The Exhumation of Continental Crust in Collisional Belts: Insights from the Deep Structure of Alpine Corsica in the Cima Pedani Area

AbstractIn northern Corsica, the Cima Pedani area is characterized by a stack of continental and oceanic units belonging to Alpine Corsica. The base of the unit stack consists of three metamorphic continental units (Canavaggia, Pedani, and Scoltola) that are overthrust by the Schistes Lustres Complex, represented by oceanic units. The continental units are metamorphic fragments of the European continental margin. They include a Paleozoic basement intruded by Permo-Carboniferous metagranitoids covered by Permian metavolcanites and a Triassic-Jurassic metacarbonatic sequence, unconformably covered by metabreccias and metasandstones of Eocene age. These units are affected by a polyphased tectonometamorphic history acquired in a time frame from the Priabonian to the Aquitanian. The reconstructed pressure-temperature (P-T) paths and the related deformations describe a retrograde history acquired during their progressive exhumation, whereas no trace of the older prograde history has been preserved. In all the r...