The terrane concept in the Sudetes, Bohemian Massif

Abstract

We present a new division of the pre-Permian rocks of the Sudetes into five distinct terranes, differing from those previously described from the Bohemian Massif and the Sudetes. These are: a newly redefined, composite Central Sudetian Terrane, surrounded, from northwest to southeast, by the Saxothuringian, Barrandian, Moldanubian and Moravian Terranes. The terrane boundaries are dominantly large-scale ductile shear zones. From northwest to southeast, these are the Kaczawa line, the Intra-Sudetic Fault, the Leszczyniec shear zone, the South Karkonosze fault system, the North Bohemian fault zone, and the ductile shear zones of Złoty Stok - Trzebieszowice, Niemcza, Brzeg - Nysa and Moravian. The present disposition of the terranes and their boundaries reflect earlier Caledonian plate boundaries strongly reworked and modified by later Variscan (or Silurian?) plate interaction.