The Circum-Rhodope Belt, northern Greece: Age, provenance, and tectonic setting

The Circum-Rhodope Belt (CRB) sensu stricto comprises low-grade metamorphosed Triassic and Jurassic sedimentary rocks fringing the high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Serbo-Macedonian and Rhodope massifs in northern Greece. Main outcrops occur in the easternmost part of the Vardar suture zone in the Chalkidiki peninsula (Melissochori Formation; formerly Svoula flysch) and in Thrace (Makri unit and Melia Formation). The tectonostratigraphic relationship between the CRB and the high-grade metamorphics has been the subject of long discussions. Older interpretations maintain that the CRB represents the original Mesozoic stratigraphic cover of the Serbo-Macedonian crystalline basement, whereas later revisions propose the existence of two distinct greenschist-facies Mesozoic metasedimentary units: an eastern unit related to the development of a Jurassic black shale basin north of the Rhodope, and a western unit related to the development of an olistostromic flysch in the Cretaceous. Here we present a critical re-evaluation of the CRB with regard to its age, provenance, and tectonic setting based on novel geochemical and isotopic data. The Makri unit and the Melissochori Formation belong to the CRB proper and were deposited in proximity to Carboniferous–Early Permian igneous basement rocks (Pelagonia / Strandja / Thracia Terrane) in latest Triassic and Jurassic times, as shown by a prominent detrital zircon age population of 350–290Ma. By contrast, the Melia Formation is unrelated to the CRB and was deposited in a foreland basin in front of a metamorphic nappe pile with Rhodopean affinities in the early Cretaceous, as shown by a prominent detrital zircon age population of 315–285Ma and xenocrysts of ~550Ma and ~450Ma. Thus, the commonly accepted CRB concepts have to be revisited. All units have been tectonically juxtaposed to their present location during Balkan and Alpine orogenic processes. ► Unravelling the provenance of the Circum-Rhodope Belt. ► Makri unit and Melissochori Formation sediments share similar age and provenance. ► Melia Formation sediments were derived from metamorphic rocks with Rhodopean affinities. ► Revision of current palaeotectonic models for the northern Aegean region.