Abstract The Ordovician successions of France and neighbouring areas of Belgium and Germany are reviewed and correlated based on international chronostratigraphic and regional biostratigraphic charts. The same three megasequences related to the rift, drift and docking of Avalonia with Baltica can be tracked in Belgium and neighbouring areas (Brabant Massif and Ardenne inliers), western (Rhenish Massif) and northeastern Germany (Rügen). The remaining investigated areas were part of Gondwana in the Ordovician. The Armorican Massif shares with the Iberian Peninsula a Furongian–Early Ordovician gap (Toledanian or Norman gap), and a continuous Mid–Late Ordovician shelf sedimentation. The Occitan Domain (Montagne Noire and Mouthoumet massifs), eastern Pyrenees and northwestern Corsica share with southwestern Sardinia continuous shelf sedimentation in the Early Ordovician, and a Mid Ordovician ‘Sardic gap’. In the Ordovician, the Maures Massif probably belonged to the same Sardo-Occitan domain. The Vosges and Schwarzwald massifs display comparable, poorly preserved Ordovician successions, suggesting affinities with the Teplá-Barrandian and/or Moldanubian zones of Central Europe.

Abstract This review illustrates the most important features of the Ordovician successions of the Sardinian basement. We focus on the stratigraphy and tectonic structures in the tectonic units of the External and Nappe zones of the Variscan basement. The Ordovician successions are characterized by unconformities related to tectonic events ascribed to the Sardic and Sarrabese phases. The different durations of the unconformity-related gaps in the External (17 myr) and Nappe (6 myr) zones, recent work on the trilobite fossil content, and the occurrence of a volcanic arc only in the Nappe Zone (Sarrabus and Gerrei units) highlight significant discrepancies suggesting that these domains did not share the same geodynamic setting and palaeogeographical position during the Ordovician. This implies they were amalgamated only in Variscan times. Whereas for the external and nappe zones the Ordovician features are clear, the high-grade metamorphic Inner Zone, where numerous Ordovician ortho- and para-gneiss occur, more detailed studies are needed to define a complete framework for the Ordovician evolution of Sardinia. The present revision of data for the best-preserved succession of Sardinian tectonic units suggests that at least two distinct terranes, which did not share the same Ordovician evolution, were only amalgamated during the Variscan Orogeny.