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The Pirgadikia Terrane in northern Greece forms tectonic inliers within the Vardar suture zone bordering the Serbo-Macedonian Massif to the southwest. It comprises Cadomian basement rocks of volcanic-arc origin and very mature quartz-rich metasedimentary rocks. U–Pb laser ablation sector-field inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry analyses of detrital zircons from the latter reveal a marked input from a Cadomian–Pan-African source with minor contribution from Mesoproterozoic, Palaeoproterozoic and Archaean sources. The metasedimentary rocks are correlated with Ordovician overlap sequences at the northern margin of Gondwana on the basis of their maturity and zircon age spectra. The Pirgadikia Terrane can be best interpreted as a peri-Gondwana terrane of Avalonian origin, which was situated close to the Cadomian terranes in the Late Neoproterozoic–Early Palaeozoic, very much like the Istanbul Terrane. The second unit investigated is the Vertiskos Terrane, which constitutes the major part of the Serbo-Macedonian Massif in Greece. It comprises predominantly igneous rocks of Silurian age and minor metasedimentary rocks of unknown age and provenance. U–Pb analyses of detrital zircons from a garnetiferous mica schist of the Vertiskos Terrane indicate derivation from 550 to 1,150 Ma-old source rocks with a major Cadomian peak. This, combined with minor input of >1,950 Ma-old zircons and the absence of ages between ca. 1.2 and 1.7 Ga suggests a NW Africa source. The protolith age of the garnetiferous mica schist is presumably Early Ordovician. One sample of garnet-bearing biotite gneiss, interpreted as meta-igneous rock, comprises predominantly subhedral zircons of igneous origin with late Middle Ordovician to Silurian ages. We suggest that the rock association of the Vertiskos Terrane is part of an ancient active-margin succession of the Hun superterrane, comparable to successions of the Austro- and Intra-Alpine Terranes. The new data of this study provide evidence of occurrences of Avalonia- and Armorica-derived terranes in the Eastern Mediterranean and moreover help to clarify palaeogeographic reconstructions for the peri-Gondwana realm in the Early Palaeozoic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Izera Complex (West Sudetes) contains widespread bodies of metagabbro, metadolerite and amphibolite (the Izera metabasites), and less abundant dykes of weakly altered dolerites, emplaced in a continental setting. The primary magmas of the Izera metabasites were probably formed through adiabatic decompression melting of upwelling asthenosphere (mantle plume) that was associated with the early Palaeozoic fragmentation of Gondwana (initial rift). The rocks are mildly alkaline, transitional-to-tholeiitic basalts and have OIB-like trace element patterns. Trace element modelling reveals that the mafic magmas were generated by variable degrees of partial melting (1–7%) of fertile, garnet-bearing asthenospheric source similar in composition to primitive mantle. Together with an increase in degree of partial melting, the compositional affinity of the magmas and the depth of segregation changed progressively from ca. 70–90 km (mildly alkaline magmas of the metadolerites and amphibolites) to ca. 60–75 km (transitional-to-tholeiitic magmas of the metagabbros). The systematics of incompatible versus compatible element distribution, and major and trace element modelling, indicate that some rocks experienced low-pressure (<5 kbar) differentiation resulting in up to 50% fractionation of clinopyroxene, olivine and minor plagioclase and ilmenite. The genetically distinct weakly altered dolerites are basaltic andesite in composition and possibly related to late- or post-orogenic events in the Karkonosze-Izera Block. These rocks are calc-alkaline, with relatively flat MREE–HREE patterns, enrichment in LREE and other highly incompatible elements relative to primitive mantle, and negative Nb–Ta, Ti, P anomalies. The geochemical features and geochemical modelling, indicate that their primary magmas segregated at depths ≤70 km and were produced by ~2% melting of a metasomatized sublithospheric mantle source presumably containing small amounts of hydrated phases. Although the present study is inconclusive as to the origin of the metasomatic component in the source (? slab-derived fluid/melts, OIB-like alkaline melt percolation of subcontinental lithosphere), the genesis of the Izera basaltic andesites is seemingly related to upwelling of asthenosphere and heat flow triggered by a postulated decoupling of the mantle lithosphere and post-collisional extensional collapse and uplift in the Karkonosze-Izera Block. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Neoproterozoic Atud diamictite in Wadi Kareim and Wadi Mobarak in the Eastern Desert of Egypt and the Nuwaybah formation in NW Saudi Arabia consist of poorly sorted, polymictic breccia, with clasts up to 1 m of granitoid, quartz porphyry, quartzite, basalt, greywacke, marble, arkose, and microconglomerate in fine-grained matrix. Stratigraphic relations indicate that the diamictite was deposited in a marine environment. Integrated field investigation, petrographic study and U–Pb SHRIMP zircon ages demonstrate that the Atud and Nuwaybah are correlative. The distribution of zircon ages indicate that ~750 Ma ages are dominant with a significant component of older materials, characterized by minor Mesoproterozoic and more abundant Paleoproterozoic and Neoarchean ages. Some matrix and metasedimentary clast zircons yield ages that are a few 10s of Ma younger than the age of the youngest clast (754 ± 15 Ma), suggesting Atud/Nuwaybah diamictite deposition ~750 Ma or slightly later, broadly consistent with being deposited during the Sturtian glaciation (740–660 Ma). The Paleoproterozoic and Neoarchean clasts have no source within the ensimatic Arabian–Nubian Shield. The distribution of the pre-Neoproterozoic ages are similar to the distribution of the pre-Neoproterozoic ages in Yemen and Saharan Metacraton, suggesting that these clasts have been transported hundreds of kilometers, maybe by ice-rafting. The Atud diamictite may represent important evidence for Cryogenian “Snowball Earth” in the Arabian–Nubian Shield. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Variscan collision of peri-Gondwanan terranes led to a doubly vergent crustal wedge that was thicker than 55 km in the area of the Bohemian Massif. This crustal thickness resulted in a highly elevated Bohemian plateau with a topographic height >3–4 km. The Bohemian plateau was covered with unmetamorphic Paleozoic strata, all of which are today well preserved in the Tepla–Barrandian unit because of crustal-scale vertical slip along the Bohemian shear zone (BSZ). The BSZ forms a subvertical, ca. 500-km long and up to 2-km wide belt of dip–slip mylonites which show several 90° deflections in map view. Tepla-Barrandian-down movements were active under retrograde metamorphic conditions, starting with granulite and ceasing with greenschist facies conditions. As slip along the BSZ was largely vertical and led to a minimum throw of 10 km, this type of crustal-scale deformation is referred to as elevator tectonics. The elevator-style movements caused the juxtaposition of the supracrustal Tepla–Barrandian lid (the “elevator”) against high-grade rocks of the extruding orogenic root. The BSZ has further governed the foci of mantle-derived plutonism. New U–Pb zircon and monazite TIMS dating of six plutons suggest that emplacement of mantle-derived melts along the BSZ lasted for at least 20 m.y., starting with the emplacement of the Klatovy granodiorite at 347 +4/−3 Ma and ceasing with the emplacement of the Drahotin pluton at 328 ± 1 Ma. When taking into account the new ages of synkinematic plutons, the simultaneous vertical slip along the individual segments of the BSZ (North, West, and Central Bohemian shear zone) is bracketed to the period 343–337 Ma. Elevator tectonics was probably controlled by delamination of thickened mantle lithosphere that caused a dramatic thermal turnover and heating-up of the orogenic root. The overheated lower crust was thermally softened by anatexis and diffusion creep resulting in channel flow, vertical extrusion, fast uplift, and exhumation of the orogenic root. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Approximately 500-Ma-old orthogneisses are widespread in the eastern part of the Variscan belt and are commonly interpreted to have intruded mica-schist series of assumed Neoproterozoic age. New SHRIMP zircon ages of quartzofeldspathic metavolcanogenic rocks of the mica schist series in the eastern part of the Karkonosze-Izera Massif (SW Poland) indicate that they are late Cambrian/early Ordovician rather than Neoproterozoic in age, based on the zircon age spectra distributed mainly between ca. 500 and 660 Ma (with a few Proterozoic inherited minimum ages of ca. 970 and 1,825 Ma). Younger zircon dates, dispersed between ca. 412 and 464 Ma, are interpreted as a result of Pb-loss likely caused by subsequent metamorphism. Consequently, the felsic metavolcanogenic rocks appear to be roughly contemporaneous with the intrusion of ca. 500-Ma-old orthogneiss protoliths (with the pooled concordia age of 487 ± 8 Ma interpreted as the best approximation of the protolith intrusive age). Field relationships, petrological and geochemical features of the felsic and mafic rocks studied support a model in which the accompanying mica schist series are not the original country rocks to the ca. 500 Ma granite intrusions, and indicate that their recent close proximity is the result of tectonic juxtaposition. However, both the mica schists enclosing the bimodal metavolcanic rocks, and the orthogneisses, are interpreted to represent a Cambro-Ordovician passive continental margin sequence being part of the Saxothuringian domain. They are tectonically overlain to the east by HP/T metamorphic units, comprising MORB-type metaigneous rocks, and delineating a tectonic suture separating the Saxothuringian block in the west from an assumed continental block (Tepla-Barrandian) to the south-east. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]