Post-collisional mantle delamination in the Dinarides implied from staircases of Oligo-Miocene uplifted marine terraces

www.nature.com/scientificreports OPEN Post‑collisional mantle delamination in the Dinarides implied from staircases of Oligo‑Miocene uplifted marine terraces Philipp Balling1*, Christoph Grützner1, Bruno Tomljenović2, Wim Spakman3 & Kamil Ustaszewski1 The Dinarides fold-thrust belt on the Balkan Peninsula resulted from convergence between the Adriatic and Eurasian plates since Mid-Jurassic times. Under the Dinarides, S-wave receiver functions, P-wave tomographic models, and shear-wave splitting data show anomalously thin lithosphere overlying a short down-flexed slab geometry. This geometry suggests a delamination of Adriatic lithosphere. Here, we link the evolution of this continental convergence system to hitherto unreported sets of extensively uplifted Oligocene–Miocene (28–17 Ma) marine terraces preserved at elevations of up to 600 m along the Dinaric coastal range. River incision on either side of the Mediterranean-Black Sea drainage divide is comparable to the amounts of terrace uplift. The preservation of the uplifted terraces implies that the most External Dinarides did not experience substantial deformation other than surface uplift in the Neogene. These observations and the contemporaneous emplacement of igneous rocks (33–22 Ma) in the internal Dinarides suggest that the Oligo-Miocene orogen-wide uplift was driven by post-break-off delamination of the Adriatic lithospheric mantle, this was followed by isostatic readjustment of the remaining crust. Our study details how lithospheric delamination exerts an important control on crustal deformation and that its crustal signature and geomorphic imprint can be preserved for millions of years. The influence of deep-seated processes on deformation patterns and rates in collisional orogens is unequivocally accepted, yet challenging to quantify. It is well established that an interplay between plate convergence and subduction velocity causes subducted slabs to either advance or retreat, exerting first-order control on the orogenic style1–3. It is less well understood how the removal of the lithospheric mantle of an orogen modifies that interplay4. The mechanism of lithosphere root removal can be related to: (i) sudden or gradual slab breakoff or detachment5,6; (ii) gradual viscous drip-type lithospheric instability7or (iii) thermal attenuation of the lithosphere by asthenospheric upwelling leading to delamination of the lithospheric m antle8–11. Delamination is the process that decouples negatively-buoyant lithospheric mantle from buoyant crust, allowing replacement with less dense asthenosphere and leading to surface and Moho uplift and cogenetic m agmatism8. This can be either achieved by syn-collisional9 or by post-collisional delamination8. Evidence for delamination is usually only available from geophysical imaging, from geochemical/geochronological data, or from the topographic signal of the crustal response. In this paper we show that the present-day topography of the Dinarides still holds a record of delamination that occurred during the Oligo-Miocene. The Dinarides fold and thrust belt. The Dinarides form a SW-directed nappe stack that resulted from convergence between the Adriatic and Eurasian plates since Mid-Jurassic times12. They are subdivided into the ophiolite-bearing13 Internal and the External Dinarides, the latter mainly built up by Mesozoic platform 1 Institute for Geological Sciences, Friedrich-Schiller-University Jena, Burgweg 11, 07749 Jena, Germany. 2Faculty of Mining, Geology and Petroleum Engineering, University of Zagreb, Pierottijeva 6, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia. 3Faculty of Geosciences, Utrecht University, Vening Meineszgebouw A Princetonlaan 8a, 3584 CB Utrecht, The Netherlands. *email: Philipp.Balling@uni‑jena.de Scientific Reports | (2021) 11:2685 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81561-5 1 Vol.:(0123456789) www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Figure 1.   (a) DEM34 of Circum-Adriatic orogens, location of the Eo-Oligocene magmatic d omain20 and 68 locations of Neogene foreland basins (AFBS: Apennine Foreland Basin System) ; SAB: South Adriatic B asin54. (b) DEM34 with the position of all mapped marine terraces located within the Dinaric slab gap. Spaced dots show the leading edge of the slab top extracted from the mapped positive velocity anomalies of tomography model UU-P0724,25. Shear wave splitting axes indicate the direction of orogen-perpendicular mantle fl ow26. Black dotted line shows drainage divide separating the Adriatic, Black and Aegean Sea catchments. Yellow labels point to locations of coastal-near Miocene freshwater sediments. (c) Swath profiles along the Dinaric rivers show a symmetric incision across the drainage divide. carbonates14 and mid-Eocene–Early Oligocene syn-tectonic s ediments15. Following Cretaceous oceanic subduction and late Cretaceous continent–continent collision, the Internal Dinarides were the first to undergo crustal shortening during the P aleocene16. Propositions for detachment of the oceanic slab vary between the early Oligocene17 to late Eocene18,19. Slab detachment possibly progressed from the NW to the SE20. A short slab reaching depths between 150 and 180 km and the gap left by slab detachment are observed in various P-wave tomography models21–25 and in shear-wave splitting (SKS) d ata26. Due to the uniform orogen-perpendicular orientation of the SKS values, the mantle flow at a depth of > 150 km underneath the Dinarides is not governed by the presence of an orogen-parallel deep slab (Fig. 1b, 3D view supplement A1). Such a barrier on the lithospheric scale would rather favor orogen-parallel over orogen- perpendicular mantle flow patterns. Continued shortening, crustal thickening, and foreland flexure in the External Dinarides led to the deposition of Eocene– Oligocene syntectonic deposits27–31, subdivided into the proximal coarse-grained molasse (Promina Beds)27–30 and the fine-grained distal “flysch” d eposits31. The most important geological processes shaping the Dinarides are summarized in Fig. 2. In this study we identify large, flat surfaces on Paleogene proximal syn-tectonic marine deposits and on older Mesozoic Adriatic carbonate platform bedrock along the Dinaric coast (Fig. 1). Such surfaces are absent within Miocene lacustrine sediments that were deposited around 18–13 Ma in a system of intramontane Dinaric lakes Scientific Reports | Vol:.(1234567890) (2021) 11:2685 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-021-81561-5 2 www.nature.com/scientificreports/ Figure 2.  Timetable illustrating major tectonic events in the External and Internal Dinarides and the northerly adjacent Pannonian Basin. The colored chart shows the depositional environment for the External Dinarides. The time span of the formation and uplift of the marine terraces is marked in yellow. formed on top of previously deformed bedrock32,33. So far, no geodynamic scenario has explained the occurrence of these conspicuous surfaces in the External Dinarides. (...truncated)