 Activity along the shear zone exhuming Cer metamorphic core complex in the internal Dinarides was dated by Ar-Ar geochronology to ~17 Ma  Exhumation was facilitated by extensional reactivation of Late Cretaceous-Paleogene nappe contacts resulting from Adria-Europe collision  Extensional reactivation of the thrusts is interpreted as a far-field effect of Oligo-Miocene Carpathian slab rollback  Accepted ArticleThis article has been accepted for publication and undergone full peer review but has not been through the copyediting, typesetting, pagination and proofreading process, which may lead to differences between this version and the Version of Record. Please cite this article as

<p>Ar/Ar-in-situ geochronology by laser ablation NGMS (noble gas mass spectrometry) provides a powerful tool to determine inter- and intra-granular age variations of potassium-bearing minerals while maintaining the structural integrity of a sample. This makes it an excellent method in targeting the understanding of the post-collisional evolution of an orogen by dating different mica generations. In order to investigate the timing of exhumation related to extensional deformation in the Internal Dinarides, we sampled paragneisses from the upper greenschist- to amphibolite-grade mylonitic detachment zones of two metamorphic core complexes (MCC’s). The MCC’s are located at the distal Adriatic passive margin (Cer MCC, central western Serbia) and within the Late Cretaceous suturing accretionary wedge complex (Motajica MCC, northern Bosnia and Herzegovina) that separates Adria-derived units from blocks of European affinity.</p><p>Mica grains were assigned to either pre-kinematic or syn-kinematic growth, according to their structural context, texture and grainsize. Pre-kinematic growth is characterized by large, deformed minerals of up to 3.5 mm in size, while rather fine-grained, recrystallized mineral aggregates that usually formed in the strain shadow of larger clasts represent syn-kinematic growth.</p><p>The ages of pre-kinematic white mica from paragneisses of the Motajica detachment range from approx. 80 to 25 Ma. They partly show a large intra-granular age spread characterized by significantly older core ages becoming progressively younger towards the rim. This pattern likely suggests diffusive loss of radiogenic Ar. Ages between 80-55 Ma in the central parts of the grains, associated with a top-W transport direction, are interpreted as the time interval of mineral growth and subsequent deformation in an accretionary wedge during E-ward subduction of the Adriatic passive margin underneath European units.</p><p>Syn-kinematic white mica from Motajica yielded ages between 22 and 16 Ma, which are interpreted as the time of peak activity of extension. This also corresponds with the time of crustal extension in the Pannonian Basin to the north. At Cer MCC, located roughly 150 km ENE of Motajica MCC and structurally below the accretionary wedge complex, ages of deformed white mica indicate exhumation between 19 and 15 Ma with a top-N directed transport.  </p><p>Our results suggest that the opening of the Pannonian Basin in response to slab-retreat underneath the Carpathian orogen resulted in the extensional reactivation of suturing thrusts that separated Adriatic from European units, leading to exhumation of parts of the accretionary wedge (Motajica MCC). This event was followed by the progressive exhumation of the passive Adriatic margin (Cer MCC) that occupied a structural position below the suturing accretionary wedge.</p>

<p>The Sava suture zone of the internal Dinarides contains Maastrichtian trench-fill sediments, termed “Sava flysch” that record the closure of the northern branch of the Neotethys. Subsequent collision between Adria-derived thrust sheets and blocks of European affinity in Latest Cretaceous to Paleogene times culminated in the formation of the Dinarides fold-and-thrust belt. The suture zone hosts numerous Oligocene plutons of I-type granitic composition. Many of these intrusions are located in the center of metamorphic core complexes (MCCs) that were exhumed in early Miocene times. This phase of post-collisional extension was concomitant with the opening of the northerly adjacent Pannonian Basin and associated with granitic S-type magmatism. Both the processes responsible for extensional deformation and magmatic activity in the internal Dinarides are still a matter of debate.</p> <p>Our Study contributes spatio-temporal constraints to better understand the tectono-magmatic processes of this area. We present field-kinematic, geochronological, and thermobarometric data from two MCCs at the transition between the internal Dinarides and the Pannonian Basin. Both MCCs are characterized by plutonic rocks in the center, surrounded by up to amphibolite-grade mylonites of exhuming shear zones. Heterogeneous extensional reactivation of formerly contractional structures that gave rise to these core complexes as low-angle detachments in the early Miocene is indicated by a variation in deformation ages of 3 Ma, obtained by Ar-Ar in-situ dating of white mica from deformed rocks of the respective shear zones. While Motajica MCC was exhumed from within the Sava zone during E-W extension at approximately 20 Ma, Cer MCC was exhumed as part of the underlying Adriatic basement during N-S extension between 17-16 Ma. For the Cer MCC, a concordia age of 17.6±0.1 Ma (2σ) obtained by U-Pb LA-ICP-MS on zircons from an S-type granite in combination with an Ar-Ar inverse isochron age of 16.6±0.2 Ma (2σ) obtained on white mica from the same sample, indicate a cooling rate of approximately 400°C/Ma.</p> <p>Our results contribute to the idea of rapid exhumation of mid-crustal material in the form of MCCs in response to the opening of the Pannonian Basin. This is further corroborated by results of Raman spectroscopy on carbonaceous material, as the temperature profile across the shear zone implies extremely condensed isotherms of 250°C/km. Additionally, U-Pb analyses show that zircons of the I-type intrusion contain inherited cores with age maxima at 270 Ma and 516 Ma and newly formed rims with an age maximum at 31.7 Ma, indicating the timing of intrusion. The S-type granite of Cer in parts reworks the I-type intrusion, as inherited cores include ages of 31-32 Ma, while the rims show an age of 17-18 Ma, suggesting a syn-extensional emplacement. Our data further shows that zircons of the I-type intrusion contain a significant amount of inherited cores with an age spectrum that resembles the detrital age spectrum from sediments of the Sava zone. This challenges the idea that these I-type melts were solely generated from igneous protoliths, and rather suggests a formation from melting of Paleozoic to Mesozoic successions constituting tectonically buried nappes of the internal Dinarides.</p>

U-Pb geochronology of zircon grains retrieved from magmatic rocks intruding the Jadar block terrane in the central Balkans is used here to add new constraints on the terrane accretion processes and the provenance of crustal sources of this potentially exotic crustal block. Using an unorthodox approach, we analyzed zircons extracted from the products of Cenozoic (Cer and Boranja granitoid massifs) and Triassic magmatism (Bobija andesitic tuff - Pietra Verde). In fourteen samples of granites and epiclastites, we analyzed about 600 grains, and of these, about 30-40% were derived from the basement and were used further for the geological interpretation. Most samples show a similar Precambrian and Paleozoic age spectrum, including ubiquitous Neoproterozoic and well-defined Silurian-Ordovician populations. Only a few older zircons are present, composing minor populations at c. 1.2 Ga and 3.2 Ga. The younger zircons represent a ubiquitous Triassic population that is the strongest in all samples. This age population is most likely associated with local Permo-Triassic magmatism generated due to the opening of the Neotethys. In contrast to the magmatic rocks of Boranja and Bobija, the zircon age spectrum of the Cer polyphase pluton shows a strong Carboniferous peak, indicating a potentially important link to the Variscan margin of Eurasia. This supports opposing interpretations that either this part of the Jadar block terrane represents a southern continuation of the ?Bukkium? and Sana-Una terranes comprising displaced fragments of the southern European Variscan foreland, or, more likely, that it has an Adria affinity and that these zircons are derived from Cretaceous sediments of the Sava Zone, i.e., the suture that separates European and Adriatic domains, which were assimilated during the intrusion of the Cer granitic magmas.

No abstract