Extensional orogenic collapse captured by strike-slip tectonics: Constraints from structural geology and U[sbnd]Pb geochronology of the Pinhel shear zone (Variscan orogen, Iberian Massif)

Abstract

The late Paleozoic collision between Gondwana and Laurussia resulted in the polyphase deformation and magmatism that characterizes the Iberian Massif of the Variscan orogen. In the Central Iberian Zone, initial continental thickening (D1; folding and thrusting) was followed by extensional orogenic collapse (D2) responsible for the exhumation of high-grade rocks coeval to the emplacement of granitoids.This study presents a tectonometamorphic analysis of the Trancoso-Pinhel region (Central Iberian Zone) to explain the processes in place during the transition from an extension-dominated state (D2) to a compression-dominated one (D3). We reveal the existence of low-dipping D2 extensional structures later affected by several pulses of subhorizontal shortening, each of them typified by upright folds and strike-slip shearing (D3, D4 and D5, as identified by superimposition of structures). The D2 Pinhel extensional shear zone separates a low-grade domain from an underlying high-grade domain, and it contributed to the thermal reequilibration of the orogen by facilitating heat advection from lower parts of the crust, crustal thinning, decompression melting, and magma intrusion. Progressive lessening of the gravitational disequilibrium carried out by this D2 shear zone led to a switch from subhorizontal extension to compression and the eventual cessation and capture of the Pinhel shear zone by strike-slip tectonics during renewed crustal shortening. High-grade domains of the Pinhel shear zone were folded together with low-grade domains to define the current upright folded structure of the Trancoso-Pinhel region, the D3 Tamames-Marofa-Sátão synform. New dating of syn-orogenic granitoids (SHRIMP UPb zircon dating) intruding the Pinhel shear zone, together with the already published ages of early extensional fabrics constrain the functioning of this shear zone to ca. 331–311Ma, with maximum tectonomagmatic activity at ca. 321–317Ma. The capture and apparent cessation of movement of the Pinhel shear zone occurred at ca. 317–311Ma.