Variscan basement tectonics and Alpine shear zones in the external Balkanides: Structural data from the Vezhen Massif, Central Stara Planina Mts., Bulgaria

The Alpine Balkanides in Bulgaria are developed over Variscan orogenic fragments, which are variously affected by late-stage thick-skinned thrust tectonics. Often, these fragments hold both Variscan and Alpine structural records. А key area to shed light on important aspects of the tectonic evolution of the external parts of the Alpine Balkanide orogen is the Vezhen Massif in the Central Stara Planina Mountains. Although it is built exclusively of Paleozoic crystalline rocks, its structure was long considered as an example of intense mid Eocene to early Oligocene (Late Alpine) shortening. Detailed fieldwork in the area shows a more complicated tectonic framework and provides evidence of a polyphase structural evolution, involving an important stage of Variscan metamorphism and deformation and two stages of north-vergent Alpine shortening. The Stargel-Boluvanya Tectonic Zone that affects the western Vezhen Massif is one of the most important Variscan structures in the Balkan fold-and-thrust belt. Structural data indicate that the metamorphic basement records initial top-to-north thrusting, followed by further shortening, which led to folding and localized strike-slip deformation. The Variscan syn-metamorphic fabric is cross-cut by several post-kinematic igneous bodies of late Carboniferous to Permian ages. The tectonic history continues with a development of a network of greenschist facies north-vergent mylonitic zones for which an Early Alpine (post-late Permian but pre-Late Cretaceous) age is assumed. Late Alpine north-vergent thrusting is evident only on the eastern and northern flanks of the Vezhen Massif. In a broad structural context, the documented record in the basement rocks of the Vezhen Massif is comparable with those of the external massifs of the Alps and Iberia.