Relief variation and erosion of the Variscan belt: detrital geochronology of the Palaeozoic sediments from the Mauges Unit (Armorican Massif, France)

Céline Ducassou (1) , Marc Poujol (2) , Gilles Ruffet (2) , Olivier Bruguier (3) , Michel Ballevre (2)

1 Terre, Temps, Traçage
2 Terre, Temps, Traçage
3 Géosciences Montpellier

The sediments of the Mauges Unit located in the internal zone provide an opportunity of studying the evolution of relief during Palaeozoic time. U-Pb dating on zircon and 39Ar/40Ar on white mica are used to constrain the age and nature of the sources. The first relief identified is marked by an Early Devonian unconformity interpreted as the opening of a northern back-arc basin. Detrital minerals are first reworked from underlying layers indicating a local supply. Magmatic zircons at c. 400 Ma then record the emergence of a magmatic arc. During the Middle Devonian, the gap in the sedimentary record is attributed to an emersion followed by the disappearance of the relief during the Late Devonian. At the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary, the main collision is followed by the onset of a relief. The continental sedimentation in the Ancenis Basin (late Tournaisian-Viséan) is a coarsening-upwards megasequence indicating an increasing and/or approaching relief. The detrital minerals record the progressive exhumation of Variscan metamorphic (mica at c. 350 Ma) and magmatic rocks (zircons at c. 390-340 Ma). The Serpukhovian-Bashkirian sedimentation records the erosion of a proximal metamorphic source (Champtoceaux with micas at c. 350-340 Ma) showing a much shorter drainage system

Domaines: Sciences de la Terre

Céline Ducassou, Marc Poujol, Gilles Ruffet, Olivier Bruguier, Michel Ballevre. Relief variation and erosion of the Variscan belt: detrital geochronology of the Palaeozoic sediments from the Mauges Unit (Armorican Massif, France). Schulmann K.; Martinez Catalan J.R.; Lardeaux J.M.; Vanouzek V; Oggiano G. (Eds.). The Variscan Orogeny: Extent, Timescale and the Formation of the European Crust, 405 (1), Geological Society of London, pp.137-167, 2014, Geological Society, London, Special Publications, n°405, 978-1-86239-658-6. ⟨10.1144/SP405.6⟩. ⟨insu-01016985⟩