27 p.International audience[1] The contribution of lateral forces, vertical load, gravity redistribution and erosion to the origin of mantled gneiss domes in internal zones of orogens remains debated. In the Orlica-Snieznik dome (Moldanubian zone, European Variscan belt), the polyphase tectono-metamorphic history is initially characterized by the development of subhorizontal fabrics associated with medium- to high-grade metamorphic conditions in different levels of the crust. It reflects the eastward influx of a Saxothuringian-type passive margin sequence below a Teplá-Barrandian upper plate. The ongoing influx of continental crust creates a thick felsic orogenic root with HP rocks and migmatitic orthogneiss. The orogenic wedge is subsequently indented by the eastern Brunia microcontinent producing a multiscale folding of the orogenic infrastructure. The resulting kilometre-scale folding is associated with the variable burial of the middle crust in synforms and the exhumation of the lower crust in antiforms. These localized vertical exchanges of material and heat are coeval with a larger crustal-scale folding of the whole infrastructure generating a general uplift of the dome. It is exemplified by increasing metamorphic conditions and younging of 40Ar/39Ar cooling ages toward the extruded migmatitic subdomes cored by HP rocks. The vertical growth of the dome induces exhumation by pure shear-dominated ductile thinning laterally evolving to non-coaxial detachment faulting, while erosion feeds the surrounding sedimentary basins. Modeling of the Bouguer anomaly grid is compatible with crustal-scale mass transfers between a dense superstructure and a lighter infrastructure. The model implies that the Moldanubian Orlica-Snieznik mantled gneiss dome derives from polyphase recycling of Saxothuringian material

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 the BM and 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.

Eclogite, felsic orthogneiss and garnet-staurolite metapelite occur in a 5 km long profile in the area of Międzygo´rze in the Orlica-S´nie_ znik dome (Bohemian Massif). Petrographic observations and mineral equilibria modelling, in the context of detailed structural work, are used to document the close juxtaposition of high-pressure and medium-pressure rocks. The structural succession in all lithologies shows an early shallow-dipping fabric, S1, that is folded by upright folds and overprinted by a heterogeneously developed subvertical foliation, S2. Late recumbent folds associated with a weak shallowdipping axial-plane cleavage, S3, occur locally. The S1 fabric in the eclogite is defined by alternation of garnet-rich (grs = 22-29 mol.%) and omphacite-rich (jd = 33-36 mol.%) layers with oriented muscovite (Si = 3.26-3.31 p.f.u.) and accessory kyanite, zoisite, rutile and quartz, indicating conditions of 19-22 kbar and 700-750°C. The assemblage in the retrograde S2 fabric is formed by amphibole, plagioclase, biotite and relict rutile surrounded by ilmenite and sphene that is compatible with decompression and cooling from 9 kbar and 730°C to 5-6 kbar and 600-650°C. The S3 fabric contains in addition domains with albite, chlorite, K-feldspar and magnetite indicating cooling to greenschist facies conditions. The metapelites are composed of garnet, staurolite, muscovite, biotite, quartz, ilmenite and chlorite. Chemical zoning of garnet cores that contain straight ilmenite and staurolite inclusion trails oriented perpendicular to the external S2 fabric indicates prograde growth, from 5 kbar and 520°C to 7 kbar and 610°C, during the formation of the S1 fabric. Inclusion trails parallel with the S2 fabric at garnet and staurolite rims are interpreted to be a continuation of the prograde path to 7.5 and 630°C in the S2 fabric. Matrix chlorite parallel to the S2 foliation indicates that the subvertical fabric was still active below 550°C. The axial planar S2 fabrics developed during upright folding are associated with retrogression of the eclogite under amphibolite facies conditions, and with prograde evolution in the metapelites, associated with their juxtaposition. The shared part of the eclogite and metapelite P-T paths during the development of the subvertical fabric reflects their exhumation together.