Succession of Permian and Mesozoic metasomatic events in the eastern Pyrenees with emphasis on the Trimouns talc–chlorite deposit

Abstract

Recent studies proposing pre-orogenic mantle exhumation models have helped renew the interest of the geosciences community in the Pyrenees, which should be now interpreted as a hyper-extended passive margin before the convergence between Iberia and Eurasia occurred. Unresolved questions of the Pyrenean geology, as well as the understanding of the formation of hyper-extended passive margins, are how the crust was thinned, and when, where and how the crustal breakoff occurred. The study of the Variscan and pre-Variscan Pyrenean basement is thus critical to document and understand this Cretaceous crustal thinning. In order to specify the timing of Mesozoic metasomatism and the associated deformation in the pre-Mesozoic basement of the Pyrenees, we carried out a U–Th–Pb laser ablation ICP–MS study on a large panel of REE and titanium-rich minerals (titanite and rutile) from talc–chlorite ores from the eastern Pyrenees, with a special emphasis on the Trimouns deposit, the world’s largest talc quarry. Our results suggest that the Trimouns talc formation was restricted to the upper Aptian–Cenomanian time, while the talc and chlorite formation in the eastern Pyrenees occurred during several distinct Permian, Jurassic and Cretaceous episodes. These results give strong constraints on the tectonic setting of the Pyrenean domain during the transition between the Variscan and Alpine orogenic cycles, and particularly on when and how the upper crust was thinned before the crustal breakoff and the final mantle exhumation.