Alpine exhumation of the central Cantabrian Mountains, Northwest Spain

The Cantabrian Mountains extend along the Atlantic coast of northern Spain and are known to have experienced an Alpine phase of deformation, reactivating well-expressed Variscan structures. They form the westward continuation of the Pyrenean range and were similarly uplifted consequently to the convergence between the Iberian and European plates. Nevertheless, due to the scarcity of syntectonic sediments and structural markers in a large outcrop of Variscan basement, little is known about the precise timing and amount of the Alpine exhumation phase in the Cantabrian Mountains. We present a new low-temperature thermochronology data set, composed of nine apatite fission track (AFT) and six zircon (U-Th)/He (ZHe) ages, sampled along structurally well-constrained N-S profiles through the central part of the Cantabrian Mountains and complemented by 3-D thermokinematic modeling. The occurrence of Eocene-Oligocene AFT and ZHe ages in the center of the profiles allows us to frame the period of Alpine exhumation from 39 to 29Ma, at a rate of 0.24-0.3kmMyr(-1). Moreover, the reset ZHe ages imply significant burial of the samples, by up to 8-10km in the center of the range. Therefore, the Alpine exhumation phase was significant, and synchronous to the main phase of exhumation in the central Pyrenees, although exhumation rates were an order of magnitude lower. Three-dimensional thermokinematic modeling of the data confirms the timing of uplift of this area, but its resolution is limited by the relatively small number of reset ages over a large area.