Provenance of Paleozoic very low- to low-grade metasedimentary rocks of South Tisia (Slavonian Mountains, Radlovac Complex, Croatia)

Abstract

Abstract Monazite age dating, detrital heavy mineral content and whole-rock geochemistry provided insight into the provenance, depositional history and paleogeological setting of the Radlovac Complex very low- to low-grade metasedimentary rocks (South Tisia, Slavonian Mountains, Croatia). Electron microprobe based Th-U-Pb dating of detrital monazite indicates a Variscan age of the protolith (330 ± 10 Ma). The detrital heavy mineral assemblages of representative metasedimentary rocks are dominated by apatite, zircon, tourmaline and rutile accompanied by minor quantity of epidote/zoisite, monazite and titanite. Judging from the heavy mineral assemblage, felsic igneous rocks served as the source material. This is consistent with the major and trace element spectrum of studied metasedimentary rocks characterized by high concentration of Th, high L + MREEs and high ratios of La/Sc, Th/Sc, La/Co, Th/Co and Th/Cr. The occurrence of magmatic monazite, zircon and xenotime and the absence of metamorphic heavy minerals suggest that granitoids, migmatites and migmatitic gneisses served as one major source for the metapsammites. Such rock types are commonly exposed in the Papuk Complex of the older surrounding complexes, while the Psunj Complex also contains metamorphic rocks. This is in good correlation with the monazite ages presented here which fits better with ages of Papuk Complex representative rocks than with those of the Psunj Complex known from the literature. Overall, data show that the Radlovac Complex represents the detritus of the local Variscan crust characterized by granitoid bodies, migmatites and migmatitic gneisses typical for the Papuk Complex.