The Moldanubian Zone in the French Massif Central, Vosges/Schwarzwald and Bohemian Massif revisited: differences and similarities
In order to portray the main differences and similarities between the Northeastern Variscan
segments (French Massif Central (FMC), Vosges, Black Forest and Bohemian Massif (BM)),
we review their crustal-scale architectures, the specific rock associations and lithotectonic
sequences, as well as the ages of the main magmatic and metamorphic events. This review demonstrates
significant differences between the ‘Moldanubian’ domains in theBMand the FMC. On this
basis we propose distinguishing between the Eastern and Western Moldanubian zones, while the
Vosges/Black Forest Mountains are an intermediate section between the BM and the FMC. The
observed differences are the result of, first, the presence in the French segment of an early
large-scale accretionary system prior to the main Variscan collision and, second, the duration of
Saxothuringian/Armorican subduction, which generated long-lived magmatic arc and back-arc
systems in the Bohemian segment, while the magmatic activity in the FMC was comparably
short-lived.