Research Paper GEOSPHERE Paleotethys slab pull, self-lubricated weak lithospheric zones, GEOSPHERE; v. 13, no. 5 poloidal and toroidal plate motions, and Gondwana tectonics 1 1 1 1 1 2 doi:10.1130/GES01444.1 Haroldo Vizán , Claudia Beatriz Prezzi , Silvana Evangelina Geuna , María Silvia Japas , Emiliano Manuel Renda , Juan Franzese , and María Andrea Van Zele1 8 figures; 1 supplemental file 1Departamento de Ciencias Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de Buenos Aires, IGEBA, UBA-CONICET, Ciudad Universitaria Pabellón 2, C1428EGA Ciudad Autónoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina 2Centro de Investigaciones Geológicas, Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad de La Plata, La Plata 1900, Argentina CORRESPONDENCE: haroldo@gl .fcen .uba.ar CITATION: Vizán, H., Prezzi, C.B., Geuna, S.E., ABSTRACT (Patriat and Achache, 1984; Kumar et al., 2007). In a geodynamic context, the Japas, M.S., Renda, E.M., Franzese, J., and Van Zele, M.A., 2017, Paleotethys slab pull, self-lubricated global significance of the Neotethys Ocean is highlighted by Keppie (2015) who weak lithospheric zones, poloidal and toroidal plate The Gondwana megacontinent was composed of different domains sep- linked its closure with the opening of the early Atlantic Ocean. motions, and Gondwana tectonics: Geosphere, v. 13, arated by self-lubricated weak lithospheric zones, two of which could have A provocative question arises about what happened with such powerful no. 5, p. 1541–1554, doi:10.1130/GES01444.1. extended into Laurasia. Displacement vectors determined through three con- slab pull during the time between the closure of the Rheic Ocean and the drift secutive paleomagnetism-constrained paleogeographic reconstructions (Early of India. A significant tectonic event occurred at the beginning of this time Received 14 October 2016 Revision received 7 June 2017 Pennsylvanian–early Guadalupian, ca. 320–270 Ma; late Guadalupian–Middle interval and caused the Iberian-Biscay orocline, which Gutiérrez-Alonso et al. Accepted 25 July 2017 Triassic, ca. 260–240 Ma; and Late Triassic–early Late Jurassic, ca. 230–160 Ma) (2008) related to Pangea “self-subduction”. These authors considered that this Published online 11 September 2017 show similar orientations to coeval tectonic stresses along Gondwana. Trig- orocline resulted from the slab pull of Paleotethys Ocean that changed the gered by slab pull at the northern subduction margin of the Paleotethys Ocean, stress-strain patterns of the entire supercontinent. In this paper we explore differential displacements between the Gondwana domains caused localized other large Gondwana tectonic features developed between the Early Penn- deformation along their borders, reactivating old weak lithospheric zones sylvanian (ca. 320 Ma) and the early Late Jurassic (ca. 160 Ma) that might also (e.g., Ventana fold belt south of Buenos Aries province, Argentina; basins such represent Paleotethys slab-pull footprints, including the Ventana fold belt and as Cuvette in central Africa; and Neuquén on the Pacific margin of Gondwana). the opening of the Neuquén Basin in Argentina. We propose that the wide extent of these structures was possible due to the In this particular time span, the global mantle convection evolved from a transmission of mantle toroidal flow induced by strike-slip movements along pattern with a single upwelling zone below the seafloor of the Panthalassan these focused self-lubricated weak lithospheric zones, along with the north- Ocean, to another with two, the newest one being below the Pangea litho- ward drift of Pangea. These processes occurred simultaneously with a major sphere (e.g., Zhong et al., 2007; Zhong and Rudolph, 2015). During the initial mantle reorganization from a huge cold downwelling to a hot upwelling event evolutionary stage, poloidal flow (i.e., source-to-sink flow) likely predominated caused by thermal energy storage beneath Pangea. on a global scale as Pangea was assembled over a downwelling hemisphere. During the second stage, the supercontinent induced an upwelling system that led to the development of large igneous provinces, widespread rifting, and INTRODUCTION final Pangea breakup. Concurrently with this global mantle convection evo- lution, conditions of strong slab pull occurred on the northern margin of the The supercontinent Pangea formed during the Mississippian (Scotese, Paleotethys Ocean, evidenced in the accelerated plate motion and attendant 2001; Stampfli et al., 2002, 2013; Nance, 2008) due to a powerful slab pull that subduction leading to the closure of the Rheic Ocean. dragged the megacontinent of Gondwana to collide against Laurasia (e.g., Col- Gondwana was composed by distinct domains (cratons or terranes) of dif- lins, 2003). The assembly led to the closure of the Rheic Ocean, leaving a vast ferent lithospheric thickness separated by old suture zones, so its evolution open sea to the east of the present Iberian Peninsula. This open sea evolved had to be strongly conditioned by this heterogeneity (e.g., Unternehr et al., over time, receiving different names (e.g., Paleotethys and Neotethys Oceans; 1988; Stampfli et al., 2013). The distinctive response of these different litho- Sengor, 1985) and retaining a large subduction zone on its northern margin. spheric domains to the stress field that emerged from these global-scale tec- It is known that the force exerted by the Neotethys slab pull must have been tonic processes during the drift of Pangea should have resulted in velocity gra- For permission to copy, contact Copyright strong enough to cause the drift of India from Gondwana to Asia between the dients between adjacent domains. These gradients were accommodated by Permissions, GSA, or [email protected]. Late Cretaceous and the early Eocene at an amazing velocity of 15–20 cm/yr inherited deformable zones fringing the lithospheric domains. © 2017 Geological Society of America GEOSPHERE | Volume 13 | Number 5 Vizán et al. | Geodynamics linked to Paleotethys slab pull Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geosphere/article-pdf/13/5/1541/3995762/1541.pdf 1541 by guest on 02 October 2021 Research Paper The weak zones where tectonic processes concentrated may have GEODYNAMIC PREMISES: PALEOMAGNETISM-CONSTRAINED Supplementary Material:Paleotethys slab pull, self-lubricated weak lithospheric zones, poloidal and toroidal plate motions, and Gondwana tectonics. acted as self-lubricated zones in the sense of Bercovici (2003) and Berco- PALEOGEOGRAPHIC RECONSTRUCTIONS AND INHERITED Geosphere, doi:10.1130/GES01444.1. vici et al. (2015), that is, zones where movements and deformation are INTRA-GONDWANA WEAK ZONES Haroldo Vizán, Claudia Beatriz Prezzi, Silvana Evangelina Geuna, MaríaSilvia Japas, facilitated through hydro-fracturing, pore-pressure reduction of friction, Emiliano Manuel Renda, Juan Franzese and María Andrea Van Zele To carry out the paleogeographic reconstructions, it was considered that Gondwana and simple lubrication, leading to strike-slip shearing and toroidal mo- To calculate the motion of Gondwana between the Early Pennsylvanian and should have been made up by distinct domains separated by deformed zones composed of fault systems as pointed out in the main text (see also Fig.1). tions in the underlying asthenosphere (e.g., Bercovici et al., 2000; Berco- the early Late Jurassic, absolute reconstructions of Gondwana (Fig. 1) were Paleomagnetic poles (PP´s) for paleogeographic reconstructions of this study (Table 1 SM) were selected from previous databases (Clark and Lackie 2003, Geuna et al. 2010, Kent and 1 Irving 2010, Torsvik et al. 2012) where they had been classified according to Van der Voo vici, 2003). produced using paleomagnetic poles (see Supplemental Material ) and as- (1993)´s reliability criteria. Based on paleomagnetically constrained paleogeographic reconstructions suming 0° longitudinal motion of Africa (Burke and Torsvik, 2004; Torsvik et al., Table 1 SM: Paleomagnetic poles selected for Gondwana Lat/Lon = Pole Latitude/Longitude. A95: 95% confidence oval. In references GPMDB: paleomagnetic poles listed in global paleomagnetic data base; T: selected by Torsvik et al. (2012) from the GPMDB. between the Early to Middle Pennsylvanian (323–310 Ma) and the early Late 2008a, 2008b). Instead of working with arbitrary time windows to construct Jurassic (160 Ma), and the premise of weak lithospheric intra-Gondwana zones apparent polar wander paths, we used three discrete ages clearly identified Paleomagnetic poles for the Early Pennsylvanian-Early Guadalupian time span (ca 320 Ma –270 Ma). South America accommodating velocity gradients of Gondwana rigid blocks, we depict a kine- by the distribution of paleomagnetic poles (PPs) belonging to the different Locality or Lon. (° E) Lat. (°S) A95 (°)Age References Stratigraphic unit matic evolution consistent with the coexistence of Paleotethys slab pull and plates forming Gondwana. We transferred the PPs to present geographical co- (Ma) Tepuel Group, 307.14 36.88 16.3 325GPMDB 2805, localized deformation along the self-lubricated weak zones. Furthermore, we ordinates of Africa using the classical reconstruction parameters proposed by Argentina 7252 Lower units of 327.57 57.73 6.4 310Geuna et al., propose that plate tectonics left its imprint on the toroidal and poloidal flow Lawver and Scotese (1987). Paganzo Gr., 2010 (1) Argentina imposed to the underlying convecting mantle, which in turn is a guide to the It is well known that classical Pangea configurations fail