Pre-Variscan tectonic setting of the south margin of Armorica: Insights from detrital zircon ages distribution and Hf isotopic composition of the St-Georges-sur-Loire Unit (S. Armorican Massif, France)

Abstract

The Armorican Massif experienced a poly-orogenic evolution, represented by the Neoproterozoic Cadomian and the Devonian-Carboniferous Variscan tectonothermal events. In the southernmost part of the Armorican Domain (or Armorica microcontinent), the St-Georges-sur-Loire Unit consists of a block-in-matrix subunit, and a turbiditic subunit in the South and North, respectively. The St-Georges-sur Loire unit is interpreted as a remnant back-arc basin formed in Silurian-Early Devonian (ca. 440–400 Ma), and was deformed during the Variscan orogeny. Most of the sedimentary and magmatic blocks enclosed in clastic matrix are olistoliths derived from an assumed southern area called the “missing domain”, presently exposed as the Variscan Mauges Nappe composed of the Cadomian rocks and Early Paleozoic sedimentary cover. The “missing domain” was subducted beneath the Armorican massif during the Variscan collision. Detrital zircon age spectra from sandstones and siltstones from the olistostrome matrix reveal Neoproterozoic and Early Paleozoic age clusters, and less abundant Paleoproterozoic and Archean ages. Hf isotopic compositions of detrital zircons indicate dominantly negative εHf (t) values which are in agreement with a recycled continental source. Minor positive values correspond to a juvenile component that was formed during the Neoproterozoic Cadomian orogeny or Archean-Paleoproterozoic events. The Cambrian and Early Ordovician ages can be related to the pre-Variscan rifting of the Pannotia megacontinent that separated the Armorica microcontinent from Gondwana. Neoproterozoic ages imply a source of the magmatic rocks exposed in the Cadomian belt of the northern part of the Armorica microcontinent, and in the Mauges Nappe.