The Late Mesozoic to Palaeogene cooling history of the Thuringian Forest basement high and its southern periphery (Central Germany) revealed by combined fission-track and U-Pb LA-ICP-MS dating

We present new results from a fission track (FT) and U-Pb Laser Ablation Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) double dating approach on zircon and apatite from the Thuringian Forest, a prominent fault-bounded basement high in central Germany, and its southwestern periphery exposing Mesozoic strata. Samples were col-lected from seven exposures of igneous rocks as well as from lower to upper Permian (Rotliegend) continental red beds and volcanics recovered from a borehole southwest of the Thuringian Forest. U-Pb LA-ICP-MS data on zircons from surface exposures of igneous rocks yielded ages between 330 and 300 Ma, confirming emplacement of granitoids into Upper Prote-rozoic to Lower Palaeozoic Variscan-deformed country rocks. Apatite FT ages range between 86 and 70 Ma, suggesting rock uplift associated with a well-documented and regionally important phase of NNE-SSW-directed intraplate contraction, re-sulting in spatially homogeneous removal of ca. 3 km of Upper Palaeozoic to Mesozoic rocks. No change in apatite FT ages was detected across the regional-scale Franconian Fault system at the southwestern margin of the Thuringian Forest. Addi-tionally, apatite FT ages of borehole samples southwest of the Thuringian Forest from depths between 963 and 2,712 m range from 57 to 18 Ma, suggesting post-Late Cretaceous cooling of this peripheral region. Our data hence support recent models of a continued large-scale domal uplift of Central Germany without verifiable or detectable involvement of indi-vidual faults.