Structure and evolution of the Bohemian Arc

Abstract

AbstractTectonic zones and palaeogeographic units (terranes) in the German segment of the Variscides correlate with equivalents in the Sudetes at the NE margin of the Bohemian Massif. This correlation defines an arcuate structure with an opening angle of about 90°. The structure is truncated to the SE by a crustal scale. NE-trending fault zone with dextral transpression, the Moldanubian Thrust (MT). The arc cannot have been formed by northeastward indentation of the Bohemian Massif, since there is no evidence of a fault zone on the NW flank of the notional indenter, and little evidence for northeastward tectonic transport. Kinematic and age constraints on the main fault zones instead suggest that the structural array was formed by a complex sequence of events. Northwestward displacement along the margin of the East European Platform (EEP) with clockwise rotation was followed by large southwestward movements along the Moldanubian Thrust, and renewed northwestward displacement along the SW margin of the East European Platform.