassing properties thus the two metamorphic phases identified by microscopic inspection are not significantly different in age they occurred in the 70 80 ma interval moreover k ar dates on amphibole from gabbroic dikes intersecting the peridotites suggest that they are genetically linked to the mafic part of the ophiolites assuming that metamorphism is a tracer of tectonic events we view the infraophiolitic amphibolites as the result of an intraoceanic thrusting which took place near a spreading center nevertheless the uncertainty as to the age of the blueschist metamorphism precludes the possibility of indicating a timetable based on metamorphic ages for the motion shift of africa relative to eurasia during the late cretaceous a tentative model of the obduction of the sumail ophiolite is proposed assuming an age of about 130 ma for m1 we stress differences with respect to earlier reconstructions which advocated an 80 m y old blueschist metamorphism

impact of arc continent collision on the conditions of burial and exhumation of uhp lt rocks experimental and numerical modelling abstract a 2 d physical and finite element numerical modelling of arc continent collision was performed to study the deformation and failure of the overriding lithosphere the experimental technique allowed us to model the whole subduction collision process from oceanic subduction to deep subduction of the continental crust with the numerical approach we have modelled the deformation of the overriding plate only through initial stages of its failure and studied the influence of different parameters on this process the results obtained by both techniques are coherent and mutually complementary they show that the failure of the overriding plate is physically quite plausible or even inevitable during subduction the conditions for such a failure the weakening of this plate are prepared during oceanic subduction the weakening occurs due to the interaction between the subducting lithosphere and the asthenosphere in the mantle corner between the two plates and due to back arc spreading in oceanic subduction zones with a compressional regime no back arc opening thick and strong back arc lithosphere the weakest zone is volcanic arc area when weakening becomes sufficient during subduction the lithosphere fails in this area the failure occurs along a fault dipping under the arc in either of two possible directions and results either in subduction reversal or subduction of the fore arc almost half of the presently active subduction zones are characterised by a tensional subduction regime with back arc spreading in such subduction zones the weakest place is not the volcanic arc but the back arc spreading centre when a subduction regime changes from tensional to compressional failure occurs in the vicinity of the extinct spreading centre this process can occur during oceanic subduction again along either a trench vergent or trenchward dipping fault but the formation of a trench verging fault is most likely in this latter case which is a principal subject of our study the failure is followed by partial subduction of the arc plate complete subduction occurs during arc continent collision subduction of the continental margin when tectonic compression of the lithosphere increases rapidly and becomes sufficient to push the arc plate into the mantle the arc itself can be subducted completely or be partially or completely scraped off and accreted a deeply subducted material including continental margin is preserved at relatively low temperatures between the lithospheric mantle and the cold subducted arc plate to about 150 km depth subduction of the arc plate is a major phenomenon which affects all processes associated with continental subduction from deep burial and hp lt metamorphism to exhumation of subducted material does this process occur in nature future investigations will allow us to answer this question in this paper we analyse the conditions of emplacement of a very young oceanic lithosphere samail ophiolite on the continental crust in oman in the late cretaceous and argue that this lithosphere formed in a back arc basin it reached and overthrust the arabian continent after complete subduction of the arc plate

alpine high p low t metamorphism of the afyon zone and implications for the metamorphic evolution of western anatolia turkey abstract carpholite chloritoid pyrophyllite association occurs widely in the triassic metaclastic rocks of the afyon zone in west central turkey fe mg carpholite is associated with rare aragonite pseudomorphs and glaucophane in marbles and metabasites respectively the afyon zone consists stratigraphically of a pan african basement and an overlying mesozoic cover sequence the pan african basement which shows barrovian type amphibolite facies metamorphism comprises garnet mica schists intruded by sodic amphibole bearing metagabbros and leucocratic metagranites it is unconformably overlain by a continuous metasedimentary sequence extending from triassic to early palaeocene this cover sequence begins with metaconglomerates which pass upwards into phyllites fe mg carpholite occurs within this metaclastic sequence as rosette like crystals in metapelites and fibres in quartz segregations the metaclastic rocks are succeeded by metamorphosed platform carbonates grading into latest mesozoic metamorphosed pelagic limestones which in turn progress up to a late mesozoic early tertiary olistostrome this sequence is tectonically overlain by the blueschists of the tavsanli zone fe mg carpholite bearing assemblages imply temperatures of about 350 c and minimum pressures of 6 9 kbar corresponding to burial depths of about 30 km for the mesozoic passive continental margin sediments and the underlying pan african supracrustal metasediments and metaintrusives the metamorphic rocks of the afyon zone are unconformably overlain by upper palaeocene lower eocene sedimentary rocks indicating a paleocene age for the regional hp lt metamorphism this implies continuous younging of hp lt metamorphism in the anatolides related to northward subduction of the anatolide tauride platform beneath the sakarya zone from north to south this involved the tavsanli zone campanian 80 5 ma the afyon zone palaeocene the menderes massif middle eocene and the lycian nappes late cretaceous eocene all of which were probably derived from the frontal part of the anatolide tauride platform

obduction related planar and linear fabrics in oman under the oman ophiolites three different types of alpine synmetamorphic fabrics are seen each of them is taken as the signature of a particular stage of the obduction process the complex high grade fabric in the basal metamorphic sheet is linked to the intraoceanic detachment stage pre obduction sensu stricto the l s fabric of the muscat nappes and hatat internal border associated with low temperature high pressure metamorphism is regarded as the effect of an early obduction that is the epicontinental thrusting of the matrah peridotites the much simpler fabric of the anchizonal hawasina and autochthonous cover resulted from the gravity sliding of the semail ophiolites during the final obduction phase

modelling of modern mercury vapor transport in an ancient hydrothermal system environmental and geochemical implications mercury has been used in some mineralizing hydrothermal systems as a significant pathfinder of au and other elements in addition its geochemical behaviour reflects some characteristics related to the transport mechanism of metal bearing fluids in this work the authors analyse the geochemical aspects and the environmental impact of hg mobilization from the old mining area of valle del azogue va from smelting slags mining waste and the partially exploited mineralization that remains a few metres underground the main pathway of hg is the transport of vapor from different foci therefore a mathematical simulation of the process of hg vapor transport was carried out in the valle del azogue va mineral deposit this is one of the two sites in spain the other being the famous district of almaden where hg vapor emissions have been cited the results obtained by means of mathematical simulation were compared with both the real hg concentration values detected in the field upper part of the mining area and with the geochemical distribution patterns of au and other elements related to the mineralization a close relationship between the simulated hg vapor distribution and soil gas concentrations was identified it is proposed that the transport of hg emissions from this old mining area could be the cause of present contamination of marine sediments in the area

evolutionary model for alpine corsica mechanism for ophiolite emplacement and exhumation of high pressure rocks a tectonic model of alpine corsica is proposed based on geological studies its evolution starts after the jurassic with intraoceanic subduction followed by mid cretaceous subduction of the european continental margin under the oceanic segment of the adriatic plate after subduction of the continental crust to a depth of 150 km slices of crustal material are buoyantly uplifted together with high pressure oceanic rocks ophiolites and schistes lustres high pressure low temperature continental gneiss units overthrust the outer segments of the european crust while producing a normal sense motion along the upper surface of the rising crustal body during the eocene the closure of the remnant ligurian oceanic basin separating the proto corsican belt and adria resulted in a second orogenic phase with the emplacement of unmetamorphosed ophiolitic nappes which overthrust the previously exhumed and eroded hp belt this corsican model suggests an original evolutionary path for orogenic belts when continental collision is preceded by intraoceanic subduction

a case of obduction related high pressure low temperature metamorphism in upper crustal nappes arabian continental margin oman p t paths and kinematic interpretation in the southeastern oman mountains the saih hatat tectonic window reveals arabian continental material beneath the oceanic sensu lato nappes i e the hawasina sedimentary units and the huge sumail ophiolite the northeastern internal half of the window suffered an intense deformation associated with a high pressure low temperature hp lt metamorphism approximately dated at 80 75 ma according to the available stratigraphie data after the deformation due to the absence of collision the obduction inherited structural and metamorphic pattern was virtually unmodified a metamorphic map is established based on mineral assemblages in metapelites and metabasites low grade assemblages occur in the highest units muscat nappes quryat unit characteristic minerals are femg carpholite lawsonite associated with kaolinite or pyrophyllite and locally sudoite in the metapelites while lawsonite and blue amphiboles are found in the metabasites high grade rocks outcrop in the deepest and easternmost units as sifah antiform and are typified by an epidote glaucophane bearing eclogite assemblage intermediate units hulw show assemblages of intermediate grade chloritoid schists and glaucophane bearing metabasites higher grade assemblages such as talc chloritoid were not found inverted gradients are observed locally in the muscat nappes pyrophyllitebearing units above kaolinite quartz bearing units and these are ascribed to late metamorphic thrust displacements which are demonstrated by microstructures a complex p t evolution is fairly well documented by the mineral assemblages prograde evolution in the subophiolitic continental rocks began with a rather hot gradient of about 30 35 c km with chloritoid growth in the higher units thereafter pressure increased with the temperature remaining constant or even decreasing chloritoid replaced by kaolinite oxides and carpholite growth in synkinematic conditions the peak p t conditions are close to 8 kbar 270 c for the muscat nappes and 11 kbar 400 c for the as sifah unit the corresponding surface related gradient is low 10 15 c km during the retrograde evolution pressure and temperature generally decreased concomitantly but in some of the upper units temperature remained constant or increased slightly for some time at which point sudoite growth from carpholite took place the metamorphic pattern and mineral evolution are interpreted in the framework of the late cretaceous obduction the already cold oceanic lithosphere was thrust upon a relatively hot thinned passive margin with coeval basaltic volcanism pressure progressively increased in the passive margin due to the wedge shape of the advancing ophiolite the maximum thickness of which was about 25 km in the as sifah area in this area the overburden was also attributable to the accumulation of continental material up to 5 km thick by means of a complex set of synmetamorphic often conjugated folds and thrusts the basal peridotites of the obducted slab were probably not hotter than 300 c during its thrusting upon the continental margin the temperature of the tectonic pile below the ophiolite remained low because it was thrust above more external and still colder continental areas late thrusting in the same southerly direction controlled the retrograde evolution together with erosional and gravity driven tectonic unloading

ductile thrusting recorded by the garnet isograd from blueschist facies metapelites of the ile de groix armorican massif france

continental subduction and a mechanism for exhumation of high pressure metamorphic rocks new modelling and field data from oman abstract the physical model presented reveals two principal regimes of continental subduction a highly compressional hc regime and a low compressional lc regime characterised by high and low pressure between the overriding and subducting plates respectively the pressure is inversely proportional to the pull force which depends on the difference between average density of the subducting lithosphere and density of the mantle the subducting continental crust reaches a maximum depth which is proportional to the strength of the crust inversely proportional to the interplate pressure and is ca 200 km on average the crust then fails forming a major crustal thrust the location of failure depends on the regime of subduction on the interplate pressure in the hc regime failure occurs near the front of the subduction collision zone whereas the crust fails at greater depth under the base of the overriding plate in the lc regime the failure is followed by buoyancy driven uplift of the subducted crustal slice while the lithospheric mantle keeps subducting the uplift causes a normal sense displacement formation of a normal fault along the upper surface of the crustal slice for the lc regime failure of the crust near the base of the overriding plate a rapid spontaneous crustal uplift intrusion into the interplate zone brings the deeply subducted crust to shallow depths under the pressure of this crust the frontal part of the overriding plate undergoes local extension and then fails forming a tectonic window the rising material the high pressure rocks is exhumed within this window in the hc regime uplift of the subducted crust after its failure in front of the overriding plate is possible only with erosion of the relief which provides an unloading effect allowing the subducted crustal slice to rise up the exhumation depth is generally smaller in this regime but the volume of the exhumed material is larger the hc subduction regime has been shown earlier to match the himalayan situation the lc regime fits the situation in the oman mountains considered in this paper

evidence for extension in the western alpine orogen the contact between the oceanic piemonte and overlying continental sesia units abstract in the alps and other orogens major tectonic contacts must have been established during convergence and overthrusting what is less clear is how strongly these contacts were modified as the orogen evolved during alpine collision continental crust of the overriding plate the sesia unit is inferred to have been thrust northwest over oceanic material of the piemonte unit both units preserve in parts eclogite facies metamorphism however all structures along this contact in our study area indicate that final movement was southeast directed with no clear evidence of the kinematics of earlier movement these structures include se verging folds se directed shear bands and larger normal faults downthrowing to the southeast it is inferred that there was a se directed shear regime below the contact which although locally buckling and shortening earlier lithological contacts was dominantly extensional with respect to pre existing tectonic layering the lower limit of this shear regime has not been identified although se directed shear is common throughout the upper greenschist facies part of the piemonte unit we show that this shear passes beneath the sesia zone and does not re emerge it is therefore a shear which was net extensional relative both to the modern surface and to the palaeosurface it may have contributed to the unroofing of eclogite facies rocks in the lower part of the piemonte unit although additional timing data are required to clarify this nearby se directed shears buckle and imbricate earlier layering within the piemonte unit these are normally identified as backthrusts yet they do not appear to breach the base of the sesia unit and might merge with the extensional shear even though these structures shorten layering they too could have been extensional relative to the earth s surface the significance of alpine backthrusts should be reappraised in this context this study indicates that hinterland directed extension could have been an important phenomenon during alpine evolution

exhumation of high pressure rocks a review of concepts and processes the exhumation of high pressure metamorphic rocks requires either the removal of the overburden that caused the high pressures or the transport of the metamorphic rocks through the overburden exhumation cannot be achieved simply by thrusting or strike slip faulting it may be caused by erosion of shortened and thickened crust but this is unlikely to be the only mechanism for exhuming rocks from depths greater than about 20 km one or more of the following additional mechanisms may be involved 1 corner flow of low viscosity material trapped between the upper and lower plates in a subduction zone can cause upward flow of deeply buried rock and may explain some occurrences of high pressure tectonic blocks in melange this process does not however appear to be adequate to explain the exhumation of regional high pressure terrains 2 buoyancy forces acting directly on metamorphic rock bodies may cause them to rise relative to more dense surroundings this is likely to be the most important mechanism of exhumation of crustal rocks subducted into the mantle but cannot explain the emplacement of coherent tracts of high density metamorphic rock into shallow crustal levels some high pressure blocks emplaced at shallow levels in accretionary terrains may have been entrained in diapiric intrusions of low density mud or serpentinite 3 extension driven by the forces associated with contrasts in surface elevation may explain the exhumation and structural setting of many high pressure terrains extension may occur in the upper part of an accretionary wedge thickened by underplating or it may affect the whole lithosphere in a region of intracontinental convergence if surface elevation has been increased by the removal of a lithospheric root in the second case extension may be accompanied by magmatism and an evolution towards higher temperature during decompression of the metamorphic terrain

cretaceous high pressure metamorphism in ne oman and its relationship to subduction and ophiolite nappe emplacement an occurrence of glaucophane bearing schists is reported from near muscat in ne oman in rocks which underlie the upper cretaceous semail ophiolite nappe these blueschists formed by the metamorphism of quartz sandstones shales and basic igneous rocks belong to a pre permian basement in the area metamorphic micas phengites from these rocks have been dated at between 101 and 80 ma k ar ages indicating a mid to late cretaceous age for the high pressure event a syn to late f 1 assemblage of almandine glaucophane phengite in the pelites shows that the peak of metamorphism reached about 400 450 c and 4 8 kbars pressure this was followed by a greenschist facies overprint with the formation of epidote and albite porphyroblasts in the meta igneous rocks and a widespread retrogression to chlorite the high pressure metamorphism is ascribed to the effects of partial subduction of the ne oman continental margin during the initial stages of ophiolite obduction and the subsequent greenschist facies event to uplift of the area during the later stages of emplacement of the nappes

exhumation of coesite bearing rocks in the dora maira massif western alps italy coesite bearing very high pressure rocks in the southern dora maira massif western alps italy emerged from a depth of 100 km during cretaceous time these rocks are now covered only by a thin fraction of the synmetamorphic overburden tectonic contacts above the coesite bearing rocks are retrograde ductile shear zones that operated with a normal sense of motion they cut out thick crustal sections from within the tectonometamorphic pile and caused the condensation of the eoalpine baric and thermal structure the result of this was the lateral dispersion of the eoalpine orogenic wedge and the facilitation of the unroofing of the very high p rocks extensional unroofing is consistent with the absence of deeply cutting cretaceous erosion and with pressure temperature paths that show that the very high p rocks cooled during decompression the very high p rocks reached relatively shallow crustal levels by ca 40 ma and the attenuated sequence overthrust a more external unit these indicate that the exhumation of the very high p rocks took place within an overall plate onvergence setting prior to the final suturing of europe and adria