Résumé
In this work on a complete transect of the west‐central Pyrenees, we combine low temperature thermochronology (apatite fission tracks, AFT) with a detailed structural analysis to describe vertical movements related to the thrusting system evolution, and to determine the influence of the latter on the sedimentation/burial/exhumation cycle of thesynorogenic deposits of the southern foreland basin (Jaca and Ainsa basins). AFT analysis from a transect of the south‐Pyrenean basin show the southward decrease of the fission track reset level from the southern edge of the Axial Zone to the South‐Pyreneanfrontal thrust, implying the southwards decrease of the burial amount from more than 5kmin the north to less than 3km in the south assuming an average geothermal gradient of 25°C.km‐1. The structural setting of the Jaca basin attests that the burial of the synorogenicsediments was mainly due to the sedimentary accumulation. AFT data from the northernpart of the basin display a late Oligocene‐early (middle) Miocene cooling event. Newinterpretation of industrial seismic reflection profiles across the Jaca basin suggests that the Oturia thrust is rooted in the Bielsa basement thrust, responsible for the early (‐middle) Miocene out‐of‐sequence tectonic reactivation of the southern flank of the Axial Zone (Jolivet et al., 2007). These results reveal a lower Miocene (Burdigalian ‐?Langhian) out‐of sequence episode of tectonic activity of the interior of the south‐Pyrenean foreland basin. AFT data from the Axial Zone and the North‐Pyrenean Zone confirm the general southwardmigration of the thrusting system, and also bring evidence of the late Oligocene‐lowe rMiocene out‐of‐sequence tectonic reactivation of the northern flank of the Axial Zone. All these results attest of a late Oligocene‐lower Miocene (Burdigalian‐?Langhian) "pop‐up" reactivation of the inner part of the west‐central Pyrenees, younger than the sealing of thesouth‐Pyrenean front (Aquitanian‐?Burdigalian) which is classically considered to mark the end of the Pyrenean compression. These results lead us to propose a new crustal scale evolution model of the west‐central Pyrenees in 3 stages: (i) From the Late Cretaceous to themiddle Eocene, the orogenic prism is characterised by the absence of relief, related to theinversion of Cretaceous extensional structures leading to the accretion of thin crustal units; (ii) The late Eocene‐Oligocene stage corresponds to the continental collision, marked by the creation of important relief associated with the accretion of thick crustal units; (iii) During the early Miocene, the inner part of the Pyrenean wedge is tectonically reactivated.