Abstract
A fission track investigation was carried out on apatite from Paleozoic sandstones along a NW-SE transect and the Hill-intrusion in the northern Linksrheinisches Schiefergebirge. The study included age determinations, confined track length and chemical analysis as well as computer modeling of the thermal history. Apatite fission track ages vary between 130±11 Ma and 239±13 Ma. Mean confined track lengths range from 12.35±0.36 tm to 13.20±0.73 µm. Fluorapatite grains with no chlorine content are the main components. Single grain ages of the Paleozoic sandstones and the tonalite decrease with increasing fluorine and decreasing OH and chlorine content. Single grain ages from wallrock sandstones of the galena-sphalerite-calcite-quartz veins show no relation with the chemical composition. Computer modeling of the thermal history using an inverse model allowed to distinguish an Upper Paleozoic to Lower Mesozoic component (up to 220 Ma), a Mesozoic component, and a post-Campanian component. An average cooling rate below 1.5°C/Ma was estimated for the Upper Paleozoic thermal history. The subsidence of the Graben of Malmedy led to the accumulation of 3,000m of sediments during Permian and Lower Triassic. Apatite grains of the Devonian sandstones of the Venn-Weser-Inde nappe were completely annealed after deposition and reached the PAZ at 260 Ma. With a normal geothermal gradient this temperature would imply 3,000m to 4,000m of now eroded deformed Devonian and Carboniferous units.
The thermal history of the Mesozoic component is constrained by slow cooling of 0.3°C/Ma up to 120 Ma and faster cooling of ≈1.5°C/Ma up to 80 Ma. An exhumation of ≈1,000m might have occurred if a stationary normal geothermal gradient is applied to the first time interval. The cooling between 120 Ma and 80 Ma which point to an exhumation of ≈2,000m is interpreted as the main Mesozoic exhumation of the northern Linksrheinisches Schiefergebirge. Apatite fission track data of a Namurian sandstone taken adjacent to the galena-sphalerite-calcite vein in the Venn-Weser-Inde nappe point to a mineralization age between 200 Ma and 160 Ma. The age of the mineralization in the Eastardennen-Eifel nappe revealed by the fission track data is younger (160 – 140 Ma).
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Glasmacher, U., Zentilli, M., Grist, A.M. (1998). Apatite Fission Track Thermochronology of Paleozoic Sandstones and the Hill-Intrusion, Northern Linksrheinisches Schiefergebirge, Germany. In: van den Haute, P., de Corte, F. (eds) Advances in Fission-Track Geochronology. Solid Earth Sciences Library, vol 10. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-9133-1_10
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