The still highly disputable terrane boundaries in the Sudetic segment of the Variscan belt mostly seem to follow major strike-slip faults and shear zones. Their kinematics, expected to place important constraints on the regional structural models, is discussed in some detail. The most conspicuous is the WNW–ESE Intra-Sudetic Fault Zone, separating several different structural units of the West Sudetes. It showed ductile dextral activity and, probably, displacement magnitude of the order of tens to hundreds kilometres, during late Devonian(?) to early Carboniferous times. In the late Carboniferous (to early Permian?), the sense of motion on the Intra-Sudetic Fault was reversed in a semi-brittle to brittle regime, with the left-lateral offset on the fault amounting to single kilometres. The north–south trending Niemcza and north-east–southwest Skrzynka shear zones are left-lateral, ductile features in the eastern part of the West Sudetes. Similarly oriented (northeast–southwest to NNE–SSW) regional size shear zones of as yet undetermined kinematics were discovered in boreholes under Cenozoic cover in the eastern part of the Sudetic foreland (the Niedźwiedź and Nysa-Brzeg shear zones). One of these is expected to represent the northern continuation of the major Stare Mesto Shear Zone in the Czech Republic, separating the geologically different units of the West and East Sudetes. The Rudawy Janowickie Metamorphic Unit, assumed in some reconstructions to comprise a mostly strike-slip terrane boundary, is characterized by ductile fabric developed in a thrusting regime, modified by a superimposed normal-slip extensional deformation. Thrusting-related deformational fabric was locally reoriented prior to the extensional event and shows present-day strike-slip kinematics in one of the sub-units. The Sudetic Boundary Fault, although prominent in the recent structure and topography of the region, was not active as a Variscan strike-slip fault zone. The reported data emphasize the importance of syn-orogenic strike-slip tectonics in the Sudetes. The recognized shear sense is compatible with a strike-slip model of the northeast margin of the Bohemian Massif, in which the Kaczawa and Góry Sowie Units underwent late Devonian–early Carboniferous southeastward long-distance displacement along the Intra-Sudetic Fault Zone from their hypothetical original position within the Northern Phyllite Zone and the Mid-German Crystalline High of the German Variscides, respectively, and were juxtaposed with units of different provenance southwest of the fault. The Intra-Sudetic Fault Zone, together with the Elbe Fault Zone further south, were subsequently cut in the east and their eastern segments were displaced and removed by the younger, early to late Carboniferous, NNE–SSW trending, transpressional Moldanubian–Stare Mesto Shear Zone.
Abstract The results of seismic investigations obtained for the Trans-European Suture Zone (TESZ) show the presence of relatively low velocity rocks (V p < 6.1 kms −1 ), of sedimentary, metamorphic or volcanic origin, down to a depth of 20 km; high velocity (V p = 6.8–7.3 kms −1 ) lower crust, the Moho at a depth of approximately 30–33 km; and a high-velocity (V p > 8.3 kms −1 ) uppermost mantle. The transition of the crustal structure is seen across a 200 km wide zone. The three-layered crystalline crust of Baltica changes over this distance into the two-layered crust of Palaeozoic (Variscan) Europe, due to the disappearance of the lowest layer (V p ∼ 7.1 kms −1 ) and tapering off of the Baltican/cratonic wedge. The seismic profiles suggest that the lower crust (V p ∼ 7.1 kms −1 ) in the transition zone represents the attenuated Baltica margin underthrust towards the SW beneath the Avalonian accretionary wedge. The latter corresponds to the low-velocity upper crust (V p < 6.1 kms −1 ) characteristic of the German-Polish Caledonides. Consequently, the high-velocity reflective lower crust of Baltica affinity extends approximately 200 km to the SW of the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone within the basement of the Palaeozoic Platform. The Avalonian upper/middle crust is confined in the SW against the WNW-ESE trending Dolsk Fault. To the SW of the Odra Fault, a typical Variscan crust is detected which shows two-layer structure and relatively low P-wave velocities. The WNW-ESE Odra Fault, approximately parallel to the Dolsk Fault, splits the Variscan domain into the Variscan externides buried beneath the Palaeozoic Platform in the NE and the Variscan internides of the Sudetes in the SW. We interpret both the Odra and Dolsk Faults as dextral strike-slip features that cross cut the NE termination of the Variscan Orogen parallel to the Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone. In a relatively small area, they juxtapose three crustal domains representing, successively, the Variscan internides, externides and the Variscan foreland.
The Nagssugtoqidian orogen and its transition into the Rinkian orogen to the north were the main focus of the field activities of the Geological Survey of Denmark and Greenland (GEUS) in West Greenland in the summer of 2001. This work was carried out within the framework of the Survey’s three-year programme of bedrock mapping and mineral resource evaluation to enhance the understanding of the Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic crustal evolution in the transition zone between the Nagssugtoqidian and Rinkian orogens (Fig. 1). The work in the field season of 2001 comprised geological mapping of the 1:100 000 Kangaatsiaq map sheet described in this paper (Fig. 2), an investigation of the supracrustal rocks at Naternaq / Lersletten (Østergaard et al. 2002, this volume), a geochronological reconnaissance of the southern Rinkian orogen in the northern Disko Bugt region (Garde et al. 2002, this volume), a resource evaluation of the Nagssugtoqidian orogen (Stendal et al. 2002, this volume), a synthesis and interpretation of geophysical data of the central part of the Nagssugtoqidian orogen (Nielsen et al. 2002, this volume) and a report on investigations of the kimberlites and related intrusive rocks in the southern Nagssugtoqidian orogen and its foreland (Jensen et al. 2002, this volume).
Abstract Tourmaline occurring in hornfelses from the eastern envelope of the Karkonosze Granite (Western Sudetes, Poland) reveals at least two stages of crystallization expressed by its complex zoning. The cores and mantles of the crystals probably grew during prograde metamorphism under intermediate pressure-temperature conditions reflected by increasing Mg, Ti and Ca. Outermost rims show enrichment in Al and Ca, indicating growth during contact metamorphism in the presence of an Al-saturating phase. The Ti-content in biotite indicates that the temperature of the contact metamorphic event did not exceed 650ºC. The presence of andalusite and the lack of garnet and cordierite also indicates pressure conditions of ~ 2-3 kbar, typical of the C1 bathozone of Carmichael (1978) or the P1 bathozone of Pattison (2001).
The Teisseyre-Tornquist Zone (TTZ) is the longest pre-Alpine tectonic lineament in Europe. Its nature and structural evolution are controversially debated. In this study, we show its structural evolution beneath the southern Baltic Sea both on crustal and basin scale by using three seismic reflection profiles combined with 2-D potential field data. The results demonstrate that the southern Baltic Sea is underlain by a thick crust of the East European Craton (EEC) with a Moho depth in the range of 38-42 km. The overall crustal architecture is shaped by three phases of localized crustal stretching in early Paleozoic, Devonian-Carboniferous, and Permian-Mesozoic. The most spectacular feature of the southern Baltic Sea are zones of thick-skinned compressional deformation produced by Alpine inversion along the TTZ and Sorgenfrei-Tornquist Zone (STZ). Both zones include a system of thrusts and back thrusts penetrating the entire crust in an 80-90 km wide inversion zone superimposed on the EEC crust and its sedimentary cover. ENE-vergent thrusts are traced from the top of the Cretaceous down to the Moho and they are accompanied by back thrusts of opposite vergence, also reaching the Moho. Inversion tectonics resulted in the uplift of a block of cratonic crust as a pop-up structure, bounded by thrusts and back thrusts, and the displacement of the Moho within the STZ and TTZ. The similar mechanism of intra-cratonic inversion was recognized for the Dnieper-Donbas Basin in Ukraine, and it may be characteristic of rigid cratons, where deformation is localized in a few preexisting zones of weakness.
Abstract. In NE Poland, Eastern European Craton (EEC) crust of Fennoscandian affinity is concealed under a Phanerozoic platform cover and penetrated by sparse, deep research wells. Most of the inferences regarding its structure rely on geophysical data. Until recently, this area was covered only by the wide-angle reflection and refraction (WARR) profiles, which show a relatively simple crustal structure with a typical three-layer cratonic crust. ION Geophysical PolandSPAN™ regional seismic programme data, acquired over the marginal part of the EEC in Poland, offered a unique opportunity to derive a detailed image of the deeper crust. Here, we apply extended correlation processing to a subset (∼950 km) of the PolandSPAN™ dataset located in NE Poland, which enabled us to extend the nominal record length of the acquired data from 12 to 22 s (∼60 km of depth). Our new processing revealed reflectivity patterns, which we primarily associate with the Paleoproterozoic crust formed during the Svekofennian (Svekobaltic) orogeny, that are similar to those observed along the BABEL and FIRE profiles in the Baltic Sea and Finland, respectively. We propose a mid- to lower-crustal, orogeny-normal lateral flow model to explain the occurrence of two sets of structures that can be collectively interpreted as kilometre-scale S–C′ shear zones. The structures define a penetrative deformation fabric invoking ductile extension of hot orogenic crust in a convergent setting. Localized reactivation of these structures provided conduits for subsequent emplacement of gabbroic magma that produced a Mesoproterozoic anorthosite–mangerite–charnockite–granite (AMCG) suite in NE Poland. Delamination of thickened orogenic lithosphere may have accounted for magmatic underplating and fractionation into the AMCG plutons. We also found sub-Moho dipping mantle reflectivity, which we tentatively explain as a signature of the crustal accretion during the Svekofennian orogeny. Later tectonic phases (e.g. Ediacaran rifting, Caledonian orogeny) did not leave a clear signature in the deeper crust; however, some of the subhorizontal reflectors below the basement, observed in the vicinity of the AMCG Mazury complex, can be alternatively linked with lower Carboniferous magmatism.
Regional seismic investigations have made it possible to obtain new knowledge on the geological history of the Ukrainian sector of the Black Sea during rifting from Albian to Cenomanian, post-rift subsidence (Turonian¾Maastrichtian and Paleocene¾Middle Eocene), tectonic compression at the end of the middle Eocene and post-rift subsidence interrupted by a series of short-lived, compressional events (late Eocene ¾ the beginning of the Early Miocene). Rifting occurred simultaneously in the entire area of study and formed three long rift basins, each of which consisted of a system of (half)grabens, separated from each other and their margins by faults with amplitudes of up to3 km. The intensity of Cretaceous rifting was significantly less than would be required to produce continental lithosphere break-up and oceanic crust formation, or through-going «oceanisation» of continental lithosphere. Sedimentation during the pre-Late Eocene post-rift phase took place in relatively shallow marine conditions. Eocene compression caused a strong deformation of the sedimentary cover, partial and complete inversion of rift faults and the formation of three largely separate sea basins, between which a large landmass arose. The primary area of deposition of sedimentary sequences was significantly reduced due to strong deformations caused by compressional phases in the Late Miocene. That which is now the deep Black Sea was a relatively shallow basin until the beginning or even the end of the Pleistocene. Only thereafter did the water depth increase rapidly to more than 2 km. Research results indicate that modern tectonic reconstructions of the Western Black Sea and Eastern Black Sea basins, which are based on assumptions about the formation of the (sub)oceanic crust in these basins and/or different times of their formation, look unreliable. It also follows that any view of back-arc basins as small oceanic basins is not universally applicable.
Terra Nova, 24, 199–206, 2012 Abstract Three detrital zircon concentrates from the metasediments of the Orlica‐Śnieżnik dome, Bohemian Massif, have been dated using Sensitive High Resolution Ion Microprobe. They yielded Precambrian age spectra similar to those that are characteristic of the Cadomian terranes: (1) Archaean and Palaeoproterozoic zircons scattered between 3380 and 1860 Ma, and (2) abundant Neoproterozoic zircons dated at 770–560 Ma. Two of the analysed samples also contain Early Cambrian and Early‐Late Cambrian zircons. The estimated maximum sedimentation ages are: 563 ± 6 Ma for the Młynowiec paragneisses, 532 ± 6 Ma for the Stronie schist and 490 ± 9 Ma for the Goszów quartzite that are interpreted as three distinct metasedimentary successions. They represent a Neoproterozoic back‐arc basin, Early Cambrian incipient rift basin and a Lower Ordovician post‐rift succession respectively. These successions are the deformed and metamorphosed, allochthonous equivalent to the passive Saxo‐Thuringian margin. They were subducted during a Variscan collision and then exhumed in front of the rigid buttress of Brunia/East Avalonia.
