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Thomas FRANÇOIS

Meso-Cenozoic thermal evolution of the western European plate

Supervisor:
Jocelyn Barbarand
Université Paris-Saclay, CNRS, GEOPS, Orsay, France

Major Results

Major thermal event during the Mesozoic period (principally at the transition between the Jurassic and Cretaceous period), involving the erosion of a Jurassic sedimentary cover on the French Massif Central. The results suggest a rejuvenation of this thermal event (and its amplitude) from west to the east.

Abstract

In this study, apatite fission-track (AFT) data have been acquired through the French Massif Central Variscan basement. The results show a complex post-Variscan evolution of the Massif Central. Inversion of the AFT data indicates a high temperature event during the Jurassic period. This thermal event can be interpreted as the deposition of a significant sedimentary cover which has been later eroded during the Late Jurassic and/or Early Cretaceous.

Interpretation of the thermal models implies the presence of the sampled rocks close to the surface since Cretaceous times. The estimated volume of this eroded sedimentary cover suggests a probable larger extension of the surrounding sedimentary basins (Paris Basin and Aquitaine Basin) across the Variscan basement area.

Summary of our results from low-temperature thermochronological data.
Thermal perturbation age is the age of the strongest cooling event as seen in the modeled time-Temperature paths.

Lower Cretaceous inversion of the European Variscan basement: record from the Vendée and Limousin (France).

François, T., Barbarand, J. & Wyns, R. Lower Cretaceous inversion of the European Variscan basement: record from the Vendée and Limousin (France). Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 109, 1837–1852 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-020-01875-z

keywords: Sediment routing, Geochronology, Low temperature, thermochronology, Corbières region

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-020-01875-z