Are the Variscan peri-Gondwanan terranes underlain by West African basement?

The Variscan orogenic belt represents a tectonic collage of Gondwana-derived terranes assembled during Devonian–Carboniferous collision associated with the formation of the Pangea supercontinent. These terranes are commonly inferred to have originated from the West African Craton, based on the sparse occurrence of Paleoproterozoic gneisses, and detrital zircon age spectra from the Ediacaran to early Paleozoic strata, which are typically marked by a prominent late Paleo- to Mesoproterozoic ( c . 1.7–1.2 Ga) age gap. However, the provenance of several peri -Gondwanan continental blocks incorporated into the Variscan belt remains uncertain, limiting robust paleogeographic reconstructions. We address this issue by investigating two key magmatic events that recorded the formation of the ancient metaigneous basement of the Variscan Bohemian Massif. New geochronological and geochemical data indicate that intermediate to felsic Paleoproterozoic magmatism ( c . 2.1 Ga) formed in a syn -collisional setting, likely related to slab failure, whereas bimodal Mesoproterozoic ( c . 1.3 Ga) magmatism reflected mantle plume-assisted rifting. These events correspond to the assembly and subsequent break-up of the Columbia supercontinent. Our results are inconsistent with a primary affinity between the studied basement fragments and the West African Craton. Instead, they suggest a linkage to either south-eastern Baltica or north-western Amazonia during the late Mesoproterozoic. These crustal fragments were subsequently accreted to northern Gondwana prior to the Ediacaran (Cadomian Orogeny) and became incorporated into the peri -Gondwanan terrane assemblage. These findings substantially challenge prevailing pre-collisional reconstructions of peri -Gondwanan domains within the European Variscan belt, with important implications for the paleogeographic configuration and geodynamic evolution of the pre-orogenic system.