The Alps 1: A working geodynamic model for burial and exhumation of (ultra)high-pressure rocks in Alpine-type orogens

•Numerical models offer an explanation for (U)HP rock exhumation in Alpine-type orogens.•Exhumation results from within-orogen, not absolute, buoyancy-driven extension.•Rapid erosion is not required to explain (U)HP rock exhumation.•The amount of subducted/exhumed (U)HP crust depends mainly on its strength.

Eocene (ultra)high-pressure ((U)HP) rocks exposed in the Western Alps are generally interpreted to result from subduction of European continental crust beneath Adria and its subsequent exhumation. However, the roles of extension (either from plate divergence or internal to the orogen) and erosion during exhumation remain controversial. Here we use 2D numerical geodynamic models to explain the formation and exhumation of (U)HP rocks in an Alpine-type orogen and interpret the results in the conceptual Prowedge-Uplifted Plug-Retrowedge-Conduit (PURC) framework. (U)HP metamorphism of oceanic and microcontinent crust in the models results from burial and accretion to a subduction channel/conduit formed beneath an advancing retrocontinent. Rapid exhumation from (U)HP conditions is achieved by the buoyancy-driven transport of a composite plume of stacked (U)HP oceanic and microcontinent crust from the subduction conduit to the overlying orogenic prowedge, accommodated by coeval thrusting and normal-sense shearing. Subsequent 'trans-crustal' exhumation is achieved by a combination of doming/internal extension and later retrotransport of the (U)HP plume through the uplifted plug, during underthrusting of the thick continental margin crust, coupled with increased erosion. Our proposed mechanism implies that exhumation-related normal-sense shearing in the Western Alps, per se, was driven from below by the buoyancy of the ascending plume, and that extension owing to plate divergence is not required to explain (U)HP rock exhumation. The efficiency of the exhumation mechanism depends strongly on the buoyancy and strength of the (U)HP plume, suggesting that in order to exhume rapidly, it must achieve a critical size. By implication, the multiple small Eocene (U)HP complexes within the Internal Crystalline Massifs may have been exhumed as part of a single composite body comprising diverse units aggregated from different levels of the subduction conduit during burial or ascent, rather than as individual small bodies exhumed in separate pulses.