The Orlica–Śnieżnik Dome, the Sudetes, in 2002 and 12 years later

During the 2002 meeting of Czech, Polish and Slovak tectonic community in Żelazno, the Sudetes, the Central European Tectonic Studies Group (CETeG) was established. 12 years ago, participants of the meeting made an excursion to the eastern part of the Orlica–Śnieżnik Dome (OSD), which was focused on a variety of gneisses with inserts of (U)HP eclogites and various enclaves. The 2014 meeting brought members of the CETeG to the OSD again and an accompanying field excursion was dedicated mainly to evolution of metasedimentary and metavolcanogenic rocks in the region. This paper is a short review of the results of the studies undertaken in the OSD by different research groups in the last 12 years. The review is set against a background of what we knew about the geology of the dome in 2002. A significant progress was made. P-T paths were determined for mica schists and marbles as well as for metarhyolites originated from the continental crust and metabasites derived from the mantle. New light was shed on the origin of various types gneisses in the OSD and their genetic and structural relationships. A plethora of isotopic studies helped to better constrain timing of igneous and metamorphic events in the Orlica–Śnieżnik complex. Ages clustered around 350–340 Ma are repeatedly obtained, yet scarcer older ages up to 390 Ma and their geological significance are open to debate. Tectonic evolution of the dome was revised and new geodynamic concepts were proposed. However the new data has created some new problems and some old problems are still to be resolved in the future.