From the Variscan to the Alpine Orogeny: crustal structure of the Bohemian Massif and the Western Carpathians in the light of the SUDETES 2003 seismic data

The Variscan orogeny is the major Middle to Late Palaeozoic tectonometamorphic event in central Europe, and the Bohemian Massif is the largest exposure of rocks deformed during this orogeny. The Bohemian Massif consists of the Saxothuringian, Barrandian and Moldanubian units. Adjacent to this massif in the southeast, the Western Carpathians form an arc-shaped mountain range related to the Alpine orogeny during the Cretaceous to Tertiary. The complex crustal-scale geological structure of the Variscan Bohemian Massif and the Western Carpathians, and especially their contact, were analysed in this study employing the data of the SUDETES 2003 international seismic refraction experiment.