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Evolution of the Pelagonian carbonate platform complex and the adjacent oceanic realm in response to plate tectonic forcing (Late Triassic and Jurassic), Evvoia, Greece

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Abstract

The Late Triassic and Jurassic platform and the oceanic complexes in Evvoia, Greece, share a complementary plate-tectonic evolution. Shallow marine carbonate deposition responded to changing rates of subsidence and uplift, whilst the adjacent ocean underwent spreading, and then convergence, collision and finally obduction over the platform complex. Late Triassic ocean spreading correlated with platform subsidence and the formation of a long-persisting peritidal passive-margin platform. Incipient drowning occurred from the Sinemurian to the late Middle Jurassic. This subsidence correlated with intra-oceanic subduction and plate convergence that led to supra-subduction calc-alkaline magmatism and the formation of a primitive volcanic arc. During the Middle Jurassic, plate collision caused arc uplift above the carbonate compensation depth (CCD) in the oceanic realm, and related thrust-faulting, on the platform, led to sub-aerial exposures. Patch-reefs developed there during the Late Oxfordian to Kimmeridgian. Advanced oceanic nappe-loading caused platform drowning below the CCD during the Tithonian, which is documented by intercalations of reefal turbidites with non-carbonate radiolarites. Radiolarites and bypass-turbidites, consisting of siliciclastic greywacke, terminate the platform succession beneath the emplaced oceanic nappe during late Tithonian to Valanginian time.

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Acknowledgments

Gratefully acknowledged are IGME (Athens) and the Cement-Works of Chalkis for permission to work in the region of Evvoia and in the quarry. Royal Holloway University of London is acknowledged for the facilities to do Sr-isotope analyses and the University of Munich for use of preparatory facilities. Stefan Hölzl, University of Munich, and Helmut Voecks, Geological State Collection of Bavaria, are thanked for their enduring support. This paper has also been partly supported by the research project Nr: CGL2008-01273/BTE (MICIIN), Universidad Complutense Foundation, Spain, which has been greatly appreciated. Daniel Bernoulli, Jacky Ferrière and Gerard Stampfli are thanked for helpful discussions in the context of field excursions organised by the University of Lausanne, as are Yannick Gingins and Olivier Schauner for there Swiss perseverance in the field and laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. University of Munich, Schulstr. 29, 80634, Munich, Germany

    Rudolph Scherreiks

  2. Department of Earth Sciences, Royal Holloway University of London, Egham, TW20 0EX, UK

    Dan Bosence

  3. Earth Sciences, University College London, Gower Street, London, WC1E6BT, UK

    Marcelle BouDagher-Fadel

  4. Institut de Géologie et Paléontologie, Université de Lausanne, Anthopole, 1015, Lausanne, Switzerland

    Peter O. Baumgartner

  5. Departamento de Geologia (Paleontologia), Universidad de Zaragoza, 50009, Saragossa, Spain

    Guillermo Meléndez

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  1. Rudolph Scherreiks
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Correspondence to Rudolph Scherreiks.

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Scherreiks, R., Bosence, D., BouDagher-Fadel, M. et al. Evolution of the Pelagonian carbonate platform complex and the adjacent oceanic realm in response to plate tectonic forcing (Late Triassic and Jurassic), Evvoia, Greece. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 99, 1317–1334 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-009-0461-1

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