Kinematics and time-resolved evolution of the main thrust-sense shear zone in the Eo-Alpine orogenic wedge (the Vinschgau Shear Zone, eastern Alps)

The Vinschgau Shear Zone (VSZ) is one of the largest and most significant shear zones developed under plastic conditions within the Austroalpine domain, juxtaposing the Ötztal and the Texel units to the Campo, Scharl and Sesvenna units during the building of the Eo-Alpine Orogen. The VSZ dominates the structural setting of a large portion of the central Austroalpine Late Cretaceous thrust stack. In order to fully assess the evolution of the VSZ, a multi-faceted approach based on detailed multiscale structural and petrochronological analyses has been carried out across representative transects of the shear zone in the Vinschgau Valley. The research has been performed with a view to characterizing kinematics, P–T conditions and timing of motion of the VSZ. Our fieldwork-based analyses suggest that the dip angle of mylonitic foliation increases from west to east with an E–W-trending stretching lineation which dips alternatively to the west and to the east, due to later folding related to the Cenozoic crustal shortening. The dominant top-to-W shear sense of the mylonites recognized in the field and confirmed by microstructural analyses led to exhumation of the upper Austroalpine nappes in the hanging wall of the shear zone; the Texel unit with Late Cretaceous eclogites and the Schneeberg and Ötztal units were all affected by Eo-Alpine amphibolite-facies metamorphism. Chemical and microstructural analyses suggest deformation temperatures of ca. 350–400 ∘C during shearing. Timing of deformation along the VSZ has been constrained for the first time through 40Ar/39Ar dating of syn-shearing micas, which reveal a Late Cretaceous age of the VSZ mylonites with ages ranging between 80 and 97 Ma. A systematic younging age of deformation occurs towards the central part of the shear zone in the studied transects. Vorticity analysis shows a clear decrease in the simple shear component correlated to the younging of mica ages towards the core of the shear zone. This evolution is consistent with the growth of a shear zone where shear strain localizes into its central part during deformation. The defined evolution of the VSZ sheds new light on how large-scale thrust-sense shear zones act and how much exhumation they can accommodate in the frame of an evolving orogenic wedge.