Research Projects - Milorad Antić, Tectonics group, Geological-Paleontological Institute, Basel University

Serbo-Macedonian massif (SMM) represents a crystalline belt situated between the two diverging branches of the Eastern Mediterranean Alpine orogenic system, the northeast-vergent Carpatho-Balkanides and the southwest-vergent Dinarides and Hellenides. It is outcropping from the Pannonian basin to the Aegean Sea along central and southeastern Serbia, southwestern Bulgaria, eastern Macedonia and central Greece. Although there is an increasing interest of the geologists in the similar crystalline domains in the SE Europe over the past two decades (such as Tiszsa Mega-Unit and Rhodope Massif), the tectonomagmatic evolution of the central parts of the SMM had remained still uncertain. In order to unravel the origin and thermo-tectonic evolution of this tectonic unit, we have applied LA-ICPMS U-Pb geochronology on zircon, fission-track analysis on apatite and zircon and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar thermochronology on biotite, muscovite and hornblende on a range of magmatic, metamorphic and sedimentary rocks from the major constituent units of the SMM (i.e. Lower complex and Vlasina unit) and its surrounding area (e.g. Struma unit and Eastern Veles series). The results of these analysis coupled with geochemical fingerprinting and structural field observations yielded critical new data that was integrated in a tectonic model for the evolution of the rock units presently located in the central Balkans since the Ediacaran to the Mesozoic.

The earliest magmatism in the SMM (i.e. the Lower complex and the Vlasina unit) and the neighbouring basement of Struma unit is related to the activity along the late Cadomian magmatic arc (562-522 Ma). Subsequent stage of early Paleozoic igneous activity is associated with the reactivation of subduction below the Lower complex and the adjacent Eastern Veles series during the Early Ordovician (490-478 Ma) followed by the emplacement of mafic dykes in the Lower complex due to aborted rifting in the Middle Ordovician (472-456 Ma) and felsic within-plate magmatism in the early Silurian (439±2 Ma). The third major magmatic stage is related to the emplacement of Carboniferous late- to post-collisional granites (328-304 Ma). These granites intrude the gneiss of the Lower complex, in which the youngest deformed igneous rocks are of early Silurian age, thus constraining the high-strain deformation and peak metamorphism to the Variscan orogeny. The Permo-Triassic (243-268 Ma) stage of late- to post-collisional and within-plate felsic magmatism is related to the opening of the Mesozoic Tethys.

Four major stages of ductile deformation had been recognised in the central SMM. The oldest deformational stage D1 is related to the formation of the initial foliation (S₁), that was subsequently folded during D₂ into isoclinal folds F₁. Axial-plane cleavage resulting from this folding defines the foliation S₂. However, isoclinal folds F₂ have been preserved only as cm- to dm-scale rootless hinges due to transposition and refolding into dm- to Dm- isoclinal folds (F₃) during the following deformational stage D₃. The foliation S₂ is parallelised with axial-plane cleavage S₃, representing the major penetrative planar fabric in the area. Based on the geological evidence and preliminary results of ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar thermochronology, deformational stages D₁, D₂ and D₃ can be assigned to the Variscan orogeny. Younger deformational stage D₄ is related to the formation of regional scale open folds and incipient foliation, better observable in Permo-Triassic magmatic rocks, and associated with greenschist-facies retrogression which most probably has taken place in the Jurassic.

Three major cooling stages from the late Early Cretaceous to the Oligocene have been identified in the study area form the results of the fission-track analysis on apatite and zircon minerals. The first stage represents rapid cooling through zircon and apatite closure temperatures (300°-60 °C) during the late-Early to early-Late Cretaceous (ca. 110-ca. 90 Ma). It is related to the post-orogenic extension following a regional nappe-stacking event in the Early Cretaceous (Austrian phase). Middle to late Eocene (ca. 48-ca. 39 Ma) cooling event is related to the formation of the Crnook-Osogovo-Lisets extensional dome and its exhumation along low angle normal faults. The third event is related to the regional cooling following the late Eocene magmatic pulse. During this event the areas in the vicinity of the Surdulica granodiorite (36±1 Ma) and slightly younger small volcanic bodies and dykes (ca. 35 Ma) have reached temperatures higher than the apatite closure temperature (120°C) but lower than ca. 250°C. The geochemistry of the igneous samples reveals late- to post-orogenic tectonic setting during magma generation.

Project 242178
Geological map of the Serbo-Macedonian Massif (Download Map)
Antić, M., Kounov, A., Trivić, B., Wetzel A., Peytcheva, I. and von Quadt, A. (in prep) Alpine thermal events in the central Serbo-Macedonian massif (SE Serbia). To be submitted to the Solid Earth.
Antić, M., Peytcheva, I., von Quadt, A., Kounov, A., Trivić, B., Serafimovski, T., Tasev, G., Gerdjikov, I. and Wetzel, A. (in review). Pre-Alpine evolution of a segment of the North-Gondwanan margin: Geochronological and geochemical evidence from the central Serbo-Macedonian massif. Gondwana Research.
Antić, M., Peytcheva I., von Quadt A., Kounov A., Trivić, B., Serafimovski T., Tasev G., and Gerdjikov I. (2014) Geochronological and geochemical studies on crystalline rocks from the central Serbo-Macedonian massif with implications on its pre-Alpine evolution. XX Congress of Carpathian Balkan Geological Association, Tirana, Albania, 24-26 September 2014, Proceedings Volume 1, 195. doi:10.13140/2.1.2400.1280
Antić, M., Kounov, A., Trivić, B. (2014) Low-temperature evolution of the Serbo-Macedonian massif (SE Serbia): evidence from Ap and Zr fission track analysis. XX Congress of Carpathian Balkan Geological Association, Tirana, Albania, 24-26 September 2014, Proceedings Volume 1, 135. doi:10.13140/2.1.4759.4242
Antić, M., Kounov, A., Trivić, B. (2014) Low-temperature evolution of the Serbo-Macedonian massif (SE Serbia): evidence from Ap and Zr fission-track analysis. Thermo2014 - 14th International conference on Thermochronology, Chamonix, France, 8-12 September 2014, Abstract Volume, S4-12. doi:10.13140/2.1.1220.4800
Antić, M., Peytcheva, I., von Quadt, A., Kounov, A., Trivić, B., Serafimovski T., Tasev G., Gerdjikov I. (2012) More than 500 Ma of magmatic and tectonic evolution of the Serbo-Macedonian Massif (south Serbia, southwest Bulgaria and east Macedonia). Diversity of copper and gold deposits in the Eastern Europe Balkan, Carpathian and Rhodopean belts: tectonic, magmatic and geochronological investigations, SCOPES Project - Conference and Field Trip: Macedonia and Serbia, ?tip, Macedonia
Antić, M., Peytcheva, I., von Quadt, A., Kounov, A., Trivić, B., Serafimovski T., Tasev G., Gerdjikov I. (2012). Protholithic age and geochemistry of magmatic rocks from the Serbo-Macedonian massif (south Serbia, southwest Bulgaria and east Macedonia). EGU General Assembly 2012, Vienna, Austria, Abstracts, Vol. 14, EGU2012-5638-1, 2012.
Antić, M., Kounov, A., Trivić, B., Peytcheva I., von Quadt A., Gerdjikov I., Serafimovski T., Tasev G. (2011). Unravelling of continued magmatic activity along the Serbo-Macedonian massif since the Precambrian (south Serbia, southwest Bulgaria and Macedonia). 9^th Swiss Geoscience Meeting, Zürich, Switzerland, 11-13 November 2011, Abstract Volume 1. Structural Geology, Tectonics and Geodynamics, 13.
Antić, M., Kounov, A.>, Trivić, B., Peytcheva, I., von Quadt, A., Gerdjikov, I., Serafimovski, T. and Tasev, G. (2011). Preliminary structural and geochemical data from the Serbo-Macedonian Massif (South Serbia, Southwest Bulgaria and Macedonia). EGU General Assembly 2011, Vienna, Austria, Abstracts, Vol. 13, EGU2011-9202-1, 2011.

Milorad Antić Research projects

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