Comparing the remnants of the Cenerian orogen in Austria and Serbia

Until recently, the Ordovician accretionary stages were barely recognized and attributed to a “North African Caledonian event” (Romanian Carpathians). By using zircon crystallization ages in orthogneiss, Ordovician magmatic imprints are recognized across the area. The metamorphic basement units of Central Europe, including Eastern Serbia, frequently contain traces of discrete magmatic and/or metamorphic events of the Ediacaran-Ordovician age. Most puzzling and presently little understood is a discrete Ordovician tectonothermal event with, at least in places, clear subduction-type metamorphic characteristics. Despite this atypical “Cenerian orogenic event” and the absence of typifying crustal thickening, the crustal tectonothermal deformations are repeatedly observable within and south of the Alpine-Carpathian-Balkan-Hellenic chain. The project has been based upon U-Pb zircon dating of some key rocks (mainly detrital zircon provenience studies, which are an important tool for paleogeographic reconstructions). It will be carried out at the University of Graz.