Post-plutonic unroofing and morphogenesis of the Attic–Cycladic complex (Aegea, Greece)

Abstract

The Attic–Cycladic complex of Greece comprises an Eocene high-P unit with blueschist occurrences. Unroofing of this unit took place in Oligocene–Miocene times and was accompanied by a regional low-P medium-T overprint and Miocene granitic plutonism. Apatite fission-track ages of 14 “crystalline” samples from the islands of Tinos, Mikonos and Serifos range between 13.1 and 5.3 Ma, corresponding to the middle and late Miocene. The frequency distributions of confined track lengths are characterised by high arithmetic means of 14.2–15.1 μm and by standard deviations from 0.9 to 1.6 μm. Thermochronological modelling of the data indicates rapid cooling between 10 and 6 Ma and subsequent deceleration of the cooling rates. For a short time, the Miocene plutons of Tinos, Mikonos and Serifos experienced maximum cooling rates above 50 °C/Ma. These exceptionally high cooling rates cannot be explained by strong vertical uplift and fast regional erosion. Such a process is disproved by preserved remnants of a former peneplain, including inselbergs and kaolinized tropical subsoil. On Mikonos, fast post-plutonic cooling of the lower plate was apparently accompanied by simultaneous sedimentation on the upper plate. We propose a post-plutonic cooling model which assumes strong periplutonic heat flow into much cooler host rocks and fast extensional unroofing.