U-Pb dating of an early paleozoic bimodal magmatism in the french Massif Central and of its further metamorphic evolution

In the Marvejols area (Southern french Massif Central), the gneissic Marvejols supergroup is overthrust on the metasedimentary “Série du Lot”, deposited in part prior to 540 Ma. The allochtonous terranes are characterized by the occurrence of a leptyno-amphibolitic group, a complex association of mafic and felsic rocks of igneous and sedimentary derivation. A 480±10 Ma age has been obtained by U-Pb dating of zircons, for the crystallization of both mafic and felsic meta-igneous rocks. These rocks were emplaced during an important extensional tectonics. Relics of eclogites, pyrigarnites, coronite gabbros and HP-trondhjemites are clear evidence for a further HP-HT event dated at 415±6 Ma on zircons from a HP trondhjemite. Subsequently, the Marvejols supergroup underwent an amphibolite facies metamorphism with incipient mobilization dated at 345±10 Ma. Rifting and thinning of the continental crust in Cambro-Ordovician times appears to be a major geodynamic feature which could account for the thermal events often referred to the “Caledonian” orogeny. The Silurian (415 Ma) age of the HP episode is clearly older than the main Variscan tectonometamorphic event; it is in agreement with Rb-Sr dating of the Moldanubian granulites and with some radiometric data from Southern Brittany (France). These results point to a compressive phase, probably in a subduction context, in view of the high pressures reached (15–20 Kb), after the Cambro-Ordovician distensive phase. The main final tectono-metamorphic paroxysm (blocking of subduction process and continental collison ?) is not prior to the end of Devonian (340–350 Ma) and is related to the Variscan orogeny s.s