Clastic wedge provenance in the Zemplinicum Carboniferous–Permian rocks using the U–Pb zircon age dating (Western Carpathians, Slovakia)

U–Pb (SHRIMP) detrital zircon ages from the Pennsylvanian–Permian meta-sedimentary rocks of the Zemplinicum Unit were used to characterise the provenance and the tectono-thermal evolution of the basement. The magmatic zircon ages from the contemporaneous rhyolite pyroclastics, ranging from 308 to 305 Ma, dated the Pennsylvanian sedimentary formations to the Moscovian and Kasimovian Ages. Two brakes in sedimentation within the Pennsylvanian–Permian sequence are presumed, first, flanked by Gzhelian–Asselian and second, intra-Permian. The detrital zircon age spectrum demonstrates two prominent populations: (i) Middle/Late Ordovician (age peak 459 Ma), (ii) Ediacaran–Cryogenian (age peaks 592 and 641 Ma). These, together with minor clusters from ~ 773 to 950 Ma, evidently document the Pan-African multiple magmatic events. The 1.1–1.8 Ga age gap and isolated zircons of Mesoproterozoic ages (1036–1361 Ma) are characteristic. Two populations, 1.8–2.2 Ga and 2.5–2.8 Ga, are presented within the Paleoproterozoic–Neoarchean zircons. The Zemplinicum Neoproterozoic arc crust had been affected by the extensional thermal relaxation and melting during Middle/Late Ordovician. The subsequent reworking had been connected with the Mississippian collision, followed by the Pennsylvanian/Permian extension. The presence of the Neoproterozoic detrital zircon ages including the Tonian ones permit to compare the Zemplinicum basement with the eastern peri-Gondwanan domain, which was situated at the northern margin of the Saharan Metacraton or the Arabian Nubian Shield during Neoproterozoic time.