In this paper, laser ablation ICP-MS U–Pb detrital zircon ages are used to discuss provenance and early Palaeozoic palaeogeography of continental fragments that originated in the Cadomian–Avalonian active margin of Gondwana at the end of Precambrian, were subsequently extended during late Cambrian to Early Ordovician opening of the Rheic Ocean, and finally were incorporated into and reworked within the European Variscan belt. The U–Pb detrital zircon age spectra in the analysed samples, taken across a late Neproterozoic (Ediacaran) to Early/Middle Devonian metasedimentary succession of the southeastern Teplá–Barrandian unit, Bohemian Massif, are almost identical and exhibit a bimodal age distribution with significant peaks at about 2.1–1.9 Ga and 650–550 Ma. We interpret the source area as an active margin comprising a cratonic (Eburnean) hinterland rimmed by Cadomian volcanic arcs and we suggest that this source was available at all times during deposition. The new detrital zircon ages also corroborate the West African provenance of the Teplá–Barrandian and correlative Saxothuringian and Moldanubian units, questioned in some palaeogeographic reconstructions. Finally, at variance with the still popular concept of the Cadomian basement units as far-travelled terranes, we propose that early Palaeozoic basins, developed upon the Cadomian active margin, were always part of a wide Gondwana shelf and drifted northwards together before involvement in the Variscan collisional belt.

Allanite is one of the main rare earth elements (REE)-rich accessory minerals in composite dykes from the granitoid pluton of Karkonosze. These dykes differ in composition from the bulk of the pluton by elevated rare earth elements (REE), Y, Zr, and alkali contents, suggesting contribution of an additional component. Allanite exhibits complex alteration textures, which can be divided into two stages. The first stage is represented by allanite mantles, formed by fluid infiltration into previously crystallized magmatic allanite. These zones have low totals, are Ca-, Al-, Mg-, and light REE (LREE)-depleted, and Y-, heavy REE (HREE)-, Th-, Ti-, and alkali-enriched. The fractionation between LREE and HREE was caused by different mobility of complexes formed by these elements in aqueous fluids. The second stage includes recrystallized LREE-poor, Y-HREE-rich allanite with variable Ca, Al, Mg, and REE-fluorocarbonates. The alteration products from both stages demonstrate higher Fe³⁺/(Fe²⁺ + Fe³⁺) ratios and a negative Ce anomaly. These features point to the alkaline, low-temperature, and oxidized nature of the fluids. The differences in mobility and solubility of respective ligands show that the fluids from the first stage may have been dominated by Cl, whereas those of the second stage may have been dominated by F and CO₂ (and PO₄ in case of one sample). The inferred chemistry of the fluids resembles the overall geochemical signature of the composite dykes, indicating a major contribution of the hydrothermal processes to their geochemical evolution.

The Bohemian Massif of Central Europe is a Variscan collage of lithospheric fragments that formed at the northern margin of Gondwana during the late Neoproterozoic. A key geodynamic process that shaped this margin before it became involved in the Variscan orogen was the Cambro–Ordovician rifting that opened the Rheic Ocean. This rifting event has been studied extensively, yet a number of issues remain unresolved, among which are its geodynamic causes. New U–Pb zircon ages of orthogneisses from the mid-crustal Moldanubian unit, in combination with available information on magmatism and basin subsidence in the upper-crustal Teplá–Barrandian unit of the Bohemian Massif, are here used to reconstruct in detail the mechanism of the Cambro–Ordovician rifting. We argue that extension occurred in three phases defined by (1) protracted ~524–480 Ma intermediate to felsic plutonism (including the dated ~490–480 Ma orthogneisses), (2) basaltic submarine volcanism at ca. 470 Ma, and (3) rapid subsidence at ca. 458–452 Ma. This relative timing is interpreted to reflect stretching of the lower lithosphere before upper lithospheric rifting. In a broader context, these inferences are compatible with contrasting, rheologically controlled modes of northern Gondwana break-up during the early Ordovician, in which the westerly Avalonian-type terranes were rifted away from Gondwana, whereas the easterly Cadomian-type terranes formed a hyperextended Gondwanan shelf.

The Dom Feliciano Belt in southern Brazil and Uruguay represents the western half of a Neoproterozoic orogenic belt located in the southern portion of the South Atlantic Neoproterozoic Orogenic System. Current interpretations are divided as to the nature of orogenesis in this belt, in part owing to lacking geochronological constraints. Metamorphosed and deformed supracrustal sequences of the Brusque Complex in the northern Dom Feliciano Belt, representing part of the orogenic foreland, record the onset and duration of crustal thickening. Structural analysis and pressure–temperature estimates indicate that the complex reached peak regional metamorphic conditions of 540–570°C and 5.5–6.7 kbar during thrusting and burial, consistent with orogenic metamorphism and early crustal thickening. Garnet–whole rock Lu–Hf and Sm–Nd isochron ages date this event to between circa 660–650 Ma. Ar–Ar dating of mica suggests thrust‐controlled exhumation and partial cooling by circa 635 Ma, and that localized deformation occurred into the late Ediacaran. Our results show that the orogenic foreland reached metamorphic conditions typical for crustal thickening 20–30 million years prior to the onset of massive magmatic activity in the hinterland. Such a delay is typical of hot, internal parts of orogens, which supports interpretations that hinterland magmatism in the northern Dom Feliciano Belt represents post‐collisional magmatism and not arc magmatism above a subduction zone. Instead, we suggest that orogenesis in the northern Dom Feliciano Belt was initiated by rift‐basin inversion driven by far‐field forces transmitted through the crust in an intracontinental rift or back‐arc rift setting.