Metamorphic zircon and rutile growth in the basement of the Thracian lithotectonic unit, SE Bulgaria.

The mica-bearing schist of the Thracian lithotectonic unit basement represents a granite protolith overprinted by high-grade metamorphism. The zircon population displays Silurian protolith age with inherited older Neoto Paleoprotezoic cores affected by a Carboniferous metamorphism. The Late Cretaceous-Paleogene metamorphic rutile could have resulted from extensive volcanic activity within the Maritsa dextral strike-slip shear zone. The apatite geochemistry has a composition corresponding to low- and medium metamorphic and metasomatic apatite. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]