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Subduction and exhumation dynamics can be investigated through analysis of metamorphic and deformational evolution of associated high-grade rocks. The Erzgebirge anticline, which forms at the boundary between the Saxothuringian and Teplá-Barrandian domains of the Bohemian Massif, provides a useful study area for these processes owing to the occurrence of numerous meta-basites preserving eclogite facies assemblages, and coesite and diamond bearing quartzofeldspathic lithologies indicating subduction to deep mantle depths. The prograde and retrograde evolution of meta-basite from the Czech portion of the Erzgebirge anticline has been constrained through a combination of thermodynamic modelling and conventional thermobarometry. Garnet growth zoning indicates that the rocks underwent burial and heating to peak conditions of 2.6 GPa and at least 615 °C. Initial exhumation occurred with concurrent cooling and decompression resulting in the growth of amphibole and zoisite poikiloblasts overgrowing and including the eclogite facies assemblage. The development of clinopyroxene-plagioclase-amphibole symplectites after omphacite and Al-rich rims on matrix amphibole indicate later heating at the base of the lower crust. Omphacite microstructures, in particular grain size analysis and lattice-preferred orientations, indicate that the prograde evolution was characterized by a constrictional strain geometry transitioning into plane strain and oblate fabrics during exhumation. The initial constrictional strain pattern is interpreted as being controlled by competing slab pull and crustal buoyancy forces leading to necking of the subducting slab. The transition to plane strain and flattening geometries represents transfer of material from the subducting lithosphere into a subduction channel, break-off of the dense slab and rebound of the buoyant crustal material. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A structural and geochronological Ar/Ar study was performed in kilometre-scale middle and lower crustal lens-shaped domains dominated by a preserved subvertical foliation, surrounded by horizontally foliated migmatites. These domains occur within the Moldanubian nappe overlying the Brunia microcontinent at the eastern margin of the European Variscides. Three main deformation phases were recognized: subvertical S2 fabric trending NW-SE in lower crustal rocks and NE-SW in mid-crustal rocks. It is reworked by HT/MT horizontal fabric S3 along margins of crustal domains and in surrounding migmatites. S3 bears a prolate NE lineation parallel to the S2-S3 intersection in the lower crustal domain. In the middle crustal units, L3 is weak, connected to oblate strain and trends NE-SW parallel to the S2-S3 intersection. D4 non-coaxial shear deformation is mainly localized at the boundary between the Moldanubian nappe and Brunia and bears strong top to the NNE shear criteria. In order to constrain kinematics of the D3 deformation, strain modelling was performed to show that the Moldanubian hot nappe was frontally thrust over the Brunia indentor. The renewed D4 tangential movement only heterogeneously reactivates the horizontal S3. This evolution is recorded in Ar/Ar amphibole cooling ages, which show two statistically significant Carboniferous peaks at ~342 and 332 Ma, which are also reflected by published detrital muscovite Ar/Ar ages in the adjacent foreland basin. This geochronological record is correlated with progressive erosion of the topographically elevated upper crustal part of the Moldanubian nappe during D3 frontal thrusting, followed by greenschist facies D4 transpressive reactivation and subsequent erosion of high-grade parts of the nappe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Monazite laser ablation-split-stream inductively coupled plasma-mass spectrometry (LASS) was used to date monazite in situ in Barrovian-type micaschists of the Moravian zone in the Thaya window, Bohemian Massif. Petrography and garnet zoning combined with pseudosection modelling show that rocks from staurolite-chlorite, staurolite, kyanite and kyanite-sillimanite zones record burial in the S1 fabric under a moderate geothermal gradient from 4-4·5 kbar and ~530-540°C to 5 kbar and 570°C, 6-7 kbar and 600-640°C, 7·5-8 kbar and 630-650°C, and 8 kbar and 650°C, respectively. In the kyanite and kyanite-sillimanite zones, garnet rim chemistry and local syntectonic replacement of garnet by sillimanite-biotite aggregates point to re-equilibration at 5·5-6 kbar and 630-650°C in the S2 fabric. Heterogeneously developed retrograde shear zones (S3) are marked by widespread chloritization, but minor chlorite is present in the studied samples. Monazite abundance and size increase with metamorphic grade from 5 µm in the staurolite-chlorite zone to >100 µm in the kyanite and kyanite-sillimanite zones. Irrespective of the monazite-forming reaction, this is interpreted as the onset of limited prograde monazite growth at staurolite grade, and continued prograde monazite growth after the kyanite-in reaction, compatible with conditions of about 5·5 kbar and 570°C and 7·5 kbar and 630°C from pseudosection modelling. Monazite is zoned, showing embayments and sharp boundaries between zones, with low Y in the staurolite zone, high-Y cores and low-Y rims in the kyanite zone, and high-Y cores, a low-Y mantle and a high-Y rim in the sillimanite zone. The 207Pb-corrected 238U/206Pb ages from three samples range from 344 ± 7 to 330 ± 7 Ma, irrespective of metamorphic grade. The dates from monazite inclusions are interpreted as the ages of the staurolite- and kyanite-in reactions along the prograde path at 340 and 337 ± 7 Ma, respectively. The monazite in the matrix (and some inclusions) is interpreted as dating the prograde crystallization at (340-337) ± 7 Ma within the S1 fabric, and then being affected by recrystallization at or down to 332 ± 7 Ma in the S2 and S3 fabrics. The two groups of data, for 340-337 and 332 Ma, are significantly different when only their in-run uncertainties (±1-3 Myr) are compared and indicate a 9 ± 3 Myr period of monazite (re)crystallization. A systematic increase in heavy rare earth element (HREE) content with decreasing monazite age from 344 to 335 Ma is correlated with growth on the prograde P-T path; the drop in HREE of monazite at 335-328 Ma is assigned to recrystallization. The presence of chlorite even in the least retrogressed samples witnesses limited external fluid availability on the retrograde P-T path. Migration of this fluid was probably responsible for heterogeneous fluid-assisted recrystallization and resetting of original prograde monazite, even where included in garnet, staurolite or kyanite. It is suggested that the rocks passed the chlorite-in reaction on the retrograde path at 332 ± 7 Ma. The timing of burial in the Thaya window, a deformed part of the underthrust Brunia microcontinent, was coeval with exhumation of granulites and migmatites of the Moldanubian orogenic root at c. 340 Ma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the Orlica-Śnieżnik Dome (NE Bohemian massif), alternating belts of orthogneiss with high-pressure rocks and belts of mid-crustal metasedimentary-metavolcanic rocks commonly display a dominant subvertical fabric deformed into a subhorizontal foliation. The first macroscopic foliation is subvertical, strikes NE-SW and is heterogeneously folded by open to isoclinal folds with subhorizontal axial planes parallel to the heterogeneously developed flat-lying foliation. The metamorphic evolution of the mid-crustal metasedimentary rocks involved successive crystallization of chlorite-muscovite-ilmenite-plagioclase-garnet, followed by staurolite-bearing and then kyanite-bearing assemblages in the subvertical fabric. This was followed by garnet retrogression, with syntectonic crystallization of sillimanite and andalusite parallel to the shallow-dipping foliation. Elsewhere, andalusite and cordierite statically overgrew the flat-lying fabric. With reference to a P-T pseudosection for a representative sample, the prograde succession of mineral assemblages and the garnet zoning pattern with decreasing grossular, spessartine and X are compatible with a P- T path from 3.5-5 kbar/490-520 °C to peak conditions of 6-7 kbar/∼630 °C suggesting burial from 12 to 25 km with increasing temperature. Using the same pseudosection, the retrograde succession of minerals shows decompression to sillimanite stability at ∼4 kbar/∼630 °C and to andalusite-cordierite stability at 2-3 kbar indicating exhumation from 25 km to around 9-12 km. Subsequent exhumation to ∼6 km occurred without apparent formation of a deformation fabric. The structure and petrology together with the spatial distribution of the metasedimentary-metavolcanic rocks, and gneissic and high-pressure belts are compatible with a model of burial of limited parts of the upper and middle crust in narrow cusp-like synclines, synchronous with the exhumation of orogenic lower crust represented by the gneissic and high-pressure rocks in lobe-shaped and volumetrically more important anticlines. Converging P- T- D paths for the metasedimentary rocks and the adjacent high-pressure rocks are due to vertical exchanges between cold and hot vertically moving masses. Finally, the retrograde shallow-dipping fabric affects both the metasedimentary-metavolcanic rocks and the gneissic and high-pressure rocks, and indicates that the ∼15-km exhumation was mostly accommodated by heterogeneous ductile thinning associated with unroofing of a buoyant crustal root. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Migmatites with sub-horizontal fabrics at the eastern margin of the Variscan orogenic root in the Bohemian Massif host lenses of eclogite, kyanite-K-feldspar granulite and marble within a matrix of migmatitic paragneiss and amphibolite. Petrological study and pseudosection modelling have been used to establish whether the whole area experienced terrane-wide exhumation of lower orogenic crust, or whether smaller portions of higher-pressure lower crust were combined with a lower-pressure matrix. Kyanite-K-feldspar granulite shows peak conditions of 16.5 kbar and 850 °C with no clear indications of prograde path, whereas in the eclogite the prograde path indicates burial from 10 kbar and 700 °C to a peak of 18 kbar and 800 °C. Two contrasting prograde paths are identified within the host migmatitic paragneiss. The first path is inferred from the presence of staurolite and kyanite inclusions in garnet that contains preserved prograde zoning that indicates burial with simultaneous heating to 11 kbar and 800 °C. The second path is inferred from garnet overgrowths of a flat foliation defined by sillimanite and biotite. Garnet growth in such an assemblage is possible only if the sample is heated at 7–8 kbar to around 700–840 °C. Decompression is associated with strong structural reworking in the flat fabric that involves growth of sillimanite in paragneiss and kyanite-K-feldspar granulite at 7–10 kbar and 750–850 °C. The contrasting prograde metamorphic histories indicate that kilometre-scale portions of high-pressure lower orogenic crust were exhumed to middle crustal levels, dismembered and mixed with a middle crustal migmatite matrix, with the simultaneous development of a flat foliation. The contrasting P– T paths with different pressure peaks show that tectonic models explaining high-pressure boudins in such a fabric cannot be the result of heterogeneous retrogression during ductile rebound of the whole orogenic root. The P– T paths are compatible with a model of heterogeneous vertical extrusion of lower crust into middle crust, followed by sub-horizontal flow. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A large database of structural, geochronological and petrological data combined with a Bouguer anomaly map is used to develop a two-stage exhumation model of deep-seated rocks in the eastern sector of the Variscan belt. An early sub-vertical fabric developed in the orogenic lower and middle crust during intracrustal folding followed by the vertical extrusion of the lower crustal rocks. These events were responsible for exhumation of the orogenic lower crust from depths equivalent to 18−20 kbar to depths equivalent to 8−10 kbar, and for coeval burial of upper crustal rocks to depths equivalent to 8–9 kbar. Following the folding and vertical extrusion event, sub-horizontal fabrics developed at medium to low pressure in the orogenic lower and middle crust during vertical shortening. Fabrics that record the early vertical extrusion originated between 350 and 340 Ma, during building of an orogenic root in response to SE-directed Saxothuringian continental subduction. Fabrics that record the later sub-horizontal exhumation event relate to an eastern promontory of the Brunia continent indenting into the rheologically weaker rocks of the orogenic root. Indentation initiated thrusting or flow of the orogenic crust over the Brunia continent in a north-directed sub-horizontal channel. This sub-horizontal flow operated between 330 and 325 Ma, and was responsible for a heterogeneous mixing of blocks and boudins of lower and middle crustal rocks and for their progressive thermal re-equilibration. The erosion depth as well as the degree of reworking decreases from south to north, pointing to an outflow of lower crustal material to the surface, which was subsequently eroded and deposited in a foreland basin. Indentation by the Brunia continental promontory was highly noncoaxial with respect to the SE-oriented Saxothuringian continental subduction in the Early Visean, suggesting a major switch of plate configuration during the Middle to Late Visean. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At the eastern margin of the Bohemian Massif (Variscan belt of Central Europe), large bodies of felsic granulite preserve mineral assemblages and structures developed during the early stages of exhumation of the orogenic lower continental crust within the Moldanubian orogenic root. The development of an early steep fabric is associated with east–west-oriented compression and vertical extrusion of the high-grade rocks into higher crustal levels. The high-pressure mineral assemblage Grt-Ky-Kfs-Pl-Qtz-Liq corresponds to metamorphic pressures of ∼18 kbar at ∼850 °C, which are minimum estimates, whereas crystallization of biotite occurred at 13 kbar and ∼790 °C during decompression with slight cooling. The late stages of the granulite exhumation were associated with lateral spreading of associated high-grade rocks over a middle crustal unit at ∼4 kbar and ∼700 °C, as estimated from accompanying cordierite-bearing gneisses. The internal structure of a contemporaneously intruded syenite is coherent with late structures developed in felsic granulites and surrounding gneisses, and the magma only locally explored the early subvertical fabric of the felsic granulite during emplacement. Consequently, the emplacement age of the syenite provides an independent constraint on the timing of the final stages of exhumation and allows calculation of exhumation and cooling rates, which for this part of the Variscan orogenic root are 2.9–3.5 mm yr−1 and 7–9.4 °C Myr−1, respectively. The final part of the temperature evolution shows very rapid cooling, which is interpreted as the result of juxtaposition of hot high-grade rocks with a cold upper-crustal lid. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The exhumation of eclogite facies granulites (Omp–Plg–Grt–Qtz–Rt) in the Rychleby Mts, eastern Czech Republic, was a localised process initiated by buckling of crustal layers in a thickened orogenic root. Folding and post-buckle flattening was followed by the main stage of exhumation that is characterized by vertical ductile extrusion. This process is documented by structural data, and the vertical ascent of rocks from a depth of c. 70 to c. 35 km is documented by metamorphic petrology. SHRIMP 206Pb/238U and 207Pb/206Pb evaporation zircon ages of 342 ± 5 and 341.4 ± 0.7 Ma date peak metamorphic conditions. The next stage of exhumation was associated with sideways flat thrusting associated with lateral viscous spreading of granulites and surrounding rocks over indenting adjacent continental crust at a depth of c. 35–30 km. This stage was associated with syntectonic intrusion of a granodiorite sill at 345–339 Ma, emplaced at a crustal depth of c. 25 km. The time required for cooling of the sill as well as for heating of the country rocks brackets this event to a maximum of 250 000 years. Therefore, similar ages of crystallization for the granodiorite magma and the peak of eclogite facies metamorphism of the granulite suggest a very short period of exhumation, limited by the analytical errors of the dating methods. Our calculations suggest that the initial exhumation rate during vertical extrusion was 3–15 mm yr−1, followed by an exhumation rate of 24–40 mm yr−1 during further uplift along a magma-lubricated shear zone. The extrusion stage of exhumation was associated with a high cooling rate, which decreased during the stage of lateral spreading. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recent petrological, structural and geochronological studies of the eastern margin of the Bohemian Massif (Czech Republic) suggest a conceptual geodynamical model to explain exhumation of lower crustal (20kbar, 800°C) felsic rocks. The model involves indentation of a weak orogenic lower crust by an adjacent rigid mantle lithosphere, resulting in crustal-scale buckling of the weak orogenic lower/middle crust interface followed by extrusion of a ductile nappe over the rigid promontory. The hypothesis has been investigated using both analogue and numerical models. Analogue experiments using a three layer sand-silicone setup were carried out in Rennes laboratory (France). Results show that the most important features of the conceptual model can be reproduced: extrusion of lowermost silicone over the indenter and flow of horizontal viscous channel underneath a rigid lid above the actively progressing promontory. Furthermore, experimental results show that a plateau develops above the channelling lower crust. Two sets of sandbox-scale numerical simulations were performed. The first set of experiments is designed to study the influence of viscosity stratification within the crust on the extrusion process. A second set of experiments were performed in order to quantify the influence of the viscosity and the geometry of the indentor. Non-dimensional scaling laws were derived to predict the maximum extrusion rates associated with the indentation mechanism. Such laws enable the computation vertical extrusion rates that are in good agreement with natural exhumation rates inferred from petrological data. Finally, we discuss the potential positive feedback of Rayleigh–Taylor instability on vertical extrusion for the case of Eastern Bohemian Massif. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]