Publication Date:
2002-01-01
Description:
Bodies of coronitic metagabbro occur in the SW Marianske Lazn[e] Complex (MLC) and the adjacent Tepla Crystalline Unit (TCU) on the western margin of the Tepla-Barrandian Unit (TBU), Bohemian Massif. The characteristic structural, geochemical, petrographic, and metamorphic features of five groups of metagabbros and related rocks are presented, compared with other metabasites of the MLC and Zone of Erbendorff-Vohenstrauss (ZEV), and used to constrain the tectonometamorphic evolution of the western part of the TBU. The metagabbros are considered to be a younger intrusive member of the complicated lower crustal tectonic stack of Upper Proterozoic to Early Palaeozoic age which is formed by the Marianske Lazn[e] Complex and the Tepla Crystalline Unit together. It is proposed that a significant part of the metamorphic evolution of some parts of these units took place before the emplacement of metagabbros and granitoids at around 496-516 Ma. The sequence of metamorphic events is interpreted to have been as follows. Deep burial of primitive MORB type tholeiitic rocks (a) metamorphosed up to eclogite facies, followed by (b) uplift to lower crustal levels so that the partially exhumed rocks were juxtaposed with other lower/middle crustal rocks. Thermal relaxation (c) followed, with an episode of extension recorded in L-tectonites of amphibolite facies. Once this lithologically variegated stack was welded together, it was intruded by the Upper Cambrian-Lower Ordovician granitoids and gabbros (d). This pre-Variscan metamorphic event may be expressed at the supracrustal level by an unconformity between Upper Cambrian and Lower Ordovician rocks in the Barrandian. The final configuration of the units was established during the Variscan collision of the Tepla Barrandian terrane with Saxothuringia (e) in which the rocks of the MLC and TCU were thrust to the NW over the Saxothuringian para-autochthon. The accompanying metamorphic event reached upper amphibolite facies. The thermally relaxed rocks cooled rapidly, and pre-existing thrust planes were re-activated during the final extensional collapse.
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