Peri-Amazonian provenance of the Central Dobrogea terrane (Romania) attested by U/Pb detrital zircon age patterns

The Central Dobrogea Shield is a part of the Moesia, a Paleozoic composite terrane located southward of the North Dobrogea Alpine orogen. The two geological units are separated from each other by a trans-lithospheric discontinuity, the Peceneaga-Camena transform fault. Along this fault, remnants of a Variscan orogen (i.e. North Dobrogea), recycled during the Alpine orogeny come in contact with two lithological entities of the Central Dobrogea Shield, unaffected by the Phanerozoic orogenic events: the Histria Formation, a flysch-like sequence of Ediacaran age very low-grade metamorphosed and its basement, the medium-grade metamorphosed Altin Tepe sequence. Southward, along the reverse hidden Palazu fault, the Histria Formation meets South Dobrogea, formed of quite different geological formations. Detrital zircon from the Histria Formation yielded U/Pb LA ICP MS ages that show provenance patterns typical of peri-Amazonian terranes. Such terranes were sourced by orogens ranging from Paleoarchean to Neoproterozoic. The ages between 750 and 600 Ma differentiate the Amazonian sources from the Baltican and Laurentian sources, since they are lacking from the last ones. The youngest ages of 587 and 584 Ma suggest for the Histria Formation a maximum late Ediacaran deposition age. At the same time, the continuity of the Ordovician sediments over the Palazu fault revealed by drill-cores favours a Cambrian junction between Central and South Dobrogea.