Reply to Discussion on 'Detrital zircon geochronology of the Carboniferous Baixo Alentejo Flysch Group (South Portugal); constraints on the provenance and geodynamic evolution of the South Portuguese Zone', Journal of the Geological Society, 172, 294-308

Rodrigues, B.; Chew, D. M.; Jorge, R. C. G. S.; Fernandes, Paulo; Veiga-Pires, C.; Oliveira, J. T.

http://hdl.handle.net/10400.1/9599

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Abstract(s)

We would like to thank Pereira (2015) for his interest in our work and appreciate the opportunity to clarify some aspects of the Rodrigues et al. (2015) study. Here we dispute several fundamental assertions made in the discussion of our original paper. (1) Pereira (2015) states, based on the U–Pb detrital zircon data of Pereira et al. (2012a, 2014), that the turbidites of the Mértola (late Visean) and the Mira (Serpukhovian to early Bashkirian) formations of the Baixo Alentejo Flysch Group of the South Portuguese Zone (Fig. 1b), were ‘mainly derived from a source terrane dominated by zircon populations of Middle–Late Devonian ages (c. 393–359 Ma) that are absent in the Ossa–Morena Zone’ and that this detrital zircon population forms 37.7% of all detrital zircons of these two formations. However, a large population of zircons of Middle–Late Devonian age was not found in the Rodrigues et al. (2015) study. The Mértola Formation (sample FM1; table 1 of Rodrigues et al. 2015) is clearly dominated by one population whose zircon ages range between 388 and 326 Ma, with this group representing 68% of all ages obtained. This population shows a peak at 336 Ma (middle Visean).