Fission-track dating of the south-eastern Bohemian massif (Waldviertel, Austria): thermochronology and long-term erosion

• DOI: 10.1007/s00531-003-0342-y
• Publication Date: 2003-12-11T01:42:49Z
• Authors: Ewald Hejl; Gert Sekyra; Gertrude Friedl
• Keywords: 15. Life on land; 01 natural sciences; 0105 earth and related environmental sciences

Apatite fission-track thermochronology was applied to the outcropping Variscan basement of the south-eastern Bohemian massif in order to resolve its post-Variscan cooling and denudation history. Nineteen samples could be dated by the grain-population method. The ages range from 235 to 90 Ma (Middle Triassic to Middle Cretaceous). Neglecting some local variations, they show a decrease from the western edge of the Moravian Thaya window towards the west and the south. Fission-track length histograms mainly exhibit broad distributions with arithmetic means between 12.3 and 13.4 µm, and standard deviations between 1.5 and 2.0 µm. Thermochronological model calculations of the measured data demonstrate that the apatite fission-track memory of the samples reaches back until the begin of the Cretaceous, and for some samples even until the Permian. The regional fission-track cooling pattern is not related to the limitations and the internal structure of the Moravian Thaya window, which appears to be an elder—probably Late Carboniferous to Permian—tectonic feature. Also the Vitis fault does not delimit areas of different thermochronological behaviour. Therefore, significant vertical offset on that fault can be excluded for the Cretaceous and Cenozoic. Thermochronological model calculations of fission-track ages and length data are consistent with the assumption of regional sedimentary reburial during the Late Cretaceous. The amount of reburial could have attained 1 km. The Cenozoic bulk denudation was in the order of 1 to 3 km.