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Palaeotectonic sketch maps for the evolution of Corsica/Northern Apennine orogenic system from Late Cretaceous to Oligocene in oblique aerial view (mainly based on Dewey et al. 1989; Cello et al. 1996; Gueguen et al. 1997; Lagabrielle and Polino 1998; Stampfli et al. 1998; Séranne 1999; Neugebauer et al. 2001; Michard et al. 2002; Dèzes et al. 2004; Rosenbaum and Lister 2005; Schettino and Turco 2006; Molli 2008). Thin black bar indicates the location of cross-sections of Fig. 7. In 6e are represented the Campidano, Valencia and Rhone valley grabens. Thin black line in each sketch are present-day longitudes and latitudes in 5° intervals
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The Alps/Apennines system, as well as many collisional orogens through the world, shows a finite deformation produced during
a long geological history which involves numerous superimposed tectonic events. As a result, complex and often contrasted
reconstructions for the setting and tectonics of the different stages of the growing and interfering Al...
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... In addition, our model shows the 3D architectural complexity of the Alpine rift system prior to its shortening. Subduction started during Cretaceous time (Fig. 3f) in agreement with data from Corsica and the Alps (Miller and Thöni 1997;Molli and Malavieille 2011;Regis et al. 2014). The segmentation of the continental margins (Fig. 5c) may also explain the arcuate shape, the non-cylindricity and the different timing of continental collision across the orogen (Handy et al. 2010;Schmid et al. 2017;Manatschal et al. 2022b). ...
In plate kinematic reconstructions, the restoration of rifted margins and their fossil equivalents exposed in orogens remains challenging. Tight fit reconstructions rely on the mapping of margins rift domains, their restoration to their pre-rift crustal thickness, and the removal of the oceanic and exhumed mantle domains. At present-day margins, high-resolution wide-angle seismic imaging allows mapping and measurement of rift domains; however, restoring fossil margins is trickier because they are largely overprinted and partially lost during convergence. Here, we present a new kinematic model for the Mesozoic rifting along the Tethys–Atlantic junction, which relies on two assumptions: (1) the width of the fossil Alpine Tethys rift domains was comparable to that of their present-day analogs, and (2) the necking zones of the former tectonic plates can be mapped, dated and used as kinematic markers. This reproducible workflow allows us, for the first time, to restore the rifted margins of the Alpine Tethys. Our reconstruction shows: (1) a westward propagation of extension through the Ionian, Alpine Tethys and Pyrenean rift systems from the Triassic to the Cretaceous, (2) the segmentation of the Mesozoic Tethyan rifted margins by strike-slip corridors, (3) the opening of an oceanic gateway at 165 Ma as mantle was exhumed along the entire Alpine Tethys and (4) the subdivision of the Mesozoic oceanic domain into compartments that were later consumed during subduction. This new model is supported by published data from the Alps, the Ionian Sea, the Pyrenees and the southern North Atlantic.
Graphical abstract
... The growing of carbonate platforms and the drowning of the Tethys, allowed the deposition of Cretaceous -Palaeocene intraplatform pelagic carbonate succession (e.g., Cresta et al., 1989;Centamore et al., 1992;Menichetti and Coccioni, 2013). Since the Late Cretaceous, the closure of the Tethys Ocean induced the Alpine compressive phase, followed by the development of the Dinarides from the Palaeocene -Eocene (e.g., Ustaszewski et al., 2010;van Unen et al., 2019;Schmid et al., 2020;van Hinsbergen et al., 2020) and of the Apennines from the Oligocene (e.g., Molli, 2008;Molli and Malavieille, 2011;Barchi, 2010;Caricchi et al., 2014;Carboni et al., 2020aCarboni et al., , 2020b. The evolution and consequent migration of both the Dinarides and Apennines towards the central axis of the Adriatic Sea (Channell et al., 1979), to the SW and the NE respectively, produced the deposition of the upper Eocene -Quaternary sequences on their common foreland basin. ...
... LEPMs should not be confused with passive margins affected by "rerifting", a process considered by Bradley (2008) as the origin of ribbon-microcontinents, thus rather belonging to back-arc extension at active margins (e.g., Avalonian-Cadomian microcontinents; Linnemann et al., 2014). The active Taiwan orogenic system favorably compares with the Western Alps orogen (Molli and Malavieille, 2011), but rifting of the South China Sea passive margin occurred from the Albian to the Late Eocene, well before its Miocene subduction beneath the Taiwan accretionary prism (Conand et al., 2020). According to Yu and Chou (2011), the Plio-Quaternary renewed extension occurred in the western Taiwan foreland basin due to forebulge mechanism. ...
The evolution of the Alpine Tethys margins during the beginning of the African-Eurasian convergence (Upper Cretaceous) was little studied compared to their evolution during the post-Pangea rifting and oceanic expansion, i.e., from the Early Jurassic to the Early Cretaceous. The aim of the present work is first to make up for this shortcoming in the case of the distal European margin of the Alpine Tethys, namely the Briançonnais domain of the Western Alps. We show that this magma-poor passive margin was affected by a systemic extension in Late Cretaceous-Paleocene times. Remarkably, this extensional tectonics shortly preceded Lutetian times, when Briançonnais margin encroached the SE-dipping subduction zone under the Adria microplate (“Alpine subduction”). Secondly, we aim to assess the Late Cretaceous-Paleocene evolution of the north-Tethyan paleomargin in the Maghrebides transects, i.e., south-west of the Briançonnais transect along the same European-Iberian margin. For this purpose, we consider the Triassic-Eocene series of the "Dorsale Calcaire" in the Alboran, Kabylias and Peloritan terranes that constitute with Calabria the Alkapeca blocks formerly located along the southeastern border of Iberia until the Eocene. Reinterpretation of the literature allows us to assert that the Tethyan margin of these blocks was extending like the Briançonnais during the Late Cretaceous-Paleocene, when Africa-Eurasia-Iberia convergence and then subduction of the intervening Tethyan slab were active. We propose here for the first time that the subduction of the Ligurian-Maghrebian slab occurred under the North African margin at that time in the southward continuation of the Alpine subduction. In the Alboran transect, the Rif-Betic Dorsale Calcaire can be seen as the detached cover of the thinned crust of the Alpujarrides-Sebtides Complex. In the same transect, the oceanic domain may have included a continental allochthon of African origin (Ketama Unit). Contrary to some assertions, the North African margin did not experience significant compression during the Cretaceous. During the Eocene, a Subduction Polarity Reversal occurred, which was associated with the relocation of the subduction zone along the Alkapeca block. This was the beginning of the "Apenninic subduction", which triggered the back-arc opening of the Mediterranean basins and corresponds to the backthrusting tectonic phase in the Western Alps.
... Thus, the stratigraphic succession that overlies the typical Verrucano deposits ends with upper Oligocene-lowermost Miocene foredeep sediments fed by the advancing Alpine wedge ( [36], and references therein). The compressional regime, which is still active today in the Northern Apennine foreland, eventually led the European and Adria plates to collide with each other, thus resulting in the present-day tectonic structuring of the Northern Apennines (including the Monti Pisani massif) [26,[36][37][38][39]. Accordingly, three tectonic units can be distinguished in the Monti Pisani area. ...
The Monti Pisani massif (Tuscany, central Italy) is an isolated mountain relief known for its rich geodiversity, including a remarkable palaeontological heritage from the Palaeozoic, Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. The Palaeozoic record consists of exquisitely preserved plant remains and rarer invertebrates of Permo-Carboniferous age, which testify to extensive rainforests and large swamps that thrived in an alluvial system under a humid, (sub)tropical climate. In addition to invertebrate shells, invertebrate trace fossils and microbial structures, the Mesozoic record features a diverse Middle Triassic tetrapod ichnoassemblage consisting of tracks of lepidosauromorphs, archosaurs (among which are the earliest dinosauromorph fossils of Italy) and nonmammalian therapsids. These vertebrates lived in a subsiding costal setting that stretched across an expanding rift valley under a subarid climate. The Cenozoic record features abundant fossils of terrestrial vertebrates (including spectacular members of the mammalian megafauna) from karst deposits, testifying to the manifold inhabitants of the massif during the glacial and interglacial phases of the Late Pleistocene. Overall, this long-lasting fossil record remarkably demonstrates how much the Earth’s environments have been changing through the Phanerozoic. The outstanding palaeontological heritage of the Monti Pisani area is in need of specific efforts of conservation and valorisation, especially with respect to the many palaeontological sites that punctuate the massif.
... westward subduction of a relict of Ligurian Tethys oceanic basement and of the distal Adriatic continental margin (Molli and Malavieille, 2011;Malavieille et al, 2016;Malavieille and Molli this book). The Oligocene -Miocene westward subduction of the Adria plate was associated with a rear-wedge (Liguro-Provencal) and later intrawedge (Tyrrheninan) extension in the wake of the Apenninic slab, a tectonic frame still active today (e.g. ...
... The Esterél magmatic province is located in the lower plate and in an external part of the Alpine subduction (Fig. 11), therefore the source of its melts is not related to Alpine subduction (Fig. 11). However, another subduction system developed east of Corsica in late Eocene or earliest Oligocene times (e.g., Lacombe and Jolivet 2005;Molli 2008;Molli et al. 2010;Molli and Malavieille 2011;Malavieille and Molli, this book;Fig. 11). ...
... It is the Apenninic subduction, associated with the early stages of development of the Apenninic-Ligurian accretionary wedge, which formed on the rear of the former Alpine accretionary retrowedge (Molli 2008;Malavieille et al. 2016;Schmid et al. 2017). This indicates that in Late Eocene/Oligocene times the European and the Adriatic plates, formed the lower plate and the upper plate, respectively, of the two opposite dipping Alpine and Apenninic subduction systems ( Fig. 11; see Molli and Malavieille 2011). ...
... The Alpine Corsica (France) is interpreted as the southern branch of the Western Alps (Durand-Delga, 1984;Marroni & Pandolfi, 2003;Mattauer et al., 1981;Molli & Malavieille, 2011). It is a tectonic stack of tectono-metamorphic units with oceanic-and continental-affinities experiencing blueschist-eclogite to very low-grade facies metamorphic conditions during Late Cretaceous-early Oligocene subduction and continental collision-related processes (Elter & Pertusati, 1973;Lagabrielle & Polino, 1988;Malavieille et al., 1998;Michard & Martinotti, 2002;Molli, 2008;Schmid et al., 1996). ...
This work presents the first pressure–temperature‐deformation‐time ( P–T‐d‐t ) path obtained for the Lower Units (Alpine Corsica, France) including the Tenda Massif that represent fragments of the European continental margin involved in the east‐dipping Alpine subduction. The new thermobarometric data applied to metapelites and the new ⁴⁰ Ar/ ³⁹ Ar dating of syn‐kinematic muscovite sampled from metagranitoids allowed us to define the P–T conditions and the age of the metamorphism of the Venaco Unit, a Lower Unit located in the southernmost sector of the Alpine Corsica. The outcoming scenario indicates that the Venaco Unit reached the baric peak at ≈ 33 km depth, not before Bartonian time. At 35.7 Ma (i.e., during the middle Priabonian), it was exhumed to a shallower structural level (i.e., at ≈ 26 km depth), mainly through the activation of the top‐to‐W shear zones. This retrograde path suggests that the Venaco Unit experienced fast exhumation, unlike the Tenda Massif which had been involved in subduction during the Ypresian and was stationary at 25–30 km, before its exhumation in the Priabonian.
... GPa/ 550 • C by Yeh (2019) or 1.4-1.5 GPa/350-410 • C by Conand et al. (2020) using the QuiG barometry, RSCM thermometry and conventional thermobarometers. On the other hand, the exhumation mechanism of the Yuli Belt has been diversely argued to involve wedge extrusion (e.g., Chen et al., 2019;Molli and Malavieille, 2011;Ota and Kaneko, 2010;Xu et al., 2020), forearc extraction (Sandmann et al., 2015;Zhang et al., 2020), and subduction channel models (Baziotis et al., 2017;Beyssac et al., 2008;Keyser et al., 2016). It requires more details of metamorphic evolution to settle these disputable issues. ...
... As a part of the Eurasia paleomargin during the Alpine Cenozoic convergence processes involving the Eurasian, Iberian and African plates, the island of Corsica in the northern Tyrrhenian Sea (Figure 1) is an ideal case study to investigate how the continental lithosphere responds to propagation of regional shortening at convergent plate margins. Plate convergence along the western end of the Alpine orogen and subsequent rifting and drifting have exposed on the island of Corsica a wide swath of crystalline basement complex originally covered by the Alpine orogenic wedge (Di Rosa, Frassi, Malasoma, et al., 2020;Jolivet et al., 1990Jolivet et al., , 1998Molli & Malavieille, 2010;Rossetti et al., 2015;. This has made possible observation on shortening-related structures underlying the Alpine orogenic wedge. ...
... Corsica Island is a fragment of the former southern continental margin of the Eurasia plate, involved first in the formation of the Alpine convergent margin during consumption of the Mesozoic Alpine Tethys (Ligurian-Piedmont branch) oceanic realm and successively in the Oligocene-Miocene rifting and drifting processes leading to opening of the Liguro-Provençal and Tyrrhenian backarc basins (Carminati et al., 2012;Dewey et al., 1989;Doglioni et al., 1997;Faccenna et al., 2001;Handy et al., 2010;Jolivet et al., 2021;Lacombe & Jolivet, 2005;Malusà et al., 2015;Molli & Malavieille, 2010;Rosenbaum et al., 2002;Turco et al., 2012). ...
... In particular, palaeotectonic reconstructions frame the Alpine orogeny in Corsica either as the southward prosecution of the Western Alps governed by southeastdipping ('Alpine') subduction (e.g. Carminati et al., 2012;Doglioni et al., 1998;Handy et al., 2010;Malavieille & Molli, 2022;Marroni et al., 2017;Molli & Malavieille, 2010) or as the retroward tectonic accretion above the backstop of the doubly vergent Apennine accretionary wedge produced by the northdipping ('Apennine-Maghrebian') subduction (Bestani et al., 2016;Faccenna et al., 2001Faccenna et al., , 2004Jolivet et al., 1998;Jolivet & Faccenna, 2000;Lacombe & Jolivet, 2005;Principi & Treves, 1984;Romagny et al., 2020;Rossetti et al., 2004;van Hinsbergen et al., 2014;Vitale Brovarone & Herwartz, 2013). The first scenario involves a subduction flip during the Cenozoic, with the early structured Alpine belt passively overthrusted onto the growing Apennine-Maghrebian orogenic wedge, whereas the second scenario implies a continuous northward subduction in Cenozoic times. ...
The Alpine orogenic edifice of Corsica (northern Tyrrhenian Sea) offers the possibility to investigate the mode through which continental crust responds to the propagation of regional shortening at convergent plate margins. The geology of Corsica has been traditionally described as separating domains affected by the Alpine tectonism (Alpine Corsica) from those that did not experience the Alpine tectono‐metamorphic overprint (Hercynian Corsica), but recent studies show that most of Hercynian Corsica was thermally reset in post‐Eocene times, questioning this paragdim. The continental units formed at the expenses of the stretched continental margin of the European plate and consist of Hercynian granitoid basement rocks and cover sequences (Permian volcaniclastics and Mesozoic sedimentary successions). By integrating meso‐ and micro‐structural investigations with metamorphic thermobarometry and 40Ar‐39Ar geochronology along three, E‐W trending structural transects running across the basement section exposed below the Alpine orogenic wedge, we document middle‐late Eocene (ca. 50—33 Ma) westward‐verging syn‐metamorphic (low‐grade blueschist facies) thick‐skinned, basement‐involved thrusting. Significantly, crustal shortening in the continental basement predated of ca. 15—10 Ma the subduction zone metamorphism in the oceanic‐derived Schistes Lustrés Complex. When the P‐T‐t‐deformation history as reconstructed from the Corsica basement is integrated with the regional scenario of the Alpine‐Apennine orogeny, a tectonic reconstruction is proposed which frames the Alpine orogeny in Corsica within the Apennine‐Maghrebian subduction system in the retroside (retrowedge) of the Apennine orogenic wedge.
... The Northern Apennines (Fig. 1) is a collisional belt built up during the Late Cretaceous-Middle Eocene by the closure of the Ligure-Piemontese oceanic basin and the subsequent Middle Eocene-Late Oligocene collision between the European and Adria plates (e.g., Elter and Pertusati, 1973;Bortolotti et al., 1990;Molli, 2008;Malusà et al., 2009;Molli and Malavieille, 2011;Marroni et al., 2017;Di Rosa et al., 2020). The highest units of the Apenninic belt belong to the Ligurian Domain, representing the remnants of the oceanic lithosphere of the Ligure-Piemontese basin and its OCTZ to the nearby continental margin. ...
... Even if characterized by some differences, mainly consisting of the occurrence of the continental-derived rocks, the overall characteristics as, for instance, the widespread occurrence of subcontinental mantle peridotites, suggest that all the mélanges probably belong to the same geodynamic setting (i.e., the OCTZ). These differences probably reflect the heterogeneity in the source area of the sedimentary mélanges that consists in a thrust sheet system located at the rear of an accretionary wedge where different segments of the OCTZ were involved (Marroni et al., 2010;Molli and Malavieille, 2011). ...
The occurrence of pervasive crystallization of antigorite associated to brittle tectonics is described for the first time in the External Ligurian peridotites of the Northern Apennine (Italy). Antigorite was found in a slide block of subcontinental peridotites included in the tectonized sedimentary mélange of the Leo Unit (western External Ligurian units). This mélange, as those from the External Ligurian units, originated in Santonian-early Campanian time span from a source area corresponding to the Ocean-Continent Transition Zone at the Adria plate margin. The antigorite was found within veins belonging to four systems, from V1 to V4, each characterized by different attitude and morphology. The morphology of the veins ranges from massive to fibrous, with the latter characterized by fibers both parallel and perpendicular to the vein walls. Rare occurrence of chrysotile and calcite were identified within the veins.
The antigorite crystallization in the peridotites cannot be interpreted as related to an orogenic high-pressure metamorphism but most likely can be regarded as developed at shallow structural level in the late stage of the rifting phase when subcontinental mantle was progressively exposed at the surface, intruded by gabbro bodies, and cut by basaltic dykes.
... Malavieille 1984;Guillot et al. 2009). The second phase can be further subdivided into a continental subduction and an incipient collisional stages (Molli and Malavieille 2011). During the continental subduction stage, the thinned continental crust belonging to the passive margin is involved in the subduction zone. ...
... These processes initially started with an east-dipping subduction leading to the closure of the Ligure-Piemontese oceanic basin, opened during the Middle to Late Jurassic and located between the Europe and Adria continental margins (e.g. Elter and Pertusati 1973;Bortolotti et al. 1990;Marroni et al. 2010Marroni et al. , 2017Molli and Malavieille 2011). The convergence during the middle Eocene-early Oligocene time evolved in the continental collision, whose first stage is characterized by the involvement of the thinned European continental margin in the subduction zone (Bezert and Caby 1988;Malavieille et al. 1998;Molli and Tribuzio 2004;Malasoma et al. 2006;Molli et al. 2006;Malasoma and Marroni 2007;Molli 2008;Maggi et al. 2012;Di Rosa et al. 2017a, 2020a. ...
... During the early Oligocene continental collision, the subduction switched polarity and the southern branches of the Ligure-Piemontese oceanic lithosphere started to be subducted westward below the European margin leading to the onset of the Apennine orogeny (e.g. Molli 2008;Marroni et al. 2010Marroni et al. , 2017Molli and Malavieille 2011;Malavieille et al. 2016). As the result, the compressive front migrated towards the east leading to back-arc extension and the consequent collapse of the newly formed orogenic wedge in Corsica. ...
In Corsica Island (France), a belt of metamorphic continental units derived from the European margin is exposed at the western rim of the Alpine Corsica. This study provides a complete anatomy of one of these units (Tour de Valletto Unit) consisting of a Palaeozoic basement covered by an Early Jurassic – late Eocene sedimentary succession. This unit records a polyphase tectono-metamorphic history acquired during the late Eocene – lower early Miocene convergence processes involving the Adria and Europe continental plates. Using a multidisciplinary approach, we reconstructed in detail the P-T path of the Tour de Valletto Unit. The path shows a metamorphic climax at blueschist facies conditions suggesting that the unit was accreted at c. 40 km of depth. After its accretion, the Tour de Valletto Unit was exhumed up to the Earth surface following a path characterized by an increase of temperature and a decrease of pressure. The reconstructed tectono-metamorphic history of the Tour de Valletto Unit is compared with those of the other continental units located in western Alpine Corsica to discuss the exhumation processes active during continental subduction.
