Study of geochemistry, examination of isotope ages of detrital minerals, palaeomagnetic analysis, and a study of the trilobites were performed to provide constraints on the palaeogeographical position of the Holy Cross Mountains in Late Ediacaran–Early Palaeozoic time. The geochemical results indicate an active continental margin or continental island arc provenance of the Ediacaran sediments. Sediments from a passive continental margin were deposited here during the Cambrian and Ordovician. The palaeomagnetic pole isolated from Cambrian rocks of the Małopolska region of the Holy Cross Mountains corresponds to the Cambrian segment of the Baltic apparent polar wander path. Isotope age estimations indicate that Cambrian sediments of the Małopolska region contain detritus not only from a latest Neoproterozoic source but also from sources with ages of c . 0.8–0.9 Ga, 1.5 Ga and 1.8 Ga. The Małopolska, Brunosilesia, Dobrugea and Moesia terranes, which originally developed near the present southern edge of Baltica and were partly involved in the Cadomian orogen, were dextrally relocated along its Trans-European Suture Zone margin. The first stage of this movement took place as early as latest Ediacaran time, while Baltica rotated anticlockwise. Anticlockwise rotation of Baltica at the Cambrian–Ordovician boundary implies further dextral movement of the Małopolska block.

The Carboniferous foreland basin of western Poland contains a coherent succession of late Viséan through Westphalian turbidites derived from a uniform group of sources located within a continental magmatic arc. Detrital zircon geochronology indicates that two main crustal components were present in the source area of Namurian A sediments. They represent Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous ages, respectively. The detritus from Westphalian D beds is much more diversified and contains admixture of Late Carboniferous zircons suggesting rapid unroofing of Variscan igneous intrusions in the hinterland between Namurian A and Westphalian D times. Tectonic repetitions of tens of metres thick fault-bounded stratigraphic intervals, recorded in several wells, provide evidence for compressional regime that occurred in the SW part of the Carboniferous basin not earlier than during the Westphalian C and produced NW-SE trending folds, concordant with the structural grain of the adjacent, NE part of the Bohemian Massif.

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This contribution reports on new U–Pb zircon age data from magmatic rocks from the Holy Cross Mountains (HCM) of Poland. The analyzed samples were taken from lamprophyre and diabase veins of Podkranów and Janowice-2 as well as from tuff horizon of Kielce Beds (Ludlow). Internal morphologies have been investigated by SEM-BSE and cathodoluminescence images and they have been used as a guide for the selection of genetically various type of grains, e.g. potential auto-, ante- and xenocrysts, that were analyzed by ion microprobe. The U–Pb age of the magmatic events at 414.2 ±6.6 Ma (Kielce tuff), 322 ±12 Ma (Podkranów, lamprophyre), and 300±10 Ma (Janowice-2, diabase) confirmed the time frame of known magmatic activity reported within the HCM, as determined by 40Ar/39Ar geochronology in previous studies. The zircon investigation revealed also multiple populations with record of an earlier pulse of magma system (antecrysts), as well as abundant xenocrysts.

S U M M A R YResults of palaeomagnetic investigations of the Lower Cretaceous teschenitic rocks in the Silesian unit of the Outer Western Carpathians in Poland bring evidence for pre-folding magnetization of these rocks. The mixed-polarity component reveals inclinations, between 56 • and 69 • , which might be either of Cretaceous or Tertiary age. Apparently positive results of fold and contact tests in some localities and presence of pyrhotite in the contact aureole suggest that magnetization is primary, although a Neogene or earlier remagnetization cannot be totally excluded since inclination-only test between localities gives 'syn-folding' results. Higher palaeoinclinations (66 • -69 • ) correlate with a younger variety of teschenitic rocks dated for 122-120 Ma, while lower inclinations (56 • -60 • ) with an older variety (138-133 Ma). This would support relatively high palaeolatitudes for the southern margin of the Eurasian plate in the late part of the Early Cretaceous and relatively quick northward drift of the plate in this epoch, together with the Silesian basin at its southern margin. Declinations are similar to the Cretaceous-Tertiary palaeodeclinations of stable Europe in the eastern part of the studied area but rotated ca. 14 • -70 • counter-clockwise in the western part. This indicates, together with older results from Czech and Slovakian sectors of the Silesian unit, a change in the rotation pattern from counter-clockwise to clockwise at the meridian of 19 • E. The rotations took place before the final collision of the Outer Carpathians nappe stack with the European foreland.