Late- and post-Variscan cooling and exhumation history of the northern Rhenish massif and the southern Ruhr Basin: new constraints from fission-track analysis

Apatite fission-track analyses were carried out on outcrop and core samples from the Rhenish massif and the Carboniferous Ruhr Basin/Germany in order to study the late- and post-Variscan thermal and exhumation history. Apatite fission-track ages range from 291±15 Ma (lower Permian) to 136±7 Ma (lower Cretaceous) and mean track lengths vary between 11.6 m and 13.9 m, mostly displaying unimodal distributions with narrow standard deviations. All apatite fission-track ages are younger than the corresponding sample stratigraphic age, indicating substantial post-depositional annealing of the apatite fission-tracks. This agrees with results from maturity modelling, which indicates 3500–7000 m eroded Devonian and Carboniferous sedimentary cover. Numerical modelling of apatite fission-track data predicts onset of exhumation and cooling not earlier than 320 Ma in the Rhenish massif and 300 Ma in the Ruhr Basin, generally followed by late Carboniferous–Triassic cooling to below 50–60°C. Rapid late Variscan cooling was followed by moderate Mesozoic cooling rates of 0.1–0.2°C/Ma, converting into denudation rates of <1 mm/a (assuming a stable geothermal gradient of 30°C/km). Modelling results also give evidence for some late Triassic and early Jurassic heating and/or burial, which is supported by sedimentary rocks of the same age preserved at the rim of the lower Rhine Basin and in the subsurface of the Central and Northern Ruhr Basin. Cenozoic exhumation and cooling of the Rhenish massif is interpreted as an isostatic response to former erosion and major base-level fall caused by the subsidence in the lower Rhine Basin.