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HEAT SOURCES AND EXHUMATION MECHANISMS 87(Janousˇek & Holub, 2007). As noted by the sameauthors, multi-element plots for the Moldanubian felsicgranulites (Fig. 5a) <strong>and</strong> ultrapotassic rocks(Fig. 5d) are largely mutually complementary. Themost striking are the cases <strong>of</strong> Cs, Rb, Th, U, Pb <strong>and</strong> Li,which are impoverished in the felsic granulites butstrongly enriched in the ultrapotassic magmatic rocks.NUMERICAL MODELLING CONSTRAINTS ONHEAT SOURCES AND EMPLACEMENTMECHANISMS OF THE OROGENIC LOWERCRUSTTo constrain the heat source driving the tectonic processes<strong>of</strong> vertical extrusion three contrasting, but notmutually exclusive, hypotheses will be tested. Heatcould be generated by: (i) in situ decay <strong>of</strong> radioactiveelements contained in the FLC (U, Th <strong>and</strong> K); (ii)radioactive elements present in the metasomatized orcrustally contaminated mantle; <strong>and</strong> (iii) a large-scalethermal anomaly generated in the mantle as a result <strong>of</strong>slab break <strong>of</strong>f or mantle delamination.Fig. 6. Model geometry, initial lithology distribution, boundaryconditions <strong>and</strong> location <strong>of</strong> tracked samples used for <strong>numerical</strong>simulations.The annual thermal productions were calculatedfollowing the method <strong>of</strong> Kramers et al. (2001), usingdecay constants <strong>and</strong> specific heat production datasummarized by van Schmus (1995; table 8). The pastannual heat production (lW kg )1 ) can be obtainedfrom the elemental concentrations <strong>of</strong> K, U <strong>and</strong> Thusing the equation:HðlW kg 1 623:45 10 2:638 10Þ¼Ke 0:554t þ The0:0495t324:03777 10 9:396852 10þ Ue 0:985t þe 0:1551t ;ð1Þwhere t represents age in Ga <strong>and</strong> K, U, Th are concentrationsin ppm.Model setupThe <strong>numerical</strong> model studies outlined below describe thetransient thermal evolution <strong>of</strong> a thickened orogenicdomain (Fig. 6) characterized by the presence <strong>of</strong> tectonicallyaccreted felsic rocks, including granulites,within orogenic lower crust. This FLC directly underliesa mafic layer which was added to Neoproterozoic crustduring early Palaeozoic crustal stretching <strong>and</strong> magmaticunder-plating. The presence <strong>of</strong> low density FLC below adense mafic layer introduces significant gravitationalinstability within the lower crust (Gerya et al., 2001)which could trigger crustal diapirism (Ramberg, 1981;Perchuk, 1989) <strong>and</strong> perturbate the thermal field. We usethermal <strong>and</strong> dynamic <strong>numerical</strong> models to examine therole <strong>of</strong> high radioactive heat production located in theFLC as a main c<strong>and</strong>idate triggering the gravitationalinstability as a result <strong>of</strong> pronounced progressive generation<strong>of</strong> heat <strong>and</strong> subsequent change in density because<strong>of</strong> thermal expansion.The model is set up to allow the definition <strong>of</strong> differentmaterial domains with different thermal <strong>and</strong> mechanicalproperties (Table 2) on high-resolution Lagrangianmarkers initially arranged in a rectangular grid (Gerya& Yuen, 2003). Properties are mapped to a Eulerianstaggered grid where governing equations are solved fortemperature change (DT) <strong>and</strong> velocity. In each time,step markers are advected according to the updatedvelocity field <strong>and</strong> all temperature-dependent variablesTable 1. Calculated radioactive heat production values for Fichtelgebirge metaigneous rocks, felsic Moldanubian granulites <strong>and</strong>Moldanubian peridotite (present <strong>and</strong> at 340 Ma).Rock type Age (Ma) Density (kg m )3 ) Concentrations (ppm) A (lW m )3 )K Th U40 K232 Th235 U238 U Present PastFichtelgebirge 340 2700 38642.550 13.00 9.00 7.3421 13.00 0.064 8.935 3.670 3.920Moldanubian granulites 340 2750 38601.045 2.10 1.00 7.3342 2.10 0.007 0.993 0.788 0.885Hornı´ Bory peridotite 340 3200 940.537 0.11 0.57 0.1787 0.11 0.004 0.568 0.176 0.214Data sources for averaged whole-rock compositions: Fichtebeirge metaigneous rocks: Siebel et al. (1997), Wieg<strong>and</strong> (1997).Felsic Moldanubian granulites (SiO 2 > 70 wt%): Janousˇek et al. (2004b <strong>and</strong> references therein).Hornı´ Bory peridotite: Ackerman et al. (2009).Ó 2010 Blackwell Publishing Ltd189

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