How does continental crust deform, evolve, and reorganise during orogenesis? The Variscan Mountain Belt provides an exceptional natural laboratory to address this question across space and time scales. This session brings together field-based, analytical, experimental, and modelling approaches—from microstructures to crustal and orogen-scale processes— to build an integrated view of crustal dynamics during orogen formation. Contributions exploring the Variscan Belt and its analogues that bring together a multidisciplinary approach are particularly welcome.
We welcome contributions addressing structural and kinematic processes, from grain-scale microstructures to orogen-scale shear zones; petrological and geochemical characterisation; geochronology, thermochronology, and petrochronology; integrated P–T–t–D reconstructions; and analogue and numerical modelling. Particular emphasis is placed on studies that connect observations across scales and demonstrate how processes operating at the mineral and rock scale can be linked to crustal- and orogen-scale dynamics. This includes differentiation processes during melting, and preservation of structures across successive orogenic events. Comparative studies of other Variscan-age and peri-Gondwanan orogens are also encouraged, as well as contributions that explore how insights from the Variscan record can inform our understanding of more recent orogenic systems.
By bringing together complementary approaches, this session aims to promote discussion on how we can bridge scales and integrate geological observations with modelling to better understand the dynamics and evolution of continental crust through space and time.
The session will feature a keynote presentation by Dr Petra Maierová, specialist in numerical modelling of tectonic processes, from the Centre for Lithospheric Research, Czech Geological Survey.