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The multi-scale control of crustal structures on the exhumation of the British-Irish Isles, revealed by 40 years of AFT studies
  • Rémi Rateau,
  • David Chew
Rémi Rateau
Trinity College Dublin

Corresponding Author:[email protected]

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David Chew
Trinity College Dublin
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Abstract

A compilation of legacy and new low-temperature thermochronological data from the British-Irish Isles and their surrounding offshore shelves yielded c. 700 AFT ages and c. 180 AHe ages from 29 peer-reviewed papers, 27 Geotrack industry reports and several new unpublished studies from offshore Ireland. The compilation shows for the first time a regional age pattern, with older AFT ages in Scotland and Northern Ireland than in the rest of Ireland. This pattern is tentatively attributed to the influence of the Anton-Dohrn Transfer Zone (ADTZ) during an Early Cretaceous phase of plate-wide uplift that resulted in more exhumation to the SW of the transfer zone than to the NE. Caledonian faults might also create differential exhumation of the tectonic blocks between them, as is observed in the compilation of AFT data from northern Scotland and this could explain the dispersion in the timing of exhumation seen on the North Porcupine High, offshore Ireland. Finally, the Paleogene exhumation visible in the Central Irish Sea, and attributed in recent years to igneous underplating, has not been detected in the Malin Sea-Outer Hebrides, despite the area being underlain by a high-velocity body also interpreted as igneous underplating. In conclusion, a detailed analysis of a large dataset of low-temperature thermochronological has revealed the possible influence of major crustal structure on the Mesozoic exhumation of this part of the NE Atlantic Margin, with large-scale decoupling occurring at a transfer zone and medium-scale decoupling occurring along regional-scale faults. The dataset also shed some doubts on the generic nature of exhumation caused by igneous underplating which has been much discussed in recent years.