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Blueschist facies rocks, exposed within consolidated continental blocks, provide some of the best evidence for the existence of previous suture(s). They usually occur as lenses or layers embedded within greenschist or amphibolite facies rocks and indicate reequilibration at medium- to low-pressure conditions. In the Bohemian Massif, a few occurrences of blueschists have been reported, and here, new evidence of high-pressure (HP) metamorphism in various lithologies is presented that suggests a larger extent of blueschist facies rocks along the northern border of this Massif. An earlier blueschist facies metamorphism is documented by inclusions of glaucophane in garnet, epidote and titanite from metabasites along with zoned white mica having a phengitic core and a muscovite rim in metapelites and orthogneisses. The estimated P-T conditions, obtained using pseudosections and mineral isopleths, correspond to blueschist and low-temperature eclogite facies conditions (1.1-2.0 GPa at 350-550 °C). Together with medium-temperature eclogites from different units in the Bohemian Massif they indicate a geothermal gradient of 8-10 °C km−1, which is typical for cool subduction. Radiometric dating on phengite from metapelites confirms an early Palaeozoic cooling age of c. 360 Ma for this HP metamorphic event. The presence of blueschist facies rocks, their P-T relations and age constraint together with those from eclogite facies rocks allows us to locate the Variscan suture, which straddles the SE margin of Saxothuringian Zone from Erzgebirge to Sudetes, and its possible continuation to the Moldanubian Zone, where eclogite facies and UHPM rocks are abundant. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The calc-alkaline Miřetín Pluton (newly dated at 346 Ma ± 5 Ma; an U-Pb age obtained by laser-ablation ICP MS method on zircons) is a NNE-SSW elongated intrusive body emplaced into the upper- to mid- crustal rocks of the Polička Unit (eastern Teplá-Barrandian Zone; Bohemian Massif). Its composition reveals similarities to other calc-alkaline granitoids, which are mostly interpreted as products of magma mixing between the basic magmas derived from mantle wedge above a subduction zone with crustally-derived acid melts. The conditions of magma crystallization estimated at 653-681 °C and 0.29-0.43 GPa roughly correspond to peak metamorphic evolution of the host volcano-sedimentary rocks of the northwestern part of the Polička and Hlinsko units. The Miřetín Pluton was emplaced into a NNE-SSW oriented transpressional domain, well recognized on a regional scale along the eastern margin of the Teplá-Barrandian Zone. During, or shortly after the magma emplacement, the Miřetín Pluton was affected by pervasive submagmatic to high-T solid-state deformation, reflecting an additional strain increment of regional transpression in a narrow zone of thermal softening. Sharply superimposed low-T solid-state fabric preserved along the western part of the Pluton was connected with normal shearing between the Polička Unit at the bottom and the overlying Hlinsko Unit after 335 Ma. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A detailed airborne magnetic and gamma-ray spectrometric as well as ground gravity survey in the south-western part of the Moldanubian Zone (Bohemian Massif) provided detailed geophysical characteristics of the principal geological units and large-scale tectonic features. The Knížecí Stolec durbachitic pluton with high contents of natural radioactive elements (Th, U and K) represents a body with no magnetically anomalous response but a pronounced positive gravity anomaly. The Křišt'anov granulite massif, which is a host rock of the Knížec&iacute Stolec pluton, exhibits low concentrations of Th and U, high abundances of K, slight magnetic and a negative gravity anomalies. The Plechý, composite pluton is characterized by strikingly low gravity and an extremely monotonous magnetic field. One of its petrographic varieties (the Tristolicnik granite) is enriched in natural radioactive elements, especially in Th and U. Metamorphic complexes of the Monotonous and Varied groups contain multiple magnetic anomalies mostly related to the intercalated metabasic rocks; they also cause positive gravity anomalies. The Linsser density boundaries at a depth of 0.5 km clearly delimit the Plechý, composite pluton and the Lhenice zone and indicate several structurally and/or lithologically different domains within the Křišt'anov granulite massif and in the Knížecí Stolec pluton. The 2.5D gravity model indicates an asymmetric shape of the Knížecí Stolec pluton, which is deepest in its SE part (at least 4 km). The joint interpretation of the geophysical and structural data revealed that the maximum depth of the pluton is c. 4.5 km, with gently to moderately dipping intrusive contacts in the north and subvertical orientation in the south. The asymmetric shape of the pluton is consistent with its inferred syntectonic emplacement coeval with the regional subvertical contraction and development of regional flat-lying fabric. The gravity model combined with structural analyses also implies a considerable depth of the south Bohemian granulite massifs. This indicates their steep exhumation path and is at variance with the model of the Moldanubian Zone as a sequence of flat-lying nappes. The south-western part of the studied area is reworked by the NE-directed compression, referred to as the 'Bavarian' deformation phase. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The geological inventory of the Variscan Bohemian Massif can be summarized as a result of Early Devonian subduction of the Saxothuringian ocean of unknown size underneath the eastern continental plate represented by the present-day Teplá-Barrandian and Moldanubian domains. During mid-Devonian, the Saxothuringian passive margin sequences and relics of Ordovician oceanic crust have been obducted over the Saxothuringian basement in conjunction with extrusion of the Teplá-Barrandian middle crust along the so-called Teplá suture zone. This event was connected with the development of the magmatic arc further east, together with a fore-arc basin on the Teplá-Barrandian crust. The back-arc region – the future Moldanubian zone – was affected by lithospheric thinning which marginally affected also the eastern Brunia continental crust. The subduction stage was followed by a collisional event caused by the arrival of the Saxothuringian continental crust that was associated with crustal thickening and the development of the orogenic root system in the magmatic arc and back-arc region of the orogen. The thickening was associated with depression of the Moho and the flux of the Saxothuringian felsic crust into the root area. Originally subhorizontal anisotropy in the root zone was subsequently folded by crustal-scale cusp folds in front of the Brunia backstop. During the Visean, the Brunia continent indented the thickened crustal root, resulting in the root''s massive shortening causing vertical extrusion of the orogenic lower crust, which changed to a horizontal viscous channel flow of extruded lower crustal material in the mid- to supra-crustal levels. Hot orogenic lower crustal rocks were extruded: (1) in a narrow channel parallel to the former Teplá suture surface; (2) in the central part of the root zone in the form of large scale antiformal structure; and (3) in form of hot fold nappe over the Brunia promontory, where it produced Barrovian metamorphism and subsequent imbrications of its upper part. The extruded deeper parts of the orogenic root reached the surface, which soon thereafter resulted in the sedimentation of lower-crustal rocks pebbles in the thick foreland Culm basin on the stable part of the Brunia continent. Finally, during the Westfalian, the foreland Culm wedge was involved into imbricated nappe stack together with basement and orogenic channel flow nappes. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: In this study, we present structural and AMS data from the ∼335Ma ultrapotassic Jihlava syenitoid pluton, which intruded the lower- to mid-crustal orogenic root (Moldanubian Unit) in the Bohemian Massif, Central European Variscides. The emplacement of the pluton was accommodated by multiple processes, such as ductile host-rock shortening, formation of sheeted zones by magma wedging, magmatic stoping, and possibly host-rock displacement within a wide transtensional zone. Magmatic fabrics preserved in the pluton reflect both intrusive processes and regional strain. Margin-parallel and ∼ENE–WSW foliations, which probably formed by strain during emplacement of inner magma pulses, were overprinted by tectonic strain within a zone of distributed wrench-dominated dextral transtension. This zone probably accommodated exhumation of different segments in the eastern part of the Moldanubian Unit during pluton emplacement. In contrast to existing models, we emphasize that the Jihlava pluton, as well as other ultrapotassic plutons widespread in the Moldanubian Unit, are structurally highly variable bodies emplaced by multiple intrusive processes. Our case study illustrates how careful documentation of structural relations around these ultrapotassic plutons may constrain the kinematic framework and local exhumation histories in different segments of the orogenic root during and shortly after the ∼340Ma mechanical event in the Central European Variscides. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Key lithological units of the high-grade eastern margin of the Bohemian Massif were dated using the U-Pb and Pb-Pb methods on zircons in order to establish a chronological framework for the geodynamic evolution of the Variscan orogenic root. The protolith ages for metagranitoids, orthogneisses and granulites of thickened lower and middle crust reveal the existence of magmatic activity that occurred over a 100 million year time interval from Cambro-Ordovician to early Devonian times, probably related to discontinuous intracontinental rifting of Neoproterozoic crust. Our geochronological data suggest that the eastern part of the orogenic root represents thermally softened and rifted Neoproterozoic crust, preserved farther to the east as the Brunia microcontinent. Zircon ages for felsic granulites, high-grade gneisses of the lower crust and of a syn-convergence granodioritic intrusion in the upper crust indicate that thickening and exhumation of the crust occurred during a narrow time interval between 370 and 340 Ma. Exhumation of the lower crust to mid-crustal levels was a localized process that occurred at ∼340 Ma and was associated with crustal-scale folding in the internal part of the root as well as orogenic channel flow along the eastern collisional margin. Both types of exhumation mechanisms were driven by deep-level wedging (indentation) of the easterly Brunia continent, followed by deposition of heavy minerals and pebbles derived from high-pressure rocks in the adjacent foreland basin. Final orogenic development was characterized by NE-SW dextral transpressive shearing parallel to the Brunia margin as well as dextral transtension associated with activity along the Elbe lithospheric fault. These processes affected the marginal parts of the orogenic root and were accompanied by 330 to 325 Ma old syntectonic granitoid intrusions along reactivated lithotectonic boundaries. Rotation of the assembled orogenic belt, accompanied by lithospheric faulting driven by westerly subduction roll-back, may be the most plausible model to explain late deformation of the orogenic root. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]