Variscan Collisional Magmatism and Deformation In The Viseu Area (northern Central Portugal) - Constraints From U-pb Geochronology of Granitoids

The Viseu area is located in the innermost zone of the Iberian Variscan Fold Belt (the Central Iberian Zone). It consists of abundant post-thickening, collision related grani- toids intruded into upper and middle crustal levels. The ascent of granite magmas took place after an extensional tectonic event (D2) and is coeval with D3 dextral and sinis- tral crustal-scale transcurrent shear zones. In the northern part of the area, the presence of a well preserved Upper Carboniferous tectonic basin filled with deformed conti- nental clastic sediments, bounded by contemporaneously exhumed deep crustal rocks and intruded by late-tectonic granites documents an episode of extension involving basin subsidence, uplift and erosion of the basement and granite magmatism in a post- thickening, but syn-convergent scenario. Convergence is manifested by strike-slip tec- tonics and basin inversion. According to structural criteria, the Variscan granitoids can be subdivided into two major groups: (1) syn-D3 granitoids including two dif- ferent petrological associations, highly peraluminous leucogranite and granodiorite- monzogranite intrusions and (2) late-D3 granitoids comprising slightly metaluminous to peraluminous granodiorites and monzogranites. Four plutons representing the syn- D3 leucogranites (Junqueira) and monzogranites (Maceira and Casal Vasco) and the late-D3 biotite granites (Cota) yielded U-Pb zircon + monazite or monazite ages of 310 Ma, 311 Ma, 311 Ma and 306 Ma, respectively. This points to a synchronous emplacement of the different syn-D3 plutons shortly followed by the intrusion of the late-D3 granites and suggests that the Upper Carboniferous plutonism occurred within a short time span of ca. 5 myr. Stratigraphic markers show that the oldest continental sediments in the Carboniferous basin are Westphalian whilst field relationships in- dicate that the deformation occurred prior to the intrusion of the late-D3 granitoids. Precise U-Pb geochronology proves that basin subsidence, exhumation, deformation and voluminous magmatism are short-lived and coeval processes.