Late- to post-orogenic exhumation of the Central Pyrenees revealed through combined thermochronological data and modelling.

Apatite (U–Th)/He and fission track thermochronometry have been combined with 3D thermal modelling to constrain the late- to post-orogenic exhumation history of the Central Pyrenees, Spain. Data from four massifs immediately north and south of the present drainage divide of the mountain belt reveal a diachroneity in the transition from syn- to post-orogenic forcing of exhumation. Immediately south of the drainage divide, rapid exhumation of ∼1.5 mm year−1 decelerated after ∼30 Ma to ∼0.03 mm year−1. A similar transition occurred immediately north of the drainage divide at the same time. Further south, in the core of the Axial Zone antiformal stack of the Pyrenees, rapid (∼1 mm year−1), syn-orogenic exhumation continued to ∼20 Ma, but slowed to ∼0.1–0.2 mm year−1 soon after that time. This order of magnitude decrease in exhumation rates across the orogen records the diachronous transition into a post-orogenic state for the mountain belt. These data do not record rejuvenation of exhumation in Late Miocene or Pliocene times driven either by large-scale base-level change or an evolution to more erosive climatic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]