Journal of

GEOsciences

  (Formerly Journal of the Czech Geological Society)

Original Paper

Václav Kachlík

The evidence for late Variscan nappe thrusting of the Marianske Lazne Complex over the Saxothuringian terrane (west Bohemia)

Journal of the Czech Geological Society, volume 38 (1993), issue 1-2, 43 - 58

Recent investigations and geological mapping in the W surroundings of the Mariánské Lázně metaophiolite Complex (MLC) led to a redefinition of the boundary between the Teplá-Domažlice (LiT) area and Saxothuringicum. The metabasites cropping out W of the Vlčí hřbet ridge serpentinite body till now considered to be a part of the MLC (Vejnar - Zoubek 1962, Zoubek et al. 1963), do not belong to this MP unit with relics of HP eclogites.
The metabasites are newly interpreted as being part of the Kladská unit. The term Kladská unit (Fiala - Vondrová 1963) is re-defined here.
The Kladská unit represents a suite of low- to high-grade metasediments (muscovite-chlorite schists, biotite - andalusite hornfelsic schists with garnet and biotite-andalusite + cordierite + K-feldspar hornfelses) with intercalations of cherts and weakly metamorphosed calc;alkaline to alkaline basalts, trachybasalt and trachyandesites with preserved relics of primary magmatic textures.
During the LP-HT late orogenic phase (aproximately 330-320 Ma - Kreuzer et al. 1989) MP rocks of the MLC, containing HP relics, were thrust over the paraautochthonous rocks of the Kladská unit on a minimal distance of 6 km. Serpentinite, and possibly some metachorite bodies scattered to the west of the MLC represent outliers of the MLC nappe resting on the Saxothuringian paraautochthon. The thrust plane separating the MLC and the Kladská unit is thought to represent a major terrane boundary between the Saxothuringicum and MLC.