Rastislav Milovský

Kinematics and metamorphism of a cretaceous core complex: The veporic unit of the Western Carpathians

Abstract The Veporic basement and its Permian-Mesozoic cover experienced medium-pressure, collision-related metamorphism during the Cretaceous. Geothermobarometric calculations of Alpine mineral assemblages indicate peak conditions of 8–12 kbar and 550–600°C in the deepest-exposed basement, and up to 8 kbar and 450–500°C in the Permian metasediments. After having reached the metamorphic peak conditions (at around 110 Ma, 40 Ar/ 39 Ar on amphiboles), the thermally softened Veporic unit was exhumed probably due to the underplating of a buoyant Tatric-Fatric crust. Exhumation was triggered by extensional denudation of former upper-crustal thrust units, overlying the Veporic unit. Unroofing was accomplished due to orogenparallel, top-to-east extension along low-angle, ductile normal shear zones. The area collapsed and rapidly cooled at 90-80 Ma ( 40 Ar/ 39 Ar on micas). As revealed by the structural record, the doming and tectonic exhumation of the Veporic core occurred in an overall contractional regime and was followed by additional Late Cretaceous—Early Tertiary shortening events.

Structural pattern and emplacement mechanisms of the Krížna cover nappe (Central Western Carpathians)

Structural pattern and emplacement mechanisms of the Krížna cover nappe (Central Western Carpathians) The Central Western Carpathians are characterized by both the thick- and thin-skinned thrust tectonics that originated during the Cretaceous. The Krížna Unit (Fatric Superunit) with a thickness of only a few km is the most widespread cover nappe system that completely overthrusts the Tatric basement/cover superunit over an area of about 12 thousands square km. In searching for a reliable model of its origin and emplacement, we have collected structural data throughout the nappe body from its hinterland backstop (Veporic Superunit) to its frontal parts. Fluid inclusion (FI) data from carbonate cataclastic rocks occurring at the nappe sole provided useful information about the p-T conditions during the nappe transport. The crucial phenomena considered for formulation of our evolutionary model are: (1) the nappe was derived from a broad rifted basinal area bounded by elevated domains; (2) the nappe body is composed of alternating, rheologically very variable sedimentary rock complexes, hence creating a mechanically stratified multilayer; (3) presence of soft strata serving as décollement horizons; (4) stress and strain gradients increasing towards the backstop; (5) progressive internal deformation at very low-grade conditions partitioned into several deformation stages reflecting varying external constraints for the nappe movement; (6) a very weak nappe sole formed by cataclasites indicating fluid-assisted nappe transport during all stages; (7) injection of hot overpressured fluids from external sources (deformed basement units) facilitating frontal ramp overthrusting under supralithostatic conditions. It was found that no simple mechanical model can be applied, but that all known principal emplacement mechanisms and driving forces temporarily participated in progressive structural evolution of the nappe. The rear compression operated during the early stages, when the sedimentary succession was detached, shortened and transported over the frontal ramp. Subsequently, gravity spreading and gliding governed the final nappe emplacement over the unconstrained basinal foreland.

Cathodoluminescence, fluid inclusion and stable C–O isotope study of tectonic breccias from thrusting plane of a thin-skinned calcareous nappe

Basal hydraulic breccias of alpine thin-skinned Muráň nappe were investigated by means of cathodoluminescence petrography, stable isotope geochemistry and fluid inclusions analysis. Our study reveals an unusual dynamic fluid regime along basal thrust plane during final episode of the nappe emplacement over its metamorphic substratum. Basal thrusting fluids enriched in 18O, silica, alumina, alkalies and phosphates were generated in the underlying metamorphosed basement at epizonal conditions corresponding to the temperatures of 400–450°C. The fluids fluxed the tectonized nappe base, leached evaporite-bearing formations in hangingwall, whereby becoming oversaturated with sulphates and chlorides. The fluids further modified their composition by dedolomitization and isotopic exchange with the host carbonatic cataclasites. Newly formed mineral assemblage of quartz, phlogopite, albite, potassium feldspar, apatite, dravite tourmaline and anhydrite precipitated from these fluids on cooling down to 180–200°C. Finally, the cataclastic mush was cemented by calcite at ambient anchizonal conditions. Recurrent fluid injections as described above probably enhanced the final motion of the Muráň nappe.

Hydrothermal speleogenesis in carbonates and metasomatic silicites induced by subvolcanic intrusions: a case study from the Štiavnické vrchy Mountains, Slovakia

Since 2010 we have been studying several caves formed in crystalline limestones and metasomatic silicites of the Štiavnické vrchy Mountains. These caves are located in the Inner Western Carpathians of central Slovakia (Fig. 1). This paper presents evidence that these caves are of hydrothermal origin, linked to several phases of the evolution of the Štiavnica stratovolcano. Hydrothermal caves belong to a larger group of caves of hypogene origin indentified on the basis of regional paleo-hydrogeological analysis, morphogenetic analysis of caves, cave sediments and minerals, and geochemical alteration of the host rock during hypogene speleogenesis (Dubljanskij, 1990; Dublyansky, 2000; Onac, 2002; Klimchouk, 2007, 2009; Spötl et al., 2009; and others). The caves described here contribute to a larger view of genetic variability of caves in Slovakia, which has a varied and complex geological setting. This study presents information about hydrothermal Citation:

High-pressure aragonite phenocrysts in carbonatite and carbonated syenite xenoliths within an alkali basalt

Abstract We describe the first observation of primary magmatic aragonite in carbonatite and carbonated syenite, occurring as xenoliths in a Pliocene basaltic diatreme located near the Hungary-Slovakia border. The aragonite-hosting matrix consists of disordered P-rich calcite, occasionally associated with trachyte glass. We interpret the aragonite growth as evidence of supra-lithostatic overpressure in the magmatic plumbing system that connected the crustal basaltic reservoir with the partial melting zone of the lithospheric mantle, and the disordered calcite ± trachyte as quenched residual, immiscible melts, generated close to the solidus of the carbonated alkali basalt differentiated in the crustal reservoir. The quenching event was a phreato-magmatic eruption within the stability field of the low-pressure calcite; this was triggered by advective overpressure, caused by expanding gas bubbles in a quasiincompressible silicate melt system. The high-pressure, pre-eruption origin of aragonite is indicated by enrichment in 13C compared to the associated calcite interpreted as a record of CO2 degassing at T > 500 °C. The oxygen (δ18O ranges of 22.1-24.5‰ V-SMOW in aragonite, 21.6-22.7‰ in calcite) and carbon (δ13C ranges of -4.4 to -5.9‰ V-PDB in aragonite, -11.9 to -12.7‰ in calcite) isotope signatures are consistent with a degassed carbonatite melt primarily derived from a subduction zone.

Fluid evolution and mineralogy of Mn-Fe-barite-fluorite mineralizations at the contact of the Thuringian Basin, Thüringer Wald and Thüringer Schiefergebirge in Germany

Abstract Numerous small deposits and occurrences of Mn-Fe-fluorite-barite mineralization have developed at the contact of the Thuringian Basin, Thüringer Wald and Thüringer Schiefergebirge in central Germany. The studied mineralizations comprise the assemblages siderite+ankerite-calcite-fluorite-barite and hematite-Mn oxides-calcite-barite, with the precipitation sequence in that order within each assemblage. A structural geological analysis places the origin of the barite veins between the Middle Jurassic and Early Cretaceous. Primary fluid inclusions contain water vapour and an aqueous phase with NaCl and CaCl2 as the main solutes, with salinities mostly between 24–27 mass. % CaCl2 eq. Th measurements range between 85 °C and 160 °C in barite, between 139 °C and 163 °C in siderite, and between 80 °C and 130 °C in fluorite and calcite. Stable isotopes (S, O) point to the evaporitic source of sulphur in the observed mineralizations. The S,C,O isotopic compositions suggest that barite and calcite could not have precipitated from the same fluid. The isotopic composition of the fluid that precipitated barite is close to the sea water in the entire Permo–Mesozoic time span whereas calcite is isotopically distinctly heavier, as if the fluids were affected by evaporation. The fluid evolution in the siliciclastic/volcanic Rotliegend sediments (as determined by a number of earlier petrological and geochemical studies) can be correlated with the deposition sequence of the ore minerals. In particular, the bleaching of the sediments by reduced Rotliegend fluids (basinal brines) could be the event that mobilized Fe and Mn. These elements were deposited as siderite+ankerite within the Zechstein carbonate rocks and as hematite+Mn oxides within the oxidizing environment of the Permian volcanic and volcanoclastic rocks. A Middle-Jurassic illitization event delivered Ca, Na, Ba, and Pb from the feldspars into the basinal brines. Of these elements, Ba was deposited as massive barite veins.

Kerimasite, {Ca3}[Zr2]( )O12 garnet from the Vysoká-Zlatno skarn, Štiavnica stratovolcano, Slovakia

Abstract Kerimasite {Ca3}[Zr2](SiFe3+2 )O12, a rare member of the garnet supergroup, has been identified in association with andradite–grossular and their hydrated analogues, monticellite, perovskite, clintonite, anhydrite, hydroxylellestadite–fluorellestadite, spinel, magnetite, brucite, valeriite and other minerals from a Ca-Mg skarn in the exocontact of a granodiorite porphyry intrusion in Vysoká-Zlatno Cu-Au skarnporphyry deposit, the Štiavnica stratovolcano, Central Slovakia. Kerimasite forms euhedral-to-anhedral crystals, 2 to 100 μm across with 0.73-1.62 atoms per formula unit (a.p.f.u.) Zr (16.2-33.6 wt.% ZrO2), 0.34-0.66 a.p.f.u. Ti (4.6-9.3 wt.% TiO2), 0.01 to 0.05 a.p.f.u. Hf (0.4-1.7 wt.% HfO₂: the largest Hf content reported in kerimasite), and small amounts of Sn, Sc and Nb (≤ 0.02 a.p.f.u.). Tetrahedral Si (0.99-1.67 a.p.f.u.; 9.8-18.1 wt.% SiO2) is balanced by 0.85-1.26 a.p.f.u. Fe3+and by 0.46-0.76 a.p.f.u. Al. The crystals commonly show regular, oscillatory concentric zoning or irregular patchy internal textures due to Zr, Ti, Fe, Al and Si variations during growth or partial alteration and dissolutionreprecipitation. The main substitutions in kerimasite are Y(Fe,Sc)3+ + ZSi4+ = Y(Zr,Ti,Hf,Sn)4+ + Z(Fe,Al)3+ and Ti4+ = Zr4+. Associated andradite locally contains irregular Ti- and Zr-rich zones with ≤ 11 wt.% TiO2 and ≤ 4.4 wt.% ZrO2. In comparison with common Ca-rich garnets, the micro-Raman spectrum of kerimasite shows that many bands shift towards much lower wavenumbers, either due to Fe3+ substitution on the Z site or to the strong influence of neighbouring octahedrally-coordinated Zr4+ on internal vibrations of tetrahedra that share oxygens. The formation of kerimasite, monticellite, perovskite and other phases indicate a relatively Ca-rich and Si,Al-poor environment, analogous to other known occurrences of Ca-Zr garnets (Ca-rich skarns and xenoliths, carbonatites). Kerimasite and associated skarn minerals originated during contact-thermal metamorphism of Upper Triassic marl slates with limestone, dolomite, anhydrite and gypsum by Miocene granodiorite porphyry at T ≈ 700ºC and P ≈ 50-70 MPa.