Low- P metamorphism following a Barrovian-type evolution. Complex tectonic controls for a common transition, as deduced in the Mondoñedo thrust sheet (NW Iberian Massif)

Abstract

The Mondoñedo thrust sheet has been studied to investigate the complex dynamic relationships that may be involved in the development of low- and medium- P metamorphic domains. This unit underwent an initial medium- P event during the initial stages of Variscan convergence, related to crustal thickening. Subsequently, the thrust sheet evolved to a low- P baric type of metamorphism, related to syn-convergence thinning and exhumation. Its footwall, cropping out in two tectonic windows, registered a different evolution, with a low- P history that evolved from low- to high- T under a high geothermal gradient. Several different P– T paths of the Mondoñedo thrust sheet and its relative autochthon are traced and interpreted according to the structural evolution of the area. Following the initial crustal thickening, two main syn-convergence extensional shear zones developed. One of them occurs in the hangingwall, whereas the other affects the footwall unit. Both extensional shear zones were contemporaneous with ductile thrusting in the inner parts of the thrust sheet, and their activity is viewed as a consequence of the need for gravitational re-equilibration within the orogenic wedge. The most commonly accepted models of tectonothermal evolution in regions of thickened continental crust assume that low- P metamorphism is essentially a late phenomenon, and is linked to late-orogenic tectonic activity. In the Mondoñedo thrust sheet, our conclusions indicate that low- P metamorphism may also develop during convergence, and that this may occur in at least two cases. One is tectonic denudation of an allochthonous unit during its emplacement, and the other, thinning and extension at the footwall unit of an advancing thrust sheet. As a consequence, the low- P evolution may show different characteristics in different units of an orogenic nappe pile.