The accretionary model for orogenesis and its application to the evolution of the Aegean crust

Both modern and ancient mountain belts have characteristic 'fingerprints' determined by the sequencing of the tectonic mode switches that took place during their evolution. Accretionary Tethyan style orogenesis is characterized by a sequence of 'push-pull' tectonic mode switches associated with the accretion of a succession of continental ribbons. The origin of the extensional episodes can be found in the driving forces provided by rapid 'roll-back' of adjacent subducting slabs. Such slabs appear to be created during (indentation-triggered) foundering of the marginal basins that typified ancient Tethys. We suggest individual accretion events were marked by short-lived episodes of high-pressure metamorphic mineral growth, followed by the development of km-scale extensional shear zones. The mode switches are often evident in tectonic sequence diagrams as F_R Δ SZ sequences, where F_R are recumbent folds, Δ a growth episode of metamorphic minerals, and SZ are extensional shear zones. Microstructures imply that mineral growth in the Δ events was static, or that they took place with such rapidity that deflections of fabric due to accumulating strain are not evident. Visually, the appearance of static growth was maintained. In our examination of the Cycladic Eclogite-Blueschist Unit at least three separate F_R Δ SZ sequences have been documented. The evolution of the Aegean crust was thus marked by a complexity that will not be unravelled without modern microstructurally focussed geochronology, and geospeedometry, in particular using the ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar isotopic system.