# Extensional crustal tectonics and crust-mantle coupling, a view from the geological record

Laurent Jolivet, Armel Menant, Camille Clerc, Pietro Sternai, Jean-Claude Ringenbach, Nicolas Bellahsen, Sylvie Leroy, Claudio Faccenna, Christian Gorini

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To cite this version:

Laurent Jolivet, Armel Menant, Camille Clerc, Pietro Sternai, Jean-Claude Ringenbach, et al. Ex-tensional crustal tectonics and crust-mantle coupling, a view from the geological record. 19th EGU General Assembly, 2017, Vienne, Austria. pp.5327. hal-03552759

HAL Id: hal-03552759

https://hal.science/hal-03552759

Submitted on 3 Feb 2022

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# Extensional crustal tectonics and crust-mantle coupling, a view from the geological record

Laurent Jolivet (1), Armel Menant (2), Camille Clerc (3), Pietro Sternai (4), Jean-Claude Ringenbach (5), Nicolas Bellahsen (6), Sylvie Leroy (6), Claudio Faccenna (7), and Christian Gorini (6)

(1) ISTO, Université d'Orléans, Orléans, France (laurent.jolivet@univ-orleans.fr), (2) IPGP, Paris, France, (3) Université de la Nouvelle Calédonie, Nouméa, Nouvelle Calédonie, (4) Department of Earth Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland, (5) CSTJF, Total SA, Pau, France, (6) ISTEP, UPMC, Paris, France, (7) Dipartimento Scienze, Universita Roma Tre, Roma, Italy

In passive margins or back-arc regions, extensional deformation is often asymmetric, i.e. normal faults or exten-
sional ductile shear zones dip in the same direction over large distances. We examine a number of geological
examples in convergent or divergent contexts suggesting that this asymmetry results from a coupling between
asthenospheric flow and crustal deformation. This is the case of the Mediterranean back-arc basins, such as the
Aegean Sea, the northern Tyrrhenian Sea, the Alboran domain or the Gulf of Lion passive margin. Similar types
of observation can be made on some of the Atlantic volcanic passive margins and the Afar region, which were
all formed above a mantle plume. We discuss these contexts and search for the main controlling parameters for
this asymmetric distributed deformation that imply a simple shear component at the scale of the lithosphere. The
different geodynamic settings and tectonic histories of these different examples provide natural case-studies of
the different controlling parameters, including a pre-existing heterogeneity of the crust and lithosphere (tectonic
heritage) and the possible contribution of the underlying asthenospheric flow through basal drag or basal push. We
show that mantle flow can induce deformation in the overlying crust in case of high heat flow and thin lithosphere.
In back-arc regions, the cause of asymmetry resides in the relative motion between the asthenosphere below the
overriding plate and the crust. When convergence and slab retreat work concurrently the asthenosphere flows faster
than the crust toward the trench and the sense of shear is toward the upper plate. When slab retreat is the only cause
of subduction, the sense of shear is opposite. In both cases, mantle flow is mostly the consequence of slab retreat
and convergence. Mantle flow can however result also from larger-scale convection, controlling rifting dynamics
prior to the formation of oceanic crust. In volcanic passive margins, in most cases normal faults dip toward the con-
tinent. This asymmetry may either result from the mantle flowing underneath regions evolving above a migrating
plume, such as the Afar, when an asymmetry is observed at the scale of the rift, or from necking of the litho-
sphere when the conjugate margins show an opposite asymmetry. We summarize the various observed situations
with normal faults dipping toward the continent ("hot" margins) or toward the ocean ("cold" margins) and discuss
whether mantle flow is responsible for the observed asymmetry of deformation or not. Slipping along pre-existing
heterogeneities seems a second-order phenomenon at lithospheric or crustal scale, except at the initiation of rifting.