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29 October 2026

29 Pages

Geochemistry of a Mafic Microgranular Enclave-Bearing Late Paleozoic Pluton: Insights from Major, Trace and Rare Earth Element Systematics of the Variscan Kastoria Intrusion (Northwest Greece)

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1
Department of Mineralogy-Petrology-Economic Geology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
2
Geological Institute, Bulgarian Academy of Sciences, 1113 Sofia, Bulgaria
3
Department of Structural, Historical & Applied Geology, School of Geology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, 54124 Thessaloniki, Greece
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Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Abstract

The Late Paleozoic Kastoria intrusion in NW Greece is an MME-bearing granitoid pluton emplaced within the Pelagonian Zone of the Internal Hellenides. This study integrates major-, trace-, and rare earth element geochemistry to evaluate relationships among the host granitoids (GR) and the mafic microgranular enclaves (MME), magma evolution, and tectonomagmatic affinity. The GR are high-K calc-alkaline and metaluminous to peraluminous rocks, whereas the MME are less evolved and predominantly metaluminous. Both lithologies show LREE and LILE enrichment with negative Nb–Ta–Ti anomalies, indicating shared subduction-related geochemical inheritance. The MME have higher total REE abundances and flatter HREE patterns than the GR. The geochemical data indicate open-system evolution involving mafic recharge, magma mingling, limited hybridization, felsic differentiation, and increasing amphibole- and accessory-phase control. The GR display a moderate high-Sr/Y affinity, but partly decoupled Sr/Y and REE criteria argue against a classical adakite interpretation. On the contrary they suggest a relatively deep, plagioclase-poor stage of magma source evolution. Th/Yb–Ba/La systematics further indicate a sediment-influenced, subduction-modified mafic source. The Kastoria pluton is interpreted as a composite high-K calc-alkaline I-type system emplaced during late/post-collisional Variscan reorganization, with its inherited arc-like signature and slab-failure affinity consistent with slab-related reorganization along the Palaeotethyan ocean closing.

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