Exhumation history of the Variscan suture: Constrains on the detrital zircon geochronology from Carboniferous–Permian sandstones (Northern Gemericum; Western Carpathians)

Abstract The Late Paleozoic sedimentary basins in the Northern Gemericum evolved gradually in time and space within the collisional tectonic regime of the Western Carpathian Variscan orogenic belt. The detrital zircon age spectra, obtained from the Mississippian, Pennsylvanian and Permian metasediments, have distinctive age distribution patterns that reflect the tectonic setting of the host sediments. An expressive unimodal zircon distribution, with an age peak at 352 Ma, is shown by the basal Mississippian metasediments. These represent a relic of the convergent trench-slope sedimentary basin fill. In comparison, the Pennsylvanian detrital zircon populations display distinct multimodal distributions, with the main age peaks at 351, 450, 565 Ma and smaller peaks at ~2.0 and ~2.7 Ga. This is consistent with derivation of clastic detritus from the collisional suture into the foreland basin. Similarly, the Permian sedimentary formations exhibit the multimodal distribution of zircon ages, with main peaks at 300, 355 and 475 Ma. The main difference, in comparison with the Pennsylvanian detrital zircon assemblages, is the sporadic occurrence of the Kasimovian– Asselian (306–294 Ma), as well as the Artinskian–Kungurian (280–276 Ma) igneous zircons. The youngest magmatic zircon ages nearly correspond to the syn-sedimentary volcanic activity with the depositional age of the Permian host sediments and clearly indicate the extensional, rift-related setting.