Neogene calc-alkaline intrusive magmatism of post-collisional origin along the Outer Carpathians: a comparative study of the Pieniny Mountains and adjacent areas

Abstract

A petrographical and geochemical analysis was carried out on intrusive rocks from the Pieniny and Moravian areas, with special attention to boron content and K-Ar radiometric ages. The intrusions form medium- to high-potassium calc-alkaline andesitic suites, which are compositionally slightly different from each other and from the other calc-alkaline sequences in the Carpathian-Pannonian Region. No significant geochemical differences were observed within the different phase intrusions in the Pieniny areas. However, there is a slight difference in major and trace element composition between the Moravian and Pieniny intrusions. The andesitic rocks in the Pieniny and Moravian area are enriched in large ion lithophile elements and light rare earth elements and depleted in high field strength elements, indicating a metasomatized mantle source of the parent magmas. The low boron concentration of the andesitic rocks in the Pieniny area is in the range measured in back-arc, intraplate basalts of the Bakony-Balaton Highland volcanic field, whereas the higher boron content of the Moravian rocks overlaps with that of the Western Carpathian andesites. This may indicates the heterogeneity of the mantle lithosphere below the areas, or indicates different magma evolution histories. On the basis of the systematic geochronological study, the intrusive rocks along the Outer Carpathians can be divided on three groups, which overlap with each other temporally. The oldest magmatism occurred from 14.8 Ma to 11.0 Ma in the Uhersky Brod area, Moravia, which was followed by the emplacement of andesitic dikes and sills in the Pieniny Mts., south Poland (13.5–10.8 Ma). In the Pieniny area, two intrusive phases were distinguished. Partly overlapping with this area, but generally younger than this magmatism, the emplacement of the youngest intrusions is referable to the Poiana Botizei-Ţibles-Toroiaga-Rodna-Bârgâu intrusive area, Romania, where magmatic activity started at ~11.8 Ma and terminated at 8.0 Ma.