Mineral chemical and geochronological constraints on the age and provenance of the eastern Circum-Rhodope Belt low-grade metasedimentary rocks, NE Greece

Abstract In north-eastern Greece the mid-greenschist facies Makri Unit and the anchizonal Melia Formation belong to the eastern Circum-Rhodope Belt that forms the uppermost tectonostratigraphic unit of the Rhodope metamorphic nappe pile. The two metasedimentary successions had different source areas, although they now lie in close proximity in the Rhodope Massif. The U–Pb isotopic ages of detrital zircons from a metasandstone of the Makri Unit analysed using LA–SF–ICP–MS and SHRIMP-II gave age clusters at ca. 310–290 Ma and at ca. 240 Ma for magmatic zircons, which may have been derived from Carboniferous–Permian basement rocks of the Thracia Terrane (Lower Tectonic Unit of the Rhodope Mass…