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Marianske Lazne Fault
Deformation style in the damage zone of the Mondy fault: GPR evidence ( Tunka basin, southern East Siberia )
U-Pb ages from SW Poland: evidence for a Caledonian suture zone between Baltica and Gondwana
Macrofabric fingerprints of Late Devonian–Early Carboniferous subduction in the Polish Variscides, the Kaczawa complex, Sudetes
Age determination of oriented rutile inclusions in sapphire and of moonstone from the Mogok metamorphic belt, Myanmar
Anticlockwise and clockwise rotations of the Eastern Variscides accommodated by dextral lithospheric wrenching: palaeomagnetic and structural evidence
Stress-induced redistribution of yttrium and heavy rare-earth elements (HREE) in garnet during high-grade polymetamorphism
Ion Microprobe U-Pb Age and Zr-in-Rutile Thermometry of Rutiles from the Daixian Rutile Deposit in the Hengshan Mountains, Shanxi Province, China
Geophysical constraints and model of the “Saxothuringian and Rhenohercynian subductions – magmatic arc system” in NE France and SW Germany
Multi-episodic modification of high-grade terrane near Scourie and its significance in elucidating the history of the Lewisian Complex
Tracking partial melting and protolith nature by zircon U-Pb and Hf-O isotope compositions of migmatites in the North Dabie terrane with emphasis on Paleozoic low-δ 18 O magmatism
Ślęża Ophiolite: geochemical features and relationship to Lower Palaeozoic rift magmatism in the Bohemian Massif
Abstract The Ślęża Ophiolite is one of several thrust-bounded crustal slices dominated by metabasites in the western Sudetes. The apparent field association of serpentinites, gabbros and amphibolitic components led previous workers to consider that this lithological assemblage represented an ophiolite sequence. Fieldwork suggests that the ophiolite is now highly inclined, partly overturned, so that an ophiolitic pseudostratigraphy can be deduced, grading from serpentinites and gabbros in the south to metabasite lavas in the north. The recent discovery of pillow lava structures (at Gozdnica Hill, to the west of Sobótka town) confirms that the volcanic top of the ophiolite lies in the northern section, as might be expected from the ophiolite model. The gabbros have undergone greenschist facies metamorphism with the random development of low-grade amphibole. The volcanic portion of the sequence comprise metamorphosed dolerites and basalts partly within the contact aureole of the Variscan Strzegom-Sobótka granite. Previous work dated plagiogranites associated with the gabbros at about 400–420 Ma (U-Pb zircon ages). Geochemical data suggest that the gabbros are distinct and apparently not comagmatic with the volcanic section of sheeted dykes and lavas. The gabbros, in particular, although very depleted in incompatible elements are dissimilar to supra-subduction zone ophiolites, exhibiting instead N-MORB-like light REE depleted patterns. Depletion is both a feature of the cumulate character of many of the gabbros, as well as a source effect (especially the uniformly low Nb content). The metabasalts and metadolerites, on the other hand, are a well-evolved single comagmatic suite with high incompatible element contents, Zr/Y approximately 3–4, and generally flat to light REE-depleted patterns. The geochemical dichotomy of the plutonic and volcanic segments calls into question a simple interpretation of the body as a single-stage coherent stratiform ophiolite. Chemical comparison with Sudetic metabasites from within the nearby Rudawy-Janowickie and Kacazawa Complexes shows that the Ślęża metabasites have a number of features in common, including the presence of both low-Ti (gabbros) and high-Ti (dykes and lavas) chemical groups. The correlation of the gabbros, dykes and lavas with the low-Ti and high-Ti (Main Series) metatholeiites respectively, seen throughout the Bohemian Massif, as well as the Sudetes, places them within the regional collage of Palaeozoic crustal blocks separated by the Saxothuringian Seaway. Comparison with Bohemian Massif metabasites also indicates that sediment contamination of the Ślęża Ophiolite sources was not an important process and that an enriched plume source played no part in the generation of the ophiolitic melts. The two Ślęża chemical groups were derived from variably depleted asthenospheric mantle sources. Simple modelling suggests that the volcanic segment could have been derived by 10–15% partial melting of a depleted N-MORB source, whereas the plutonic segment represents around 30% partial melting of a more depleted source. To develop varying degrees of depletion in an oceanic environment, the two sources could be related via incremental partial melting of a shallow MORB-type source.
KTB Deep Drilling Site and Czech-Bavarian Geopark—Two best practice examples of geoscience outreach
Abstract This excursion gives an introduction to the geoscience education region of north-eastern Bavaria. Thanks to its rich mining history, the geological variability and the long record of geological research in the area itself and its eastward continuation into Bohemia, northeastern Bavaria is a prime destination for geoscience education of non-geologists. Ordinary people experience to what extent their living environment is related to geology. Geoscientific knowledge is a major requirement for future sustainable development, but it is currently underrepresented in society. The geological outreach center at the continental deep drilling site is based on the famous Continental Deep Drilling Program (KTB) that probed the deeper crust of the Earth between 1987 and 1994. The outreach center communicates modern geoscience research results from the perspective of a dynamic Earth, which directly affects everybody’s life. Centrally positioned in a geologically unique area, it highlights the geological significance of the entire region. It is an almost natural development that such a region qualified to become the Czech-Bavarian Geopark. Its key topics are geodynamic and morphodynamic processes, human activity as a factor of landform development, geology as a fundamental base of economic and cultural development, the geological center of Europe, and the development from neptunism to the System Planet Earth. Geological outreach of the geopark obviously combines with social and cultural aspects. The geopark aims to emphasize the specific regional features in order to improve the public understanding of geological objects and their meaning in nature, and it provides an opportunity for the identification of the population with their regional living environment. Last but not least, geoscience outreach in the area is widely recognized as providing a significant benefit to the tourism industry.
Alpine tectonics north of the Alps
Abstract The Cenozoic tectonic evolution of Central Europe was governed over long periods of time by far-field stresses resulting from continent collision in the Alps (which is still ongoing) ridge push in the Atlantic Ocean, and other sources. Such far-field stresses interfered with more local stresses related to processes such as the rise of mantle plumes, leading to the Cenozoic volcanism of Central Europe, and glaciation. Alpine tectonics north of the Alps began with the effects, of Late Cretaceous_Early Palaeogene continent collision in the Pyrenees, on the European crust. During Tertiary times, the stress field was unstable and repeatedly changed both in terms of magnitude and orientation. Notably, an episode of ESE-WNW to east-west directed extension during the late Eocene to Oligocene created the European Cenozoic Rift System (Rhône-Bresse Graben, Upper Rhine Graben, Lower Rhine Basin, and others) which up to the present is tectonically the most active zone of Central Europe. Flexural basins formed in the southernmost part of the Alpine-Carpathian foreland. The Jura Mountains also form part of the Alpine foreland, although they could, from a tectonic point of view, also be regarded as part of the Alps. They represent the most external foreland fold-and-thrust belt of the Alps. Folding and thrusting in the Jura Mountains took place during the Middle Miocene to Pliocene, and the thrust front presently propagates northward into the Upper Rhine Graben. The Alpine tectonics of southern Germany may best be described in terms of reactivation of older inherited, mainly Variscan, basement structures. This is also the case for the central Leine Graben, the Harz Mountains and parts of the North German Basin. Because of the frequent reactivation of faults, the following sections include some remarks on pre-Alpine deformation and sedimentation history. The general episodes of Alpine deformation north of the Alps can be subdivided into three main phases: (1) the period of Late Cretaceous-Early Palaeogene inversion tectonics, when far-field effects of continent collision and the formation of the Pyrenees resulted in deformation extending as far north as the Danish North Sea, including the large-scale uplift of the Harz Mountains; (2) Eocene to Miocene extensional tectonics with the formation of large graben systems, for example the Upper Rhine Graben; and (3) the phase of tectonics related to the reorganization of the stress field during the Late Miocene, which coincides with the initiation of the ‘neotectonic period’ and the present-day stress field in Central Europe, which is characterized by SE-NW compression and NE-SW extension. The Neogene to recent evolution of northern Central Europe, including the North German Basin and the Polish Basin, which are parts of the Central European Basin System, was partly affected by glacial loading and unloading during the Pleistocene. Presently, these regions are areas of low seismicity (macroseis mic intensities III-IV EMS; Grünthal & Mayer-Rosa 1998 ). Major stresses acting within the North German Basin and the Polish Basin were induced by the North Atlantic ridge push forces (east-west, or NW-SE directed), the ongoing Alpine collision (north-south directed), and, from the late Pleistocene onwards, the post-glacial rebound of Fennoscandia (mainly vertical, but also with a horizontal, west-east directed component). Present-day maximum horizontal stresses within the North German Basin are generally directed NW-SE ( Rockel & Lempp 2003 ), but fan and bend towards the NNE, north of 52°N and east of 11°E, especially in the Polish Basin. The present-day stress field in the Central European Basin System is influenced by the decoupling of two crustal units ( Roth & Fleckenstein 2001 ), which are separated by Zechstein evaporites (the Pre Zechstein formations together with the older units are decoupled from the overlying Mesozoic and Cenozoic sediments). The general stress orientation, with NE-SW maximum horizontal stress, was regionally modified or disturbed ( Rockel & Lempp 2003 ). In areas of salt movement and the formation of salt pillows, salt walls and diapirs, the resultant local increase or decrease in salt thickness had a marked effect on stresses and tectonic structures (e.g. in the western Baltic Sea ( Hansen et al. 2005 ) and in the Gliickstadt Graben area ( Maystrenko et al. 2005 ). Major basement faults within the intracratonic Central European Basin System are orientated NW-SE, while minor faults trend NE-SW and NNE-SSW, and are clearly visible in shaded relief and satellite images ( Reicherter et al. 2005 ). The northern rim of the Central European Basin System is bounded by the Tornquist Zone, which consists of the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone from Poland to Bornholm Island, and the Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone from southern Sweden to Denmark ( Fig. 19.1 ). Additionally, the drainage pattern and the distribution of lakes in northern Germany parallel the block boundaries and, hence, mark zones of present-day subsidence ( Mörner 1979 ; Stackebrandt 2004 ; Reicherter et al. 2005 ). A broad zone of subsidence extends from Hamburg to Berlin and onto Wroclaw (Poland) and is delineated by the depth to the base of the Rupelian Clay (Oligocene; Garetzky et al. 2001 ). This zone shows relatively minor faulting in the near-surface layers. The depocentre axes also had a NW-SE trend during the Mesozoic.
Abstract The West Sudetes, NE Bohemian Massif, comprises several suspect terranes accreted to the margins of Laurussia during Variscan orogenesis. Whole rock REE and Sm-Nd isotope data for seven separate provinces (Izera, Kaczawa, Rudawy Janowickie and Kłodzko complexes; Fore-Sudetic and Góry Sowie Blocks; Slęża Ophiolite) suggest involvement of a variety of crustal and mantle sources. Felsic metasedimentary rocks (εNd(t) = −8.3 to −5.0) have two stage T DM ages of 1.9 to 1.5 Ga, whereas acidic metavolcanic rocks and granite gneisses (εNd(t) = −5.4 to +0.8) have two stage T DM ages of 1.5 to 1.0 Ga. A range of sources is implicated: predominantly Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic sources for the metasedimentary rocks, and Archaean. Palaeoproterozoic and Neoproterozoic to early Palaeozoic sources for the meta-igneous felsic lithologies. LREE depleted tholeiitic metabasites ((Ce/Yb) N = 0.8 to 3.4) generally have εNd(t) = +4.0 to +9.1, indicating derivation from depleted mantle asthenosphere. LREE enriched meta-alkali basalts ((Ce/Yb) N = 4.6 to 10.1) with εNd(t) between +3.1 and +7.0 implicate utilization of enriched mantle asthenosphere. Analogous lithologies from elsewhere in the Sudetes, North Bohemian Massif and the Armorican Terrane Assemblage have similar REE abundances, εNd values and T DM ages. Complexes previously considered to have had disparate Neoproterozoic to early Palaeozoic histories may be integrated into a unifying geodynamic model of derivation from the North Gondwanan (North African) margin during a widespread episode of continental margin break-up.
Abstract Analysis of tectonostratigraphic units in the West Sudetes reveals the same geological events as in the areas west of the Elbe Fault Zone: a late Proterozoic (Cadomian) orogenic event, Cambro-Ordovician to Devonian rift–drift, and late Devonian to early Carboniferous subduction–collision. There is no conclusive evidence of an Ordovician orogenic event. Tectonic units in the Sudetes are shown to be related to terranes defined in western parts of the Bohemian Massif. The Lausitz–Izera Block, the Orlica–Śnieżnik Unit and the Staré Město Belt represent easterly continuations of the Saxo-Thuringian Terrane. The Rudawy Janowickie Unit and the Sudetic Ophiolite contain fragments of the Saxo-Thuringian Ocean. The protoliths of the Görlitz–Kaczawa Unit, the South Karkonosze Unit, the Góry Sowie and the Klodzko Units either belong to the Bohemian Terrane or else were welded onto it during mid–late Devonian metamorphism and deformation. Relicts of the Saxo-Thuringian Foreland Basin are marked by flysch with olistoliths in the Görlitz– Kaczawa Unit and in the Bardo Basin. The spatial array of terranes in and around the Bohemian Massif reveals a disrupted orocline, dissected by dextral transpression along the Moldanubian Thrust. This orocline was formed when central parts of the Variscan belt were accommodated in an embayment of the southern margin of the Old Red Continent.
Abstract Tectonic zones and palaeogeographic units (terranes) in the German segment of the Variscides correlate with equivalents in the Sudetes at the NE margin of the Bohemian Massif. This correlation defines an arcuate structure with an opening angle of about 90°. The structure is truncated to the SE by a crustal scale. NE-trending fault zone with dextral transpression, the Moldanubian Thrust (MT). The arc cannot have been formed by northeastward indentation of the Bohemian Massif, since there is no evidence of a fault zone on the NW flank of the notional indenter, and little evidence for northeastward tectonic transport. Kinematic and age constraints on the main fault zones instead suggest that the structural array was formed by a complex sequence of events. Northwestward displacement along the margin of the East European Platform (EEP) with clockwise rotation was followed by large southwestward movements along the Moldanubian Thrust, and renewed northwestward displacement along the SW margin of the East European Platform.
Abstract This chapter summarizes the style, timing, composition and tectonic setting of the main occurrences of Cambrian to early Permian magmatic rocks in central Europe, which are here described within the framework of the Cadomian and Variscan Orogenies. In general terms, the Variscan Orogeny may be considered to be the result of Silurian to early Carboniferous accretion onto the southern margin of Laurussia of various Gondwana-derived terranes or microplates of predominantly Neoproterozoic (Cadomian/Pan-African) crust, together with their passive margin sequences and accreted island arcs ( Franke 1989 ; Matte 1991 ; Ziegler 1993 ). These microplates originated from various parts along the northern margin of Gondwana in the Early Palaeozoic, and moved northward towards Laurentia and Baltica (see Krawczyk et al. 2008 ). These rifting, spreading, subduction, accretion and collision events occurred over a long period and were associated with magmatic activity of varying styles, compositions and volumes, of which the variously deformed and metamorphosed equivalents are found throughout Variscan Europe. Another important, late to post-Variscan phase of magmatism which occurred throughout Europe was of late Carboniferous to early Permian age. The magmatic rocks and their metamorphosed equivalents are exposed in basement uplifts (the Variscan massifs), such as the Bohemian Massif, Odenwald, Spessart, Black Forest, Vosges, Massif Central, Iberia and the Rhenohercynian Zone (Fig. 12.1 ). In these internal parts of the Variscan Orogen, magmatic rocks are ubiquitous but are predominantly plutonic rocks and their metamorphosed equivalents, since mainly deep crustal levels are exposed. To the south, von Raumer (1998 )
The mid-European segment of the Variscides: tectonostratigraphic units, terrane boundaries and plate tectonic evolution
Abstract The mid-European segment of the Variscides is a tectonic collage consisting of (from north to south): Avalonia, a Silurian–early Devonian magmatic arc, members of the Armorican Terrane Assemblage (ATA: Franconia, Saxo-Thuringia, Bohemia) and Moldanubia (another member of the ATA or part of N Gondwana?).
The Moldanubian Zone in the French Massif Central, Vosges/Schwarzwald and Bohemian Massif revisited: differences and similarities
Abstract In order to portray the main differences and similarities between the Northeastern Variscan segments (French Massif Central (FMC), Vosges, Black Forest and Bohemian Massif (BM)), we review their crustal-scale architectures, the specific rock associations and lithotectonic sequences, as well as the ages of the main magmatic and metamorphic events. This review demonstrates significant differences between the ‘Moldanubian’ domains in the BM and the FMC. On this basis we propose distinguishing between the Eastern and Western Moldanubian zones, while the Vosges/Black Forest Mountains are an intermediate section between the BM and the FMC. The observed differences are the result of, first, the presence in the French segment of an early large-scale accretionary system prior to the main Variscan collision and, second, the duration of Saxothuringian/Armorican subduction, which generated long-lived magmatic arc and back-arc systems in the Bohemian segment, while the magmatic activity in the FMC was comparably short-lived.
Variscan tectonics
Abstract The Variscan Orogeny is the major Middle to Late Palaeozoic tectonometamorphic event in Central Europe representing the final collision of Gondwana with the northern continent of Laurussia. Thus, large areas of the pre-Permian basement consist of continental crust that achieved its final form during this event. The Variscan Orogeny represents the European version of the evolution of the supercontinent of Pangaea at the end of the Palaeozoic. Western Pangaea, including the Variscan Orogen, formed as a result of the continuous closing of the oceanic domains between Gondwana and Laurussia (Old Red Continent: North American Craton + East European Craton + Avalonia). Coeval accretion of large volumes of oceanic crust along the Eastern Uralides and Altaids (Sengör et al. 1993) as well as Precambrian continental crust (e.g. Siberia and Kazakhstan) along the eastern edge of Laurussia represents the formation of eastern Pangaea. Following the Permian termination of collisional tectonics along western Pangaea there was ongoing convergence in the Asian part until the Early Mesozoic, as demonstrated by the evidence of Triassic continental subduction within the Qinling–Dabie–Sulu Belt between the northern Sino- Korean Craton and the southern Yangtze Craton ( Ernst 2001 , and references therein). Despite the occurrence of both pre- and synorogenic subduction processes within the area of the Variscan Orogen, the accretion of juvenile crust plays a relatively minor role in terms of the crustal evolution of the region. Recycling of basement formed during the Neoproterozoic–Early Cambrian Cadomian Orogeny and its Early Palaeozoic cover can be considered to be one