Eastern Alps

The European Variscan belt, a large scale orogen resulting from the collision of Gondwana and Laurussia, assembled crustal material mainly from North Gondwana derived microcontinents, e.g., Avalonia, Cadomia, Armorica, the Intra-Alpine terranes. To the north of the Alpine orogenic front the Variscan orogen has been studied intensively in several regions, such as the Massif Central, but there are still many open questions with respect to the internal structure and plate tectonic evolution. The southern margin of the Variscan orogen in Central Europe is incorporated within the Alpine orogenic belt. It is highly obscured by reworking during Alpine tectonics and our knowledge about its setting and structure is poor, as there is still limited information from Variscan domains within the Austroalpine Unit of the Eastern Alps. As it would be important for the understanding of the Variscan orogen as a whole we decided to investigate in more detail the Seckau Complex, which represents one of these Variscan domains within the Eastern Alps.

Mandl, M., Kurz, W., Hauzenberger, C., Fritz, H., Klötzli, U., Schuster, R.: Pre-Alpine evolution of the Seckau Complex (Austroalpine basement/Eastern Alps): Constraints from in-situ LA-ICP-MS U-Pb single bond zircon geochronology, Lithos 296-299, 412-430. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.lithos.2017.11.022, 2018.

Mandl, M., Kurz, W., Hauzenberger, C., Fritz, H.& Pfingstl, S.: Geochemistry of Granitoids from the Austroalpine Seckau Complex: a key for revealing the pre-Alpine evolution of the Eastern Alps.- Mineralogy and Petrology, 116, 251-275, 2022, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00710-022-00781-3