Detrital zircon age constraint on the low-grade sedimentary succession along the Mareshnitsa River Valley, eastern Circum-Rhodope Belt, Bulgaria

We focused on the eastern Circum-Rhodope belt (CRB) low-grade sequence along the Mareshnitsa River Valley in Bulgaria. U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology revealed latest Late Jurassic maximum depositional age of a metasandstone. A major Jurassic zircon cluster in the metasandstone is consistent with a provenance from the CRB-related Evros arc, whereas the minor cluster of Triassic zircons come from the high-grade basement. The results indicate mostly latest Late Jurasic sedimentation proximal to the Evros arc (CRB) and minor detrital input from the continental margin of Eurasia (Rhodope). The results further support the presence of Mesozoic (Jurassic) oceanic lithosphere mantle remnants within the metamorphic basement of the eastern Rhodope Massif.