The thermal–mechanical evolution of crustal orogenic belts at convergent plate boundaries: A reappraisal of the orogenic cycle

Convergent plate boundaries are characterized by the development of crustal orogenic wedges and orogenic plateaus but also by gravitational collapse of previously thickened crust leading to the opening of intermontane and eventually oceanic back-arc basins. Foreland and extensional sedimentary basins in the plate boundary region are filled by the erosional products of the orogenic crust. Metamorphic rocks forming orogenic crust attest to burial and exhumation under contrasted geothermal gradients. These features portray the crustal orogenic cycle and are first-order indicators of the thermal and mechanical evolution of the crust within the plate boundary region. This evolution is controlled by complex interactions among (i) the dynamic balance among forces that arise from plate-tectonic, gravitational potential energy, and buoyancy, (ii) the thermal balance between deformation-induced and radioactive heat production and heat advection related to subduction, orogenic deformation, and magma transfer, and (iii) the mass transfer balance between uplift and erosion. To account for these geological characteristics, a generic model, that integrates results from physical modeling, is proposed for the thermal–mechanical evolution of crustal orogenic belts and for its implication in controlling the transition between the different phases of the orogenic cycle. In this model, the transition from low to high geothermal gradient is associated with increased heat production in the thickened crust owing to radioactive decay and deformation. Partial melting and rheologic weakening of the thermally mature thickened crust triggers gravity-driven lateral flow of the lower crust and controls the transition from wedge to orogenic plateau. Destruction of the orogenic crust is achieved in part by erosion but mostly by gravitational collapse. The style of extension is controlled by the rheology of the crust at the onset of gravitational collapse and its evolution as the crust thins and cools. Gravitational collapse is permitted by a modification of lithosphere dynamics in the convergence zone and might eventually lead to opening of a new oceanic basin if collapse is followed by thinning of the lithospheric mantle.