Work

Dolomite luminescence thermochronometry reconstructs the low-temperature exhumation history of carbonate rocks in the central Apennines, Italy

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: The lack of available thermochronological methods has so far hampered reconstructions of the cooling and exhumation histories in carbonate rock regions. Here we develop a new trapped charge thermochronometry tool based on the thermoluminescence signal of dolomite. It has a closure temperature range of 45-75 °C and is applicable to carbonate domains with cooling rates of 2-200 °C per million years. This new thermochronometric technique is tested in the central Apennines, where seismogenic, carbonate-hosted normal faulting controls regional neotectonics. Thermoluminescence dating is applied along the northeastern shoulder of the Late Pliocene-Quaternary L'Aquila Intermontane Basin, at the footwall of the extensional Monte Marine Fault. Dolomite samples from the bedrock have a mean thermoluminescence age of 4.60 ± 0.35 millions of years, whereas dolomite clasts within the fault damage zone have a mean thermoluminescence age of 2.53 ± 0.13 millions of years. These new thermoluminescence ages, corroborated by the existing stratigraphic constraints, (i) provide the first direct, low-temperature exhumation ages of the carbonate bedrocks in the central Apennines; (ii) constrain the activity of the basin boundary faults along the northeastern shoulder of the L'Aquila Intermontane Basin. Our study demonstrates the potential of dolomite luminescence thermochronometry in reconstructing the low-temperature cooling/exhumation history of carbonate bedrocks.

Source: Communications Earth & Environment

DOI: 10.1038/s43247-025-02216-1