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The relationships between tectonics and magmatic activity in the Alps are still debated. Despite an active subduction since the Late Cretaceous, no arc-related magmatism is recorded prior of the Middle Eocene. The emplacement of plutons along the Insubric Fault in a short time span (~34-28 Ma) has been generally interpreted in terms of the slab break-off model. The Tertiary magmatism, however, is also characterized by the occurrence of widespread calcalkaline dikes not necessarily intruded along the Insubric Fault. The geochemical features of dikes vary along the Alps belt and are interpreted in terms of mantle source heterogeneity and degree of crustal contamination. U-Pb zircon dating of studied dikes indicates intrusion ages in the 42- to 34-Ma time interval. These data provide evidence for a pre-Oligocene magmatic activity that was not solely limited to the Adamello batholith. Moreover, it appears that dikes rejuvenate from SE to NW, in an opposite direction with respect to the Alpine subduction polarity. Thus, a more complex geodynamic scenario than the slab break-off model must be envisaged. The absence of arc magmatism prior to the Middle Eocene can be explained by the low-angle subduction of the Tethyan slab that confined the mantle partial melting zone away from the orogenic wedge. The onset of the Apennines subduction at 55-50 Ma caused the Alpine slab to retreat. The partial melting zone progressively migrated beneath the orogenic wedge and finally reached the axial belt in the Late Eocene, when the Alpine collision was completed. Only at this stage, slab break-off occurred and promoted the intrusion of the Periadriatic plutons. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Continental magmatism in southern Mexico is expected to record the eastward displacement of the Farallon-North America-Caribbean triple junction. However, a trench-transversal belt of magmatism in the central western Guerrero State does not fit into a regular pattern of arc migration and reorientation following the formation of the WSW trending Acapulco trench in the Cenozoic. We revised the magmatic pattern of southern Mexico using an updated database and new laser ablation inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe, Ar-Ar ages, and geochemical and geologic data for the coastal part of the anomalous Guerrero belt. Our data reveal a persistent magmatic activity between ~75 and 35 Ma, with a changing character at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary (circa 56 Ma). Late Cretaceous-Paleocene granitoids have an adakitic signature imprinted by stable garnet in the source and show no plagioclase fractionation, indicative of wet and oxidized magmas. Eocene rocks consist of an almost bimodal suite of plutonic bodies covered by a succession of mafic lavas. Granitic plutons show plagioclase fractionation and flat middle rare earth element-heavy rare earth element; gabbros have a tholeiitic character, indicative of dryer and more reduced magmas. They appear later and were emplaced at shallow depth in an extensional sedimentary basin. We interpret the magmatic record of the Guerrero belt as the response to two concurrent processes: (1) a temporal window in the Farallon slab induced by the concurrent subduction along the two noncollinear trench segments of southern Mexico (WNW trending) and of the Chortís block (NNW trending) and (2) a scissor-like transtensional rifting associated to counterclockwise rotation and eastward motion of the Chortís block. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Triassic succession of the central Southern Alps (Italy) is stacked into several units bounded by south-verging low-angle thrust faults, which are related to two successive steps of crustal shortening. The thrust surfaces are cut by high-angle extensional and strike-slip faults, which controlled the emplacement of hypabissal magmatic intrusions that post-date thrusts motions. Intrusion ages based on SHRIMP U-Pb zircon dating span between 42 ± 1 and 39 ± 1 Ma, suggesting close time relationships with the earliest Adamello intrusion stages and, more in general, with the widespread calc-alkaline magmatism described in the Southern Alps. Fission-track ages of magmatic apatites are indistinguishable from U-Pb crystallization ages of zircons, suggesting that the intrusion occurred in country rocks already exhumed above the partial annealing zone of apatite (depth < 2-4 km). These data indicate that the central Southern Alps were already structured and largely exhumed in the Middle Eocene. Although we describe minor faults affecting magmatic bodies and local reactivations of older structures, no major internal deformations have occurred in the area after the Bartonian. Neogene deformations were instead concentrated farther south, along the frontal part of the belt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]