Tectono-metamorphic evolution of Syros and Sifnos islands (Cyclades, Greece)

Miocene exhumation of metamorphic rocks in the Aegean Sea is partly a conse quence of post-orogenic extension. If the postorogenic mechanism of exhumat ion is rather well understood, the earlier syn-orogenic Eocene exhumation i s still largely enigmatic. Previous authors have argued in terms of extensi on or compression. New structural and petrological data on Sifnos and Syros islands show that exhumation of high pressure-low temperature (HP-LT) rock s involves crustal-scale extensional ductile shear zones during the Eocene. We observe a continuum of top-to-the-NE and -E ductile shear from the Eoce ne (in the blueschist facies) to the Miocene (in the greenschist facies). T his deformation is distributed in the eclogites and blueschists, whereas it is rather localised along ductile shear zones in the greenschists. Eclogit es, which are preserved only at the top of the structural pile, are exhumed with a 'cold' retrograde P-T path. In the lower part of the structural pil e we observe a progressive retrogression of eclogites in blueschist then gr eenschist facies. This lower part of pile is subsequently exhumed with P-T paths showing a nearly isothermal decompression before cooling. P-T-t-defor mation data suggest that the Cycladic blueschists are progressively exhumed by a continuum of accretion at the base of the orogenic wedge, and by a pa rtly non-coaxial extensional deformation above, distributed during the syn- orogenic stage, then localised during the post-orogenic stage. We then comp are the mechanism of syn-orogenic exhumation of Crete and the Cyclades and we discuss a simple geodynamic scenario for the Aegean domain and the exter nal Hellenides which accounts for (1) the southward migration of the Hellen ic trench and arc during the Cenozoic; (2) the P-T-t-deformation data for t he Cycladic blueschists and the Phyllite-quartzite nappe; and (3) the trans ition from syn-orogenic to post-orogenic in the Cyclades. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.