Ubiquitous post-peak zircon in an eclogite from the Kumdy-Kol,Kokchetav UHP-HP Massif (Kazakhstan): Significance of exhumation-related zircon growth and modification in continental-subduction settings

U–Pb geochronological, trace-element and Lu–Hf isotopic studies have been made on zircons from ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) mafic eclogite from the Kumdy-Kol area, one of the diamond-facies domains of the Kokchetav Massif (northern Kazakhstan). The peak eclogitic assemblage equilibrated at > 900 °C, whereas the bulk sample composition displays light rare-earth element (LREE) and Th depletion evident of partial melting. Zircons from the eclogite are represented by exclusively newly formed metamorphic grains and have U–Pb age spread over 533–459 Ma, thus ranging from the time of peak subduction burial to that of the late post-orogenic collapse. The major zircon group with concordant age estimates have a concordia age of 508.1 ±4.4 Ma, which corresponds to exhumation of the eclogite-bearing UHP crustal slice to granulite- or amphibolite-facies depths. This may indicate potentially incoherent exhumation of different crustal blocks within a single Kumdy-Kol UHP domain. Model Hf isotopic characteristics of zircons (ε_Hf(t) +1.5 to +7.8, Neoproterozoic model Hf ages of 1.02–0.79 Ga) closely resemble the whole-rock values of the Kumdy-Kol eclogites and likely reflect in situ derivation of HFSE source for newly formed grains. The ages coupled with geochemical systematics of zircons confirm that predominantly late zircon growth occurred in Th–LREE-depleted eclogitic assemblage, that experienced incipient melting and monazite dissolution in melt at granulite-facies depths, followed by amphibolite-facies rehydration during late-stage exhumation-related retrogression.     

Contribution of Local Seismic Networks To The Regional Velocity Model of The Bohemian Massif

The routine location of regional seismic events using data from the Czech National Seismological Network (CNSN) is based on Pn, Pg, Sn, Sg phases. A simple velocity model derived from Kárník's (1953) interpretation of an earthquake in Northern Hungary in 1951 has hitherto been used. At present, numerous local seismic networks record and locate local events, which are occasionally recorded at regional distances as well. Due to the relatively small dimensions of local networks, hypocenters (and origin times) determined by a local network might be considered as nearly exact from the point of view of regional-scale CNSN. The comparison of common locations performed by CNSN and by a local network enables us to estimate the accuracy of CNSN locations, as well as to optimize a simple velocity model. The joint interpretation of the CNSN bulletin and the catalogues of four local seismic networks WEBNET, OSTRAVA, KLADNO and LUBIN produced a new ID velocity model. The most frequent epicentral error in this model is less than 5 km, and most foci lie up to 15 km from the true position. The performed analysis indicates bimodal distribution of Sn residuals.     

Magmatic history and geophysical signature of a post-collisional intrusive center emplaced near a crustal-scale shear zone: the Plechý granite pluton (Moldanubian batholith,Bohemian Massif)

The Plechy pluton, southwestern Bohemian Massif, represents a late-Variscan, complexly zoned intrusive center emplaced near the crustal-scale Pfahl shear zone; the pluton thus provides an opportunity to examine the interplay among successive emplacement of large magma batches, magmatic fabric acquisition, and the late-Variscan stress field associated with strike-slip shearing. The magmatic history of the pluton started with the emplacement of the porphyritic Plechy and Haidmühler granites. Based on gravity and structural data, we interpret that the Plechy and Haidmühler granites were emplaced as a deeply rooted, ∼NE–SW elongated body; its gross shape and internal fabric (steep ∼NE–SW magmatic foliation) may have been controlled by the late-Variscan stress field. The steep magmatic foliation changes into flat-lying foliation (particularly recorded by AMS) presumably as a result of divergent flow. Magnetic lineations correspond to a sub-horizontal ∼NE–SW finite stretch associated with the divergent flow. Subsequently, the Třístoličník granite, characterized by steep margin-parallel magmatic foliation, was emplaced as a crescent-shaped body in the central part of the pluton. The otherwise inward-younging intrusive sequence was completed by the emplacement of the outermost and the most evolved garnet-bearing granite (the Marginal granite) along the southeastern margin of the pluton. Electronic supplementary material  The online version of this article (doi:) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.     

Tracing exhumation record in high-pressure micaschists: A new tectonometamorphic model of the evolution of the eastern part of the Fore Sudetic Block,Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt,NE Bohemian Massif,SW Poland

The Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt comprises a volcano-sedimentary succession exposed within a collision zone between the Saxothuringian and Brunovistulian crustal domains of the European Variscides. The studied rocks recorded two metamorphic episodes. The first episode, M₁, occurred at conditions of c. 485 ± 25 °C and 18 ± 1.8 kbar related to burial within a subduction zone. The subsequent episode, M₂, was linked to the final phases of exhumation to mid-crustal level, associated with pressure and temperature (P–T) conditions ranging from c. 520 ± 26 °C and 6 ± 0.6 kbar through 555 ± 28 °C and 7 kbar ± 0.7 to ~590 ± 30 °C and 3–4 ± 0.4 kbar. The documented deformation record is ascribed to three events, D₁ to D₃, interpreted as related to the burial and subsequent exhumation of the Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt. The D₁ event must have witnessed the subduction of the Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt rock succession whereas the D₂ event was associated with the exhumation and folding of the Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt in an E-W-directed shortening regime. A subsequent folding related to the D₂ event was initiated at HP conditions, however, the planar fabric produced during a late stage of the D₂ event, defined by a low-pressure mineral assemblage M₂, indicates that the D₂ final stage was synchronous with the onset of the M₂ episode. Consequently, the entire D₂ event seems to have been associated with the exhumation of the Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt to mid crustal level. The third deformation event D₃, synchronous with the M₂ episode, marked the last stage of the exhumation, and was linked to emplacement of granitoid veins and lenses. The latter resulted in heating and rheological weakening of the entire rock succession and in the formation of non-coaxial shear zones.     

Middle Carboniferous crustal melting in the Variscan Belt: New insights from U–Th–Pbtot. monazite and U–Pb zircon ages of the Montagne Noire Axial Zone (southern French Massif Central)

In France, the Devonian–Carboniferous Variscan orogeny developed at the expense of continental crust belonging to the northern margin of Gondwana. A Visean–Serpukhovian crustal melting has been recently documented in several massifs. However, in the Montagne Noire of the Variscan French Massif Central, which is the largest area involved in this partial melting episode, the age of migmatization was not clearly settled. Eleven U–Th–Pb_tot. ages on monazite and three U–Pb ages on associated zircon are reported from migmatites (La Salvetat, Ourtigas), anatectic granitoids (Laouzas, Montalet) and post-migmatitic granites (Anglès, Vialais, Soulié) from the Montagne Noire Axial Zone are presented here for the first time. Migmatization and emplacement of anatectic granitoids took place around 333–326 Ma (Visean) and late granitoids emplaced around 325–318 Ma (Serpukhovian). Inherited zircons and monazite date the orthogneiss source rock of the Late Visean melts between 560 Ma and 480 Ma. In migmatites and anatectic granites, inherited crystals dominate the zircon populations. The migmatitization is the middle crust expression of a pervasive Visean crustal melting event also represented by the “Tufs anthracifères” volcanism in the northern Massif Central. This crustal melting is widespread in the French Variscan belt, though it is restricted to the upper plate of the collision belt. A mantle input appears as a likely mechanism to release the heat necessary to trigger the melting of the Variscan middle crust at a continental scale.     

Late Paleozoic volcanic rocks of the Intra-Sudetic Basin, Bohemian Massif: petrological and geochemical characteristics

Late Paleozoic volcanic rocks in the Intra-Sudetic Basin of the Bohemian Massif in the Czech Republic can be subdivided into two series: (I) a minor bimodal trachyandesite-rhyolite series of Upper Carboniferous age with initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr of ca. 0.710 and ε_Nd values of −6.1 also characteristic of volcanics of the near Krkonoše Piedmont Basin (0.707 and −6.0, Ulrych et al., 2003) and (II) a major differentiated basaltic trachyandesite-trachyandesite-trachyte-rhyolite series of Lower Permian age with lower initial ⁸⁷Sr/⁸⁶Sr of ca. 0.705-0.708 and ε_Nd values ranging from −2.7 to −3.4/−4.1/. The newly recognized volcanic rocks of trachytic composition indicate that the rocks were formed by magmatic differentiation of similar parental melts rather than constituting a bimodal mafic-felsic sequence from different sources. Both series are generally of subalkaline affinity and calc-alkaline character with some tholeiitic tint (FeO/MgO vs. SiO₂, presence of orthopyroxene). The magmatic activity occurred in cycles in a layered chamber, each starting primarily with felsic volcanics and ending with mafic ones. The mafic rocks represent mantle-melt(s) overprinted by crust during assimilation-fractional crystallization. The Sr-Nd isotopic data confirm a significant crustal component in the volcanic rocks that may have been inherited from the upper mantle source and/or from assimilation of older crust during magmatic underplating and shallow-level melt fractionation.     

Assessment of hydrogeological conditions in basement aquifers of the Precambrian Oban massif, southeastern Nigeria

A combined analysis of lineament length density from radar imagery and surface resistivity data is used to assess the hydrogeological conditions in the Oban massif, Nigeria. The results show that the data guided the qualitative and quantitative estimation of some aquifer parameters. These include resistivity of the water bearing formations (280–740 ω m), thickness (5–140 m), limited hydraulic conductivity (8.53-13.18 m/day) and transmissivity (410.65–725.88 m²/day) data. In addition, the lineament length density for the area ranged between less than 0.2 to slightly more than 0.4. Site evaluation for the location of productive boreholes/wells using a groundwater potential index (GWPI) indicates that areas with a GWPI of greater than 35 are consistent with relatively high yield.     

Crustal structure at the easternmost termination of the Variscan belt based on CELEBRATION 2000 and ALP 2002 data

The eastern margin of the Variscan belt in Europe comprises plate boundaries between continental blocks and terranes formed during different tectonic events. The crustal structure of that complicated area was studied using the data of the international refraction experiments CELEBRATION 2000 and ALP 2002. The seismic data were acquired along SW–NE oriented refraction and wide-angle reflection profiles CEL10 and ALP04 starting in the Eastern Alps, passing through the Moravo-Silesian zone of the Bohemian Massif and the Fore-Sudetic Monocline, and terminating in the TESZ in Poland. The data were interpreted by seismic tomographic inversion and by 2-D trial-and-error forward modelling of the P waves. Velocity models determine different types of the crust–mantle transition, reflecting variable crustal thickness and delimiting contacts of tectonic units in depth. In the Alpine area, few km thick LVZ with the Vp of 5.1 km s^− 1 dipping to the SW and outcropping at the surface represents the Molasse and Helvetic Flysch sediments overthrust by the Northern Calcareous Alps with higher velocities. In the Bohemian Massif, lower velocities in the range of 5.0–5.6 km s^− 1 down to a depth of 5 km might represent the SE termination of the Elbe Fault Zone. The Fore-Sudetic Monocline and the TESZ are covered by sediments with the velocities in the range of 3.6–5.5 km s^− 1 to the maximum depth of 15 km beneath the Mid-Polish Trough. The Moho in the Eastern Alps is dipping to the SW reaching the depth of 43–45 km. The lower crust at the eastern margin of the Bohemian Massif is characterized by elevated velocities and high Vp gradient, which seems to be a characteristic feature of the Moravo-Silesian. Slightly different properties in the Moravian and Silesian units might be attributed to varying distances of the profile from the Moldanubian Thrust front as well as a different type of contact of the Brunia with the Moldanubian and its northern root sector. The Moho beneath the Fore-Sudetic Monocline is the most pronounced and is interpreted as the first-order discontinuity at a depth of 30 km.     

Overview of the geology, petrology and tectonic framework of the high-pressure–ultrahigh-pressure metamorphic belt of the Kokchetav Massif, Kazakhstan

Abstract High‐ to ultrahigh‐pressure metamorphic (HP–UHPM) rocks crop out over 150 km along an east–west axis in the Kokchetav Massif of northern Kazakhstan. They are disposed within the Massif as a 2 km thick, subhorizontal pile of sheet‐like nappes, predominantly composed of interlayered pelitic and psammitic schists and gneisses, amphibolite and orthogneiss, with discontinuous boudins and lenses of eclogite, dolomitic marble, whiteschist and garnet pyroxenite. On the basis of predominating lithologies, we subdivided the nappe group into four north‐dipping, fault‐bounded orogen‐parallel units (I–IV, from base to top). Constituent metabasic rocks exhibit a systematic progression of metamorphic grades, from high‐pressure amphibolite through quartz–eclogite and coesite–eclogite to diamond–eclogite facies. Coesite, diamond and other mineral inclusions within zircon offer the best means by which to clarify the regional extent of UHPM, as they are effectively sequestered from the effects of fluids during retrogression. Inclusion distribution and conventional geothermobarometric determinations demonstrate that the highest grade metamorphic rocks (Unit II: T = 780–1000°C, P = 37–60 kbar) are restricted to a medial position within the nappe group, and metamorphic grade decreases towards both the top (Unit III: T = 730–750°C, P = 11–14 kbar; Unit IV: T = 530°C, P = 7.5–9 kbar) and bottom (Unit I: T = 570–680°C; P = 7–13.5 kbar). Metamorphic zonal boundaries and internal structural fabrics are subhorizontal, and the latter exhibit opposing senses of shear at the bottom (top‐to‐the‐north) and top (top‐to‐the‐south) of the pile. The orogen‐scale architecture of the massif is sandwich‐like, with the HP–UHPM nappe group juxtaposed across large‐scale subhorizontal faults, against underlying low P–T metapelites (Daulet Suite) at the base, and overlying feebly metamorphosed clastic and carbonate rocks (Unit V). The available structural and petrologic data strongly suggest that the HP–UHPM rocks were extruded as a sequence of thin sheets, from a root zone in the south toward the foreland in the north, and juxtaposed into the adjacent lower‐grade units at shallow crustal levels of around 10 km. The nappe pile suffered considerable differential internal displacements, as the 2 km thick sequence contains rocks exhumed from depths of up to 200 km in the core, and around 30–40 km at the margins. Consequently, wedge extrusion, perhaps triggered by slab‐breakoff, is the most likely tectonic mechanism to exhume the Kokchetav HP–UHPM rocks.     

Thermal evolution of the orogenic lower crust during exhumation within a thickened Moldanubian root of the Variscan belt of Central Europe

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.