Detrital zircon age patterns from turbidites of the Balagne and Piedmont nappes of Alpine Corsica (France): Evidence for an European margin source (original) (raw)

In the front of metamorphic Cenozoic Alpine nappe of Schistes Lustrés, Western Corsica (France) exposes non-to very low grade metamorphic nappes, such as the Piedmont nappes and Upper nappes . Among these latter, the ophiolite-bearing Balagne nappe, tectonically overlying autochthonous Eocene conglomerates and sandstone, is composed of materials with nearly same age as the Piedmont-Ligurian Ocean, i.e., ophiolites (pillow-lava and gabbro) with Jurassic and Earliest Cretaceous sedimentary turbidite (lydiennes bearing flysch) and, at the highest position in the nappe pile, the Eocene Annunciata turbidite. This latter formation was, in turn, overthrust by a Piedmont unit mainly composed of the Late Cretaceous "Narbinco" flysch. An European provenance for the the Balagne Nappe, previously questioned, is nowadays the most generally accepted view. In order to decipher the source of sediments, a