Apatite fission-track analysis of Neogene exhumation in northern Corsica (France)

Apatite fission-track analyses along a W-E-orientated transect across northern Corsica indicate an important episode of crustal exhumation in late early Miocene time. Samples taken from the Alpine orogenic wedge, from the adjacent foreland basin and from the crystalline basement complex flooring the basin are completely reset. This implies that a ≥ 2.0-2.3-km-thick crustal section made of thrust sheets and/or autochthonous foreland deposits has been removed by erosion since early Miocene time. A geometric projection of this lost cover towards the west indicates that all of northern Corsica was covered either by Alpine nappes or middle Eocene foreland deposits. Fission-track ages are the same across the main boundary fault system separating the Alpine orogenic wedge and the foreland, indicating the absence of significant differential vertical displacement between upper and lower plates during Neogene unroofing.