The north cycladic detachment system and associated mineralization, Mykonos, Greece: Insights on the evolution of the Aegean domain

Abstract : In the Aegean back-arc domain, some 30-35 Ma ago, an increase of the rate of slab retreat led to the initiation of post-orogenic extension, largely accommodated by large-scale structures such as the North Cycladic Detachment System (NCDS). Although this extension is still active nowadays, an E-W compressional regime developed in the Late Miocene with the propagation of the North Anatolian Fault. On Mykonos island (Cyclades), the NE-SW back-arc extension is particularly well expressed with the Livada and Mykonos detachments that belong to the NCDS and that are associated with NW-SE barite veins emplaced during the synkinematic cooling of the Mykonos intrusion. This study shows that the formation of the mineralization occurred when the pluton crossed the ductile-to-brittle transition during its exhumation below the NCDS at ~11-10 Ma. In addition, the kinematics of mineralized structures evolved with time: (1) most of the displacement was accommodated by the top-to-the-NE Livada and Mykonos detachments accompanied by the formation of mineralized normal faults that were (2) reworked in a strike-slip regime with an E-W direction of shortening and a persistent NE-SW stretching and (3) a latepost-mineralization E-W compressional stage with a minor reworking of shallow-dipping faults (locally including the detachments themselves). We interpret this increase of the E-W shortening component recorded during the mineraldeposition as a consequence of the initiation of the westward motion of Anatolia from 10 Ma, thus 4 Ma before the propagation of the North Anatolian Fault in the Dardanelles Strait and the localization of the strain on the Aegean Sea margins.