The role of inherited continental margin architecture on early Variscan convergence

It is well known that the inherited architecture of extended continental margins controls the collisional processes and deformation structure of ensuing orogens. However, the classical hyper-extended margins of the Atlantic type differ substantially from the extended continental margins above the west-Pacific subduction systems, which are characterized by massive crustal melting, intrusion of large portions of mafic magmas and HT-LP metamorphism. In this project, we focus on a Pacific type hot margin developed during Ordovician times along the northern margin of Gondwana and was subsequently incorporated into the Devonian subduction-collisional structure of the western margin of the Bohemian Massif. We rely on a multidisciplinary approach combining geological and geophysical methods to characterize the architecture of such an orogen and propose its evolutionary thermomechanical model which will be tested by means of numerical modelling.

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