How Stiff Was Armorica During the Variscan Orogeny? A Reappraisal of the “Bretonian” Phase in Central Brittany
Résumé
In collision belts, the upper plate is generally less deformed than the lower one that underwent syn-metamorphic ductile shearing, and frequently late-collisional crustal melting. Concerning the Variscan orogeny, it is widely accepted that the Armorica microcontinent represented the upper plate of the collision system. In France, the Central-North-Armorican Domain belonged to this upper plate whose southern margin in the Pontivy-Coray area exposes metamorphic rocks. There, structural and metamorphic studies indicate that an early tectono-metamorphic event (M0-M1) with biotite-garnetstaurolite-kyanite assemblage, crystallized at 0.9 GPa and 500 • C, is characterized by a top-to-the NW shearing. This event was followed by an HT event (M2) at ca 800-900 • C, coeval with a domal structure. In micaschists, monazite yields an LA-ICP-MS age at 351 Ma ascribed to M2. M0-M1-M2 events developed before the Late Carboniferous pluton emplacement at ca 315 Ma (M3 event). The tectono-metamorphic succession documents that Armorica was not a rigid block but underwent a synmetamortphic ductile deformation during the Famennian-Tournaisian (360-355 Ma) collision redefined here as the late episode of the "Bretonian orogenic phase", whereas the pre-Famennian Bretonnian episode is ascribed to oceanic subduction. These new data allow us to reassess the geodynamic evolution of this part of the Variscan orogen.
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