| Abstract: | The European Hercynides are considered the collisional result of Baltica and the microcontinents of Southern Europe, after subduction destroyed the intervening Rheic Ocean during the early Paleozoic. Their geotectonic development is assumed to consist of four overlapping stages: 1. (1) lithospheric thinning, upwelling of hot asthenospheric material, subsidence along listric faults, and basinal and geosynclinal development on the opposing shelves of the Rheic Ocean starting in pre-Devonian time; 2. (2) intermittent subduction of the Rheic Ocean interspersed with episodes of fracturing, volcanism, local uplift and subsidence, and basement reactivation as a result of compression with dextral megashear, particularly since the earliest Devonian; 3. (3) several phases of folding with a northward vergence, and thrusting and overthrusting along listric surfaces, the true orogenic stage; 4. (4) post-orogenic stage of massive granite intrusions and subsequent volcanism in the Permo-Triassic .The high clastic content (as opposed to carbonates) of the sedimentary sequences involved in the subduction and folding processes and the consequent release of large amounts of meteoric water are held responsible for the synorogenic and post-orogenic magma rise, and for the wide zone of anatectic granites and migmatites. The dominant dextral megashear, the constant re-adjustment of the microcontinents of Southern Europe (oblique collision) and the scarcity of back-arc basins, oceanic plateaus and microcontinents led to the poor preservation of ophiolites and ultrabasic rocks, and to a wide (over 1500 km) Hercynian Foldbelt.During the Paleozoic, the depositional center of the Rhenish Massif shifted from south polar latitudes in the early Ordovician to tropical positions within a period of about 100 m.y. The sediment facies reflects this paleogeographic development. |
