The role of the pre-Alpine polycrystalline basement in the paleogeographic configuration of multiple Neotethyan oceanic basins

Abstract

The study provides a deeper understanding of the early Mesozoic paleogeogeographic spatial-temporal relationship by studying the two Adria-Europe intervening basement blocks. The Drina-Ivanjica and Pelagonian crustal fragments play important role in the internal early Alpine oceanic constitution further controlling the late Jurassic emplacement of Tethyan Dinaric-Hellenic ophiolites. The proposed paleogeographic reassessment is driven by the new paleocontinental inheritance data associated with the Variscan – pre-Variscan basement terranes. The recently published data suggest an Avalonian-type inheritance of the Pelagonian basement block which indicates a different pre-Variscan plate-tectonic journey, including separate spatial arrangement during Variscan amalgamation. In turn, Cadomian-type basement inheritance has been documented within the sliced Adria microplate. Thus, the Avalonian inheritance place the Pelagonian block away from the Apulia/Adria (Dinarides). In the investigated context of Paleozoic-Mesozoic paleogeographic transition, the Pelagonian block may represent a segment of the Cimmerian ribbon continent or southernmost segment of the Variscan Europe. With regards the nearby Adria microplate, a Triassic-Jurassic oceanic opening led to the decoupling (spreading away from the main Adria microplate) of the Drina-Ivanjica block. The rifting is in line with the simultaneous yet opposite or westward-directed drift of the Pelagonides. The breakup of south European Variscan configuration eventually result in the spatial alignment of the two basement fragments referred to as the “Drina–Pelagonide continental splinter”. By linking the paleogeographic pre-Jurassic–Jurassic relationship between these continental units, the two landlocked Neotethyan Vardar s.l. basins are extrapolated, “Dinaric Tethys” / Inner Dinaric-(Mirdita-Pindos) and the main Vardar Ocean (Western Vardar Zone).