Tracing exhumation record in high-pressure micaschists: A new tectonometamorphic model of the evolution of the eastern part of the Fore Sudetic Block, Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt, NE Bohemian Massif, SW Poland

Abstract

The Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt comprises a volcano-sedimentary succession exposed within a collision zone between the Saxothuringian and Brunovistulian crustal domains of the European Variscides. The studied rocks recorded two metamorphic episodes. The first episode, M1, occurred at conditions of c. 485 ± 25 °C and 18 ± 1.8 kbar related to burial within a subduction zone. The subsequent episode, M2, was linked to the final phases of exhumation to mid-crustal level, associated with pressure and temperature (P–T) conditions ranging from c. 520 ± 26 °C and 6 ± 0.6 kbar through 555 ± 28 °C and 7 kbar ± 0.7 to ~590 ± 30 °C and 3–4 ± 0.4 kbar. The documented deformation record is ascribed to three events, D1 to D3, interpreted as related to the burial and subsequent exhumation of the Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt. The D1 event must have witnessed the subduction of the Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt rock succession whereas the D2 event was associated with the exhumation and folding of the Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt in an E-W-directed shortening regime. A subsequent folding related to the D2 event was initiated at HP conditions, however, the planar fabric produced during a late stage of the D2 event, defined by a low-pressure mineral assemblage M2, indicates that the D2 final stage was synchronous with the onset of the M2 episode. Consequently, the entire D2 event seems to have been associated with the exhumation of the Kamieniec Metamorphic Belt to mid crustal level. The third deformation event D3, synchronous with the M2 episode, marked the last stage of the exhumation, and was linked to emplacement of granitoid veins and lenses. The latter resulted in heating and rheological weakening of the entire rock succession and in the formation of non-coaxial shear zones.