Unravelling the history of mountain belts through U-Pb and Lu-Hf dating of zircon and Ar/Ar dating of detrital white mica: a case study from the Eastern Alps.

Radiogenic isotopes of igneous and detrital minerals from various clastic rocks of mountain belts are used to reveal tectonic and sedimentary processes, which are otherwise difficult to detect. Here, we discuss the results of U-Pb and Lu-Hf zircon systems, and Ar/Ar on detrital white mica in Eastern Alps. Zircon and white mica are chemically and mechanically stable and occur in magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks.

Carbonation and serpentinization of diopsidite in the Altun Mountains, NW China.

Mineral carbonation of mafic-ultramafic rocks has been highlighted as a promising way for permanent carbon capture and storage. Carbonatization involves the release of Ca, Mg and Fe from silicate minerals by dissolution and reaction in the aqueous phase to form stable carbonate minerals. Diopside is one of the most abundant mafic minerals in the lithosphere and contributes a portion of Mg and Ca to surface weathering.

Postcollisional cooling history of the Eastern and Southern Alps and its linkage to Adria indentation.

Indentation of rigid blocks into rheologically weak orogens is generally associated with spatiotemporally variable vertical and lateral block extrusion. The European Eastern and Southern Alps are a prime example of microplate indentation, where most of the deformation was accommodated north of the crustal indenter within the Tauern Window. However, outside of this window only the broad late-stage exhumation pattern of the indented units as well as of the indenter itself is known.

A low-temperature ductile shear zone: The gypsum-dominated western extension of the brittle Fella-Sava Fault, Southern Alps.

Based on structural and fabric analyses at variable scales we investigate the evaporitic gypsum-dominated Comeglians-Paularo shear zone in the Southern Alps (Friuli). It represents the lateral western termination of the brittle Fella-Sava Fault. Missing dehydration products of gypsum and the lack of annealing indicate temperatures below 100 °C during development of the shear zone.

States of paleostress north and south of the Periadriatic fault: Comparison of the Drau Range and the Friuli Southalpine wedge.

This study focuses on the analysis of structures and kinematics of a N-S profile along the axis of maximum shortening of the European Eastern Alps. The area includes the southern Austroalpine unit in the north and the Southalpine unit, which is a part of the Adriatic indenter. The stratigraphically different units are separated by the Periadriatic fault, the major strike-slip fault within the Alps.

Polyphase exhumation in the western Qinling Mountains, China: Rapid Early Cretaceous cooling along a lithospheric-scale tear fault and pulsed Cenozoic uplift.

The western sector of the Qinling-Dabie orogenic belt plays a key role in both Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous "Yanshanian" intracontinental tectonics and Cenozoic lateral escape triggered by India-Asia collision. The Taibai granite in the northern Qinling Mountains is located at the westernmost tip of a Yanshanian granite belt. It consists of multiple intrusions, constrained by new Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous U-Pb zircon ages (156 ± 3 Ma and 124 ± 1 Ma).

The structure of the Hallstatt evaporite body (Northern Calcareous Alps, Austria): A compressive diapir superposed by strike-slip shear?

Based on old detailed mining maps and own observations in the Hallstatt salt mine, we reinterpret the structure of the Hallstatt evaporite body of the Upper Permian to Lower Triassic Haselgebirge Fm. within the Northern Calcareous Alps (NCA). The Haselgebirge Fm.

Structures, microfabrics and textures of the Cordilleran-type Rechnitz metamorphic core complex, Eastern Alps.

Rechnitz window group represents a Cordilleran-style metamorphic core complex, which is almost entirely located within nearly contemporaneous Neogene sediments at the transition zone between the Eastern Alps and the Neogene Pannonian basin. Two tectonic units are distinguished within the Rechnitz metamorphic core complex (RMCC): (1) a lower unit mainly composed of Mesozoic metasediments, and (2) an upper unit mainly composed of ophiolite remnants. Both units are metamorphosed within greenschist facies conditions during earliest Miocene followed by exhumation and cooling.

The lateral boundary of a metamorphic core complex: The Moutsounas shear zone on Naxos, Cyclades, Greece.

We describe the structure, microstructures, texture and paleopiezometry of quartz-rich phyllites and marbles along N-trending Moutsounas shear zone at the eastern margin of the Naxos metamorphic core complex (MCC). Fabrics consistently indicate a top-to-the-NNE non-coaxial shear and formed during the main stage of updoming and exhumation between ca. 14 and 11 Ma of the Naxos MCC.

The Haselgebirge evaporitic mélange in central Northern Calcareous Alps (Austria): Part of the Permian to Lower Triassic rift of the Meliata ocean?

For the reconstruction of Alpine tectonics of the Eastern Alps, the evaporitic Permian to Lower Triassic Haselgebirge Formation plays a key role in (1) the origin of Haselgebirge bearing nappes, (2) the inclusion of magmatic and metamorphic rocks revealing tectonic processes not preserved in other units, and (3) the debated mode of emplacement of the nappes, namely gravity-driven or tectonic. Within the Moosegg quarry of the central Northern Calcareous Alps gypsum/anhydrite bodies are tectonically mixed with lenses of sedimentary rocks and decimeter- to meter-sized tectonic clasts of plutonic and subvolcanic rocks and rare metamorphics. We examined various types of (1) widespread biotite-diorite, meta-syenite, (2) meta-dolerite and rare ultramafic rocks (serpentinite, pyroxenite) as well as (3) rare metamorphic banded meta-psammitic schists and meta-doleritic blueschists.

Polyhalite microfabrics in an Alpine evaporite mélange: Hallstatt, Eastern Alps.

In the Hallstatt salt mine (Austria), polyhalite rocks occur in 0.5-1 m thick and several metre long tectonic lenses within the protocataclasite to protomylonite matrix of the Alpine Haselgebirge Fm..

Structure and evolution of a rocksalt-mudrock-tectonite: The haselgebirge in the Northern Calcareous Alps.

The Northern Calcareous Alps are part of the Eastern Alps in Austria and Germany. The Mesozoic units of this fold-and-thrust belt were detached, thrusted and stacked along the evaporitic Haselgebirge Formation. Exposed in salt mines, rocksalt and mudrock form a two component tectonite: The rock type "haselgebirge" consists of 10-70 wt % halite with silt- to gravel- or block-sized components within a halite matrix, and the "kerngebirge" with >70 wt % halite.