Exhumation in a convergent orogen: the western Tauern window

Abstract

ABSTRACT Unroofing of the western Tauern window involved both low‐angle detachment faulting (Brenner Fault) and enhanced footwall erosion, contemporaneous with upright antiformal folding. This combination reflects orogen‐parallel (˜E–W) extension during continued ˜N–S Alpine convergence. New fission‐track ages establish the relative chronology of folding and faulting and demonstrate that displacement was not always accommodated on the same surface. During exhumation, some units migrated from the footwall to the hanging wall of the main detachment fault, due to the interplay between folding and faulting. The region can effectively be divided into 3 distinct domains. (1) The Penninic units of the western Tauern Window were always in the footwall to the fault, with maximum exhumation in the core of the dome, due to folding and erosion. (2) The Lower Austroalpine unit north of the Tauern Window was first part of the hanging wall to the Brenner Fault. At a later stage this unit was exhumed by a further 4–5 km as part of the footwall to a more discrete, through‐going fault (the Silltal Fault). (3) The Middle and Upper Austroalpine units west of the Tauern Window were always within the hanging wall. Exhumation of the footwall from an initial depth of ∼ 25 km led to a transition in mechanical behaviour. The curviplanar (folded) ductile shear zone marking the boundary to the Tauern window was eventually transected by a more planar discrete brittle fault (Silltal Fault, with unit 2 now in the footwall), along which the pre‐existing mylonites were passively exhumed to the surface.