Fault Gouge Dating in the Spanish Pyrenees: Fault Ages, Thrust Propagation Sequence, Wall‐Rock Provenance, and Thermal Constraints

Abstract

AbstractDating brittle faults by the growth of authigenic illite in fault gouge allows for direct testing of kinematic models of orogenic evolution, such as in‐sequence versus out‐of‐sequence thrusting, and the presence of orogenic “pulses” of deformation on multiple thrusts simultaneously. We present illite gouge ages from five thrust faults along the Ter and Freser rivers in the south‐eastern Pyrenees fold‐and‐thrust belt dated by Ar‐Ar methods. The ages show in‐sequence thrusting for the south‐eastern Pyrenees fold‐thrust belt during the Eocene and early Oligocene, ranging from 49.5 + 4.4 Ma for the inboard Freser Antiformal Stack to 31.9 ± 3.9 Ma for the frontal L’Escala Thrust. Foreland progression of ages is preserved, although overlapping of ages of the frontal thrusts permits the interpretation of a period of more rapid fault displacement around 35 Ma. Shortening rates for the Ter‐Freser section range from 1.2–2.7 km/my, with strain rates ranging from 7.0 × 10−16 s−1 to 1.6 × 10−15 s−1 The latest Paleozoic ages of the cataclastically derived component inferred from the gouge dating methodology are shown to be pooled 2M1 illite/mica ages of wall rock sediments and have geological meaning. These inferred mica ages of the thrust wallrocks in the southeastern Pyrenees indicate Hercynian‐age micas were deposited in the Southern Pyrenean foreland basin as early as the late Cretaceous. Previous thermochronometer and Δ47 temperatures from syn‐faulting calcite veins constrain temperature of clay gouge formation in the Ter‐Freser section at 50–210°C, with most likely temperatures of 50–160°C, consistent with previous studies.