The final stages of the Variscan orogeny in Central Europe were associated with voluminous granitic plutonism and widespread volcanism. Four samples representative of the main rhyolitic volcanic units from the Stephanian–Permian continental succession of the North-Sudetic Basin, in the eastern part of the Variscan Belt, were dated using the SIMS (SHRIMP) zircon method. Three samples show overlapping 206Pb–238U mean ages of 294 ± 3, 293 ± 2 and 292 ± 2 Ma, and constrain the age of the rhyolitic volcanism in the North-Sudetic Basin at 294–292 Ma. This age corresponds to the Early Permian – Sakmarian Stage and is consistent with the stratigraphic position of the lava units. The fourth sample dated at 288 ± 4 Ma reflects a minor, younger stage of (sub)volcanic activity in the Artinskian. The silicic activity was shortly followed by mafic volcanism. The rhyolite samples contained very few inherited zircons, possibly owing to limited contribution of crustal sources to the silicic magma, or owing to processes involved in anatectic melting and magma differentiation (e.g. resorption of old zircon by Zr-undersaturated melts). The SHRIMP results and the stratigraphic evidence suggest that the bimodal volcanism terminated the early, short-lived (10–15 Ma) and vigorous stage of basin evolution. The Permian volcanism in the North-Sudetic Basin may be correlated with relatively late phases of the regional climax of Late Palaeozoic volcanism in Central Europe, constrained by 41 published SHRIMP zircon age determinations at 299–291 Ma. The Permian volcanism and coeval plutonism in the NE part of the Bohemian Massif can be linked to late Variscan, post-collisional extension.
The large Variscan Karkonosze Granite in the West Sudetes, representative of the vast Variscan granite plutonism in Central Europe and located adjacent to regional tectonic suture and strike-slip-zones, has been difficult to date precisely; a range of published data varies between c. 304 and 328 Ma. However, the granite is cut by locally numerous lamprophyre and other dykes. Dating of the dyke rocks, emplaced shortly after the granite intrusion and cooled more rapidly, provides a promising tool for the verification of published SHRIMP results on the granite itself. SHRIMP zircon geochronology of a studied micromonzodiorite dyke indicates substantial admixture of inherited zircons of c. 2.0, 1.4 Ga ( 207 Pb-206 Pb minimum ages), and c. 570 (and 500?) Ma. The average concordia age of the main magmatic population of the zircons in the dyke is 313 ± 3 Ma (2σ); however, the true magmatic age might be older, around 318 Ma. This would constrain the age of the hypabyssal magmatism in the Karkonosze Massif and the minimum age of the host Karkonosze Granite. Thus, the Karkonosze Granite is confirmed as representative of an early phase of Variscan granite plutonic activity in the central-European Variscides.
The Intra-Sudetic Basin is a Late Palaeozoic intramontane trough, situated in the eastern part of the European Permo-Carboniferous Basin and Range Province. Within the basin, tectonics, sedimentation and volcanic/subvolcanic activity were intimately related. Tectonics controlled the location of the depositional and volcanic centres. Many volcanic centres with subvolcanic intrusions of rhyodacitic, rhyolitic and trachyandesitic composition were located close to the intra-basinal depositional troughs, where thick accumulations of sedimentary rocks partly obstructed the movement of magma to the surface. Differences in the structure and geometry of intrusions at separate subvolcanic complexes reflect the influence of different discontinuities, faults, margins of collapse structures, boundaries of contrasting lithologies in the country rocks and the volcanic structures.
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