Matthias Bernet

Grenoble Alpes University · ISTerre

The axial Arcabuco-Floresta segment of the Eastern Cordillera basin, Colombia exhibits a complex geological history characterized by both along and across strike variations in deformation and exhumation, as well as magmatic activity, all of which provide valuable insights into the broader tectono-thermal evolution of the Andean region. In this stud...

High‐relief glacial valleys shape the modern topography of the Southern Patagonian Andes, but their formation remains poorly understood. Two Miocene plutonic complexes in the Andean retroarc, the Fitz Roy (49°S) and Torres del Paine (51°S) massifs, were emplaced between 16.9–16.4 Ma and 12.6–12.4 Ma, respectively. Subduction of oceanic ridge segmen...

Deep-seated structures can exhume deep crustal rocks (>20 km), transmitting the signal of geodynamic processes from the subduction zone to the interiors of the continents. The role of deep-seated structures can be analyzed with low-temperature thermochronological dating techniques. However, studies coupling low-temperature thermochronology with str...

The Alpine orogenic belt in SE France is the result of the collision between the European, Adriatic and Iberian plates. The accreted Variscan continental crust, which now forms the external crystalline massifs (ECMs), recorded a complex Mesozoic thermal and tectonic evolution, that is not fully understood. In the Maures-Tanneron massif (MTM), the b...

Fission-track dating is based on the analysis of tracks—linear damage trails—produced by the spontaneous fission of 238U in a range of natural accessory minerals and glasses. The retention of tracks is sensitive to elevated temperatures, and the data serve principally as a tool for recording thermal histories of rocks, potentially over the range of...

Inselbergs are isolated rock bodies that develop as a result of differential weathering and erosion advances during topographic etchplain formation. The timing and rate of inselberg growth are key for constraining external controls on landscape evolution, particularly in etching terrains associated with elevated plateaus carved on granitic litholog...

Thermochronological data are essential to constrain thermal and exhumation histories in active mountain ranges. In the Central Andes, bedrock outcrops are rare, being blanketed by widespread late Palaeogene–Neogene and younger volcanic formations. For this reason, the exhumation history of the Western Cordillera (WC) in the Peruvian Andes has only...

Deep incised glacial valleys surrounded by high peaks form the modern topography of the Southern Patagonian Andes. Two Miocene plutonic complexes in the Andean retroarc, the cores of the Fitz Roy (49°S) and Torres del Paine (51°S) massifs, were emplaced at 16.7±0.3 Ma and 12.5±0.1 Ma, respectively. Subduction of ocean ridge segments initiated at 54...

The evolution of orogenic wedges can be determined through stratigraphic and thermochronological analysis. We used apatite fission-track (AFT) and apatite and zircon (U–Th–Sm) / He (AHe and ZHe) low-temperature thermochronology to assess the thermal evolution of the Ukrainian Carpathians, a prime example of an orogenic wedge forming in a retreating...

The provenance of Early Cretaceous sandstones dredged on the northern margin of the Demerara Plateau, offshore French Guiana and Suriname, reveals the sediment routing system that prevailed through the Equatorial Atlantic rifting. Fission‐track analysis and U‐Pb dating of 310 and 111 detrital zircons, respectively, have been performed. Microfacies...

Constraining the relative roles of erosion and tectonics in the evolution of mountain belts is a challenging scientific goal. In this review article on the Western Alps, we show how it becomes possible to "bridge the gap" between the long-term (>Ma) orogenic evolution controlled by tecton-ics and exhumation processes and the recent geomorphological...

The evolution of orogenic wedges can be determined through stratigraphic and thermochronological analysis. We used apatite fission-track (AFT) and apatite and zircon (U-Th-Sm)/He (AHe and ZHe) low-temperature thermochronology to assess the thermal evolution of the Ukrainian Carpathians, a prime example of an orogenic wedge forming in a retreating s...

Both the kinematics and dynamics of topographic growth of the Tibetan Plateau remain debated, despite their significance for understanding the evolution of continental lithospheric geodynamics, climate, and biodiversity in Asia. Topographic swath profiles reveal the diversity of high-elevation, low-relief plateau surfaces or “relict landscapes” thr...

The Colombian island of San Andrés is a popular tourist destination located about 195 km offshore of the east coast of Nicaragua in the southwestern Caribbean Sea. Together with Providencia and Santa Catalina, San Andrés is part of the UNESCO Seaflower Biosphere Reserve. With a 26 km ² surface area and 78 000 inhabitants, San Andrés is one of the m...

The Jiacha Gorge in southeastern Tibet is the second-largest deeply incised gorge of the Yarlung-Tsangpo River, after the Tsangpo Gorge. A late Cenozoic N-S−trending normal fault, the Woka Rift fault, coincides with the western limit of the gorge. However, the relationship between the formation of the gorge, drainage evolution, and rift activity re...

Here, we present seven new zircon (U-Th)/He (ZHe) ages and three new zircon fission track (ZFT) ages analyzed from an age-elevation profile (Machu Picchu, Peru). ZFT data present ages older than those obtained with other thermochronological data, whereas the ZHe data interestingly present ages similar to those obtained with apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe)....

Collisional shortening in the external Western Alps was first accommodated by internal (distributed) deformation in the External Crystalline Massifs (ECM) and then on frontal crustal ramps (localized deformation). However, the timing of transition between these two periods is still under-constrained, mainly because the available dataset is incomple...

We present here seven new zircon (U-Th)/He (ZHe) ages and three new zircon fission track ages (ZFT) analyzed from an age-elevation profile (Machu Picchu, Peru). ZFT data present older ages in comparison with the other thermochronological data, whereas the ZHe data interestingly present similar ages than the ones obtained with apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe...

A new data set combining thermobarometry, geo‐thermochronology, chronostratigraphic, and structural analyses highlights the tectono‐thermal evolution of the St. Martin granodiorite from its emplacement to its surface exposure. The described vertical motions in this part of the upper plate of the Lesser Antilles subduction zone since 30 Myrs are lin...

According to their respective temperature sensitivities, Apatite (U-Th)/He (AHe) and apatite fission-track (AFT) thermochronology records the thermal evolution of the upper crust (<5 km) and is a key for distinguishing between different exhumation mechanisms through time-evolving rock uplift, and landscape evolution. We applied these methods to ext...

The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta Massif (SNSM) in the Northern Andes affords an insight into lower crustal section structural relations. This polymetamorphic basement comprises high-grade gneisses, which alternate with imbricate slivers of medium-to high-grade schists. New field observations coupled with LA-ICP-MS U-Pb zircon geochronology and trac...

Whereas a straightforward link between crustal thinning and geothermal gradients during rifting is now well established, the thermal structure of sedimentary basins within hyperextended domains remains poorly documented. For this purpose, we investigate the spatial distribution of rift-related High- Temperature Low-Pressure (HT/LP) metamorphism rec...

The left lateral strike-slip Bucaramanga Fault exhibits a transpressional southern termination located towards the axial zone of the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia, where the Boyacá and Soapaga Faults are also identified as inversion-related structures. To unravel their exhumation history, we obtained apatite and zircon fission-track and (U–Th)/He...

The Guajira Arch is located in the northernmost portion of South America and holds the record of several stages of magmatism and metamorphism. We performed LA-ICP-MS U–Pb zircon geochronology coupled with Lu–Hf isotope geochemistry on 11 samples from a high-grade gneissic basement hosting interleaved complexes of younger meta-granitoids and meta-se...

Linking the long-term with the short-term exhumation history of a mountain range is vital for understanding the evolution of orogenic topography. Further, erosion rates could be controlled by the variability of climatic and/or tectonic processes over geological time. For example, in the Eastern Cordillera of the Colombian Andes, until recently clim...

Located at the northern tip of the Altiplano, the Abancay Deflection marks abruptly the latitudinal segmentation of the Central Andes spreading over the Altiplano to the south and the Eastern Cordillera northward. The striking morphological contrast between the low‐relief Altiplano and the high‐relief Eastern Cordillera makes this area a well‐suite...

The roughly 600 km long Central Cordillera of Colombia shows a varied tectonic, magmatic, and exhumation history, despite the reasonably homogenous appearance concerning topography, outcropping lithologies, and strike. Here we show with new geo-thermochronological data the thermal evolution of the southern Central Cordillera since the Early Jurassi...

Low-Temperature thermochronological data (AHe/AFT) for cooling dynamic investigation of the Abancay Deflection region (Southern Peru), 2017-2019. PANGAEA , https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.929199 Located at the northern tip of the Altiplano, the Abancay Deflection marks abruptly the latitudinal segmentation of the Central Andes spreading over the A...

Early phases of mountain building are usually poorly constrained although they may provide insights into both the wedge rheology and the role of inheritance. In the central Pyrenean Axial Zone, a main exhumation peak at 35–30 Ma is particularly well constrained but the previous exhumation stages are much less constrained. In this study, we present...

Break-up of western Pangaea initiated a back-arc type tectonic setting along the northwestern margin of Gondwana, which resulted in the accumulation of sedimentary and volcanic deposits in extensional basins during the Middle-Late Triassic. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta massif, at the northwestern termination of the Andes, exposes Upper Triassic...

Break-up of western Pangaea initiated a back-arc type tectonic setting along the northwestern margin of Gondwana, which resulted in the accumulation of sedimentary and volcanic deposits in extensional basins during the Middle-Late Triassic. The Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta massif, at the northwestern termination of the Andes, exposes Upper Triassic...

Understanding long-term hillslope and fluvial processes in tropical mountainous settings is key for improving models of local landscape evolution and natural hazard assessment, particularly in relation to mass-wasting and torrential events. Cosmic Ray Exposure (CRE) dating is a powerful tool to constraining timing and rates of geomorphic processes...

New detrital apatite and zircon fission-track thermochronology ages were determined in four rivers (Onzaga, Los Micos, Mogoticos, and Chaguacá) located along the southern termination of the Bucaramanga Fault System in the Eastern Cordillera of Colombia. Younger populations of apatite fission-track (AFT) ages were found in the Onzaga and Los Micos r...

The Amag ́a basin between the Western and Central Cordilleras of the Northern Andes of Colombia hosts the Neogene volcanic and volcaniclastic Combia Formation. Deposition of the Combia Formation in relation to Nazca plate subduction and arc volcanism is still a matter of debate. Therefore, the timing, petrography and geochemical characteristics of...

The Geology of Colombia book provides an updated background of the geological knowledge of Colombia by integrating the most up–to–date research covering paleontology, biostratigraphy, sedimentary basin analysis, sedimentology, sequence stratigraphy, stratigraphy, geophysics, geochronology, geochemistry, thermochronology, tectonics, structure, volca...

The Abancay Deflection, forming the northern edge of the Altiplano in the Peruvian Andes, is a remarkable geomorphological feature marking the along-strike segmentation of the Andes. Little is known about the timing and spatial distribution of exhumation in this area. To constrain the exhumation history of the Abancay Deflection and its drivers, we...

The Indus‐Yarlung suture of southernmost Tibet marks the initial collisional zone, the ongoing India‐Asia collision, and yet more than ~30 million years after the onset of collision, a thick detrital sedimentary unit was deposited just north of the suture: the Kailas Formation. The mechanism permitting subsidence of the deep intracontinental Kailas...

Both the kinematics and dynamics for topographic growth of the Tibetan Plateau remain debated despite their significance for understanding the evolution of continental lithospheric geodynamics, climate, and biodiversity in Asia. Morphometric analysis reveals the continuity of high-elevated peneplains through the Songpan-Garze-Yidun, Qiangtang and L...

The interpretation of modern river apatite fission track (AFT) data of Taiwan by Resentini et al. (2020) presents some fundamental inaccuracies that call in question the main conclusions of the paper. The study aims at approximating source rock cooling histories by analysing erosional products, but ignores existing bedrock data in their maps and di...

Supplementary Material for Govin et al., Geology 2020

The Himalayan syntaxes, characterized by extreme rates of rock exhumation co-located with major trans-orogenic rivers, figure prominently in the debate on tectonic versus erosional forcing of exhumation. Both the mechanism and timing of rapid exhumation of the Namche Barwa massif in the eastern syntaxis remain controversial. It has been argued that...

We report apatite fission-track and ¹⁰ Be terrestrial cosmogenic nuclide (TCN) dating of 14 moraine boulders originating from inland Terre Adélie, East Antarctica. These data show cooling of the Proterozoic Terre Adélie craton at < ~120°C between 350 and 300 Ma, suggesting > 4 km temperate glacial erosion during the Late Palaeozoic Ice Age, followe...

The Abancay Deflection, forming the northern edge of the Altiplano in the Peruvian Andes, is a remarkable geomorphic feature marking the along-strike segmentation of the Andes. Little is known about the timing and spatial distribution of exhumation in this remote area. To constrain the exhumation of the Abancay Deflection, we present apatite (U-Th)...

Determining the crystallization and cooling ages of detrital zircons from ancient sedimentary rocks or modern river sediments is a powerful method for tracing the sediment provenance and exhumation of orogenic mountain belts. Here, we present a study of the U–Pb and fission–track dating of detrital zircons from: (1) the sedimentary cover units of t...

Apatite and zircon fission–track data from crystalline rocks collected along an east–to–west elevational profile across the Bucaramanga strike–slip fault in the Cepitá area and thermal history modeling show the four–stage thermal history of the southwestern Santander Massif of the northern Andes in Colombia. A 60 my phase of burial heating from the...

Apatite fission-track analysis of middle Bengal fan sediments (IODP expedition 354) and modern Himalayan river sediments shows that most of the detrital apatites are very young compared to their depositional ages, independent of their uranium content. Bengal fan apatites display an average central age lag time as short as 2.26±1.6 Myr since at leas...

Tectonic geomorphology and geomorphic indices are nowadays one of the most used tools to quantify landscape response to recent tectonic activity and thus to study active faulting in orogens around the world. Based on this, a tectonic geomorphology study was conducted on the Bucaramanga Fault System (BFS) at the Chicamocha Canyon, which is structura...