Thermo Calabria

PIs Nicolas Villamizar-Escalante, Christoph v.Hagke, Bjarne Friedrichs.

Understanding and quantifying the factors that control mountain building, such as tectonic, climatic and geodynamic forces of rock uplift at different time scales, are essential to unravel the mountain landscape evolution through time. One of the most used tools that have been implemented to constrain the cooling history is low-temperature thermochronology. This method records the time-temperature history of rocks.

We will use thermochronology to determine the long-term exhumation history of the Calabro-Ionian subduction zone (Fig. 1). We will couple the analyses with measures of short-term uplift, as well as present-day landscape evolution. This region is of particular interest, as it features high tectonic rates of a continuously moving slab that has been subject to different climatic perturbations. This makes possible to understand better the coupling between mantle forces and surface processes.

The geological history that leads to the actual intricate configuration remains a debate. In order to unreveal the complex history behind it, we will discuss the local and regional tectonic implications to examine the spatio-temporal correlation with the evolution of the mountain building above this backrolling subduction zone.

Currently, we collected samples in the Northern section of the Calabrian arc (Fig 1b). The samples will be progressively separated and measured at Salzburg University facilities.

 Thermocronological facilities

Fig 1. a) Plates boundaries of the Calabro-Ionian subduction zone, b) Geological map of the Calabrian Arc with the samples collected in the Serre and Sila Massif (red dots).