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Reflection seismic section, field structural analysis and gravimetric modelling of orogenic lower crust in the core of a Carboniferous orogenic root reveal details of the polyphase process of exhumation. Subvertical amphibolite facies fabrics strike parallel to former plate margins that collided in the NW. The fabrics are developed in both mid-crustal and lower crustal high-pressure granulite units as a result of intensive NW-SE intraroot horizontal shortening driven probably by the west-directed collision. In granulites, the steep fabrics originated as a result of extrusion of orogenic lower crust in a ∼20 km wide vertical ascent channel from lower crustal depths at 350-340 Ma. The large granulite bodies preserve older granulite facies fabrics documenting a two-stage evolution during the exhumation process. Surface exposures of granulites coincide with the absence of subhorizontal seismic reflectors at depth, suggesting preservation of the ∼20 km wide subvertical tabular structure reaching Moho depths. Horizontal seismic reflectors surrounding the vertical channel structure corroborate a dominant flat migmatitic fabric developed in all tectonic units. This structural pattern is interpreted in terms of subhorizontal spreading of partially molten orogenic lower crust in mid-crustal levels (765 °C and 0.76 GPa) at 342-337 Ma. Large massifs of extruded and progressively dismembered felsic granulites disturbed mid-crustal fabrics in the surrounding horizontally flowing partially molten crust. The horizontal mid-crustal flow resulted in collapse of the supra-crustal Teplá-Barrandian Unit (interpreted as the orogenic lid) along a large-scale crustal detachment above the extruded lower crustal dome. The presence of felsic granulites at the bottom of the orogenic root is considered to be a key factor controlling the exhumation of orogenic lower crust in large hot orogens. [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]