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Structural Evolution of the Vardar Root Zone, Northern Greece: Discussion and Reply

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Structural Evolution of the Vardar Root Zone, Northern Greece: Discussion and Reply Structural evolution of the Vardar root zone, northern Greece: Discussion and reply Discussion C. M. BARTON"' Department of Geology, Sedgwick Museum, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3EQ, England Zimmerman and Ross (1976) presented an interpretation of suggested in their abstract. Such well-documented stratigraphic Greek geology in which Vardar ocean crust was eliminated in two ages provide compelling evidence that ophiolite emplacement oc- successive directions (their Fig. 6). Their contribution is welcome, curred significantly before Late Cretaceous time, probably soon although it included a number of points that require clarification. after the first deformation of the Othris margin. A metamorphism First, it is generally agreed that northeast Greece has an ex- of about the same age (Early Cretaceous) is widespread in adjacent tremely complex post-Triassic (Alpine) history. However, in their Pelagonian rocks (Mercier, 1973b). "regional tectonic model" Zimmerman and Ross did not once Because both the direction and age of thrusting associated with specify the approximate dates of tectonism. Second, the Vardar the Othris zone ophiolites are fundamental to any tectonic model of zone is only one of two parallel belts in Greece which contain mafic the Hellenides, their position in Figure 6 of Zimmerman and Ross and ultramafic rocks interpreted as ophiolites. Fragments of similar needs clarifying. Certainly, no fragments of the Othris ocean (the oceanic affinity occur farther west in the Othris (= sub-Pelagonian) Vourinos, Pindos, or Othris ophiolites) could have been derived zone. If the authors' assertion is correct and the Othris zone from an area east of Olympos before Tertiary time, because the ophiolites are rooted farther east, then existing data from this zone Olympos platform records continuous Mesozoic shallow-water (which includes Zimmerman's own [1972] account of the Vourinos sedimentation. complex) must be taken into consideration. Not only are the Mount Olympos also provides evidence that Tertiary displace- ophiolites of the Othris zone better exposed and better dated (both ments in the Hellenides were not exclusively toward the southwest. by fossils and radiometric methods) than those in the Vardar, but Above the isolated carbonate stack of Olympos, a Tertiary thrust they are also far less deformed. fault carried a thin sheet of metamorphic basement in a direction Studies of Othris zone geology have shown that ophiolite that remains controversial. The carbonates below the fault have emplacement in Early Cretaceous time was almost certainly toward been interpreted in two ways: either as a tectonic inlier of the ex- the northeast. The position of the ocean before ophiolite emplace- tensive Mesozoic platform known in central and western Greece ment has been demonstrated by the detailed reconstruction of a (Godfriaux, 1962, 1968), in which case thrusting was toward the Mesozoic continental margin in the Othris area of eastern central southwest, or as the autochthon below a thrust fault of more local Greece (Hynes and others, 1972; Smith and others, 1975, Fig. 4; significance with thrusting toward the northeast (Barton, 1975). Price, 1976). When the effects of deformation have been removed, One of these interpretations is clearly incorrect, because the re- sedimentary facies relationships show that through most of Jurassic quired fault motions are in totally opposite directions. time, the Pelagonian "microcontinent" in eastern Othris bordered Zimmerman and Ross followed Godfriaux, who saw the similar an area of deeper water which lay farther west. The Othris margin uninterrupted stratigraphy of Olympos (Triassic—Pmiddle Eocene) was telescoped during Late Jurassic—Early Cretaceous time when in the platforms of western Greece. The Olympos platform has oceanic crust was emplaced from the west or southwest across the been correlated with either the Parnassos or Gavrovo-Tripolitza Pelagonian zone. zones; either correlation suggests a continuous Mesozoic carbonate The entire tectonic stack at Othris was in place by middle Creta- bank. An identical microfauna in the uppermost levels of both the ceous time (Smith and others, 1975). Both the Othris ophiolites and Olympos and Gavrovo platforms (Fleury and Godfriaux, 1974) the Vourinos complex along strike to the north are overlain by un- substantiates this view. If correct, paleogeography requires that deformed Upper Cretaceous (Cenomanian-Maestrichtian) lime- rocks between the Olympos and Gavrovo platforms (the Pelago- stones and a lower Tertiary "flysch." The age of this unconforma- nian, Othris, and Pindos zones) are allochthonous, and were ble sequence is difficult to reconcile with the destruction of an emplaced from an area east of Olympos. The resulting cumulative ocean basin in "Late Cretaceous" that Zimmerman and Ross displacement concealed by the Olympos thrust must, in this case, be several hundred kilometres. Other interpretations are more likely. The movement direction of * Present address: Institute of Geological Sciences, Overseas Division, the Olympos thrust can be demonstrated by field relations that in- 154 Clerkenwell Road, London EC1R 5DU, England. clude thrust geometry, the shape of imbrications in the (pa- ra)autochthon, and the attitude of minor structures associated with The article discussed was published in the Bulletin, v. 87, p. 1547—1550. emplacement. Tertiary thrusting was toward the area now oc- Geological Society of America Bulletin, Parti, v. 90, p. 125-128, January 1979, Doc. no. 90118. 125 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/gsabulletin/article-pdf/90/1/125/3434038/i0016-7606-90-1-125.pdf by guest on 30 September 2021 126 ZIMMERMAN AND ROSS cupied by the Vardar zone, rather than away from it. Such a sense the rapid variations in sedimentary facies that occur across the re- of movement requires that the Othris and Pindos zones have never gional strike (Mercier, 1966b, 1973b; Kauffmann and others, been transported across Olympos. It also implies that different 1976). Mercier divided the Vardar into three subzones on the basis "microcontinents" can exhibit identical carbonate stratigraphy of facies variations in Jurassic sediments. Two of the subzones while physically separated by small ocean basins. Also, because (Almopias and Peonias) contain both pelagic carbonates and ul- Vardar zone rocks were thrust toward the southwest in Tertiary tramafic rocks, while the: central (Pa'ikon) subzone contains neritic time, Olympos has been the locus of deformation by two thrust sediments. Zimmerman and Ross did not recognize facies changes faults. The relative timing of the two faults is still uncertain, in the Vardar, so it is uncertain how they have resolved their ideas although it is clear that movement on the Olympos thrust preceded with this work. A repetition of facies belts in steeply inclined zones the very last displacements of the Vardar. suggests either sedimentation in a complex tectonic setting such as Other recent accounts of Vardar zone geology have emphasized found close to an island arc, or extensive strike-slip faulting. Reply JAY ZIMMERMAN Department of Geology, Southern Illinois University at Carbondale, Carbondale, Illinois 62901 JOHN V. ROSS Department of Geological Sciences, University of British Columbia, Vancouver V6T 1 WS, British Columbia Our contention that the majority of ophiolites in Greece, includ- North Bosnia massifs (Aubouin, 1965; Bernoulli and Laubscher, ing those of the Othris (sub-Pelagonian), Pelagonian, and Vardar 1972, Fig. 1). By virtue of its present exposed length, the Vardar zones were emplaced by southwestward thrust transport from an zone is by far the most dominant of the four Tertiary structural de- ocean basin now marked by the Vardar root zone is based on the pressions in or adjacent to which most Balkan ophiolites are found. following regional and more restricted considerations: (1) the gen- It is not inconceivable, however, that the zone originally extended eral distribution of ophiolites in Greece, Yugoslavia, and Albania; at least 200 km farther to the southeast in the area now covered by (2) the relative length of the Vardar zone and the total volume of its the Aegean Sea. At the present location of the Sporadhes islands, an ophiolites; (3) the fact that ophiolites are preserved in or adjacent extension of the Euboean-Boetian depression along its current to four rather than two Tertiary structural depressions; (4) the trend would effect an intersection with a continuation of the Var- eugeosynclinal lithologic character of much of the Vardar zone; (5) dar zone nearly identical to the termination of the Kozani depres- direct evidence of suture-related structural elements in the Vardar sion against the Vardar zone farther to the north (see Aubuoin, zone; and (6) the absence of direct structural evidence for a suture 1965, Fig. 39). Although it has not been established that the in any other ophiolite belt in the region. Other considerations are Sporadhes represent emerged parts of an original Vardar zone, it is also presented in this reply. interesting to note that Jacobshagen and others (1976b) have The majority of Greek ultramafites crop out in a broad belt that mapped mesoscopic polyphase folds with orientations similar to trends north-northwestward and is bounded by two Tertiary struc- the phase 1 and phase 2 structures in this zone northwest of tural depressions: the Vardar and Othris zones. The former zone Salonika (Zimmerman and Ross, 1976). defines the eastern boundary and the latter
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