Abstract The Intra-Sudetic Basin is a Late Palaeozoic intramontane trough, situated in the eastern part of the European Permo-Carboniferous Basin and Range Province. Within the basin, tectonics, sedimentation and volcanic/subvolcanic activity were intimately related. Tectonics controlled the location of the depositional and volcanic centres. Many volcanic centres with subvolcanic intrusions of rhyodacitic, rhyolitic and trachyandesitic composition were located close to the intra-basinal depositional troughs, where thick accumulations of sedimentary rocks partly obstructed the movement of magma to the surface. Differences in the structure and geometry of intrusions at separate subvolcanic complexes reflect the influence of different discontinuities, faults, margins of collapse structures, boundaries of contrasting lithologies in the country rocks and the volcanic structures.

Abstract A synthesis of published and new data is used to interpret the Sudetic segment of the Variscan belt as having formed by the accretion of four major and two or three minor terranes. From west to east the major terranes are (1) Lusatia-Izera Terrane, exposing Armorican continental basement reworked by Ordovician plutonism and Late Devonian-Carboniferous collision, showing Saxothuringian affinities; (2) composite Góry Sowie-Kłodzko Terrane characterized by multistage evolution (Silurian subduction, mid- to late Devonian collision, exhumation and extension, Carboniferous deformational overprint), with analogues elsewhere in the Bohemian Massif, Massif Central and Armorica; (3) Moldanubian (Gföhl) Terrane comprising the Orlica-Śnieżnik and Kamieniec massifs, affected by Early Carboniferous high-grade metamorphism and exhumation and (4) Brunovistulian Terrane in the East Sudetes, set up on Avalonian crust and affected by Devonian to late Carboniferous sedimentation, magmatism and tectonism. The main terranes are separated by two smaller ones squeezed along their boundaries: (1) Moravian Terrane, between the Moldanubian and Brunovistulian, deformed during Early Carboniferous collision, and (2) SE Karkonosze Terrane of affinities to the Saxothuringian oceanic realm, sandwiched betwen the Lusatia-Izera and Góry Sowie-Kłodzko (together with Teplá-Barrandian) terranes, subjected to high pressure-metamorphism and tectonized during Late Devonian-Early Carboniferous convergence. The Kaczawa Terrane in the NW, of oceanic accretionary prism features, metamorphosed and deformed during latest Devonian-Early Carboniferous times, may either be a distinct unit unrelated to closure of the Saxothuringian Ocean or represent a continuation of the SE Karkonosze Terrane.

Abstract The Sudetes is a mountain range in Central Europe and an area of remarkable geodiversity. In recent years, the area has been promoted as a geotourist destination and various initiatives aimed at better understanding geoheritage have been implemented. An interest in scenic landscapes is not new however, and dates back to the end of the eighteenth century. Two areas within the Sudetes are cradles of local nature-based tourism. These are the granite massif of the Karkonosze in the west and the sandstone stepped plateau of Broumov Highland and Stołowe Mountains in the central part of the Sudetes. In both, physical access to the key geosites was provided as early as in the nineteenth century, while an interpretation component was added in the early twentieth century. A side-effect of political change following the end of World War II was the neglect and dilapidation of many sites, as well as the disappearance of geoheritage appreciation from the collective social memory. In the last decade many of those early achievements were rediscovered and provided the foundations for contemporary activities. An educational component based on modern science is now included in the features which were discovered as tourist attractions long ago.