Abstract

In the Agly Massif (Pyrenees), two Variscan plutons, the Saint-Arnac pluton and the Ansignan charnockite, intrude different levels of a c. 10 km thick crustal section. The Saint-Arnac pluton intrudes through upper crustal rocks and the Ansignan charnockite cuts mid-crustal country-rocks. A structural study of these plutons based on the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility technique, combined with a kinematic study of the country-rocks, shows that the structures and emplacement modes of the plutons are compatible with those of the other plutons of the Pyrenees emplaced during the D₂ transpressive phase. U–Pb dating on zircons from the Saint-Arnac pluton yields a 308.3 ± 1.2 Ma age for a diorite and a 303.6 ± 4.7 Ma age for a granodiorite. The charnockite was previously dated at 315 Ma. The emplacement ages of these two intrusions are thus separated by at least 5 Ma. First, numerous sills and laccoliths, such as the Ansignan laccolith, were injected in the middle crust, and this induced heating and thickening. Subsequently, the large Saint-Arnac pluton was injected in the upper crust at the beginning of formation of a gneissic dome.