Solid Earth, 11, 241–258, 2020 https://doi.org/10.5194/se-11-241-2020 © Author(s) 2020. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License. Determining the Plio-Quaternary uplift of the southern French Massif Central; a new insight for intraplate orogen dynamics Oswald Malcles1, Philippe Vernant1, Jean Chéry1, Pierre Camps1, Gaël Cazes2,3, Jean-François Ritz1, and David Fink3 1Geosciences Montpellier, CNRS and University of Montpellier, Montpellier, France 2School of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, Australia 3Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation, Lucas Heights, Australia Correspondence: Oswald Malcles (
[email protected]) Received: 29 May 2019 – Discussion started: 11 June 2019 Revised: 16 January 2020 – Accepted: 21 January 2020 – Published: 26 February 2020 Abstract. The evolution of intraplate orogens is still poorly is expected as being due to a differential vertical motion be- understood. Yet, it is of major importance for understanding tween the northern and southern part of the studied area. the Earth and plate dynamics, as well as the link between Numerical models show that erosion-induced isostatic re- surface and deep geodynamic processes. The French Mas- bound can explain up to two-thirds of the regional uplift de- sif Central is an intraplate orogen with a mean elevation of duced from the geochronological results and are consistent 1000 m, with the highest peak elevations ranging from 1500 with the southward tilting derived from morphological ana- to 1885 m. However, active deformation of the region is still lysis. We presume that the remaining unexplained uplift is debated due to scarce evidence either from geomorpholog- related to dynamic topography or thermal isostasy due to the ical or geodetic and seismologic data.