Pomeranian Caledonides (NW Poland), fifty years of controversies: a review and a new concept

The results of a half-century investigations of the Pomerania-Rügen Caledonides are reviewed. Fifty years ago there were two rival hypotheses based exclusively on analyses of gravity and magnetic data. One of them assumed the presence of the so-called Circum-Fennosarmatian Caledonides, the second one claimed that the Precambrian craton of the eastern Europe extends far to the west reaching northern Germany and Pomerania. As time passed, more new facts from boreholes and seismic refraction and reflection studies accumulated. New hypotheses appeared, namely the concepts of an aulacogen and a major strike-slip fault, now merely of a historical importance. In spite of the new data the principal dilemma remains the same until present. Some investigators believe that the East European Craton (Baltica) extends far to the south-west reaching the Elbe-Odra Line, others assume the presence of the Caledonian deformations in Rügen and Pomerania which are regarded - according to modern concepts - as a manifestation of terrane tectonics. The latter group of hypotheses is supplemented by the author with the model of proximal terranes detached from the craton margin farther to the south-east and then re-accreted. The hypothesis is based on an analysis of differences in crustal structure in northern Germany and western Poland, and on the concept of a counter-clockwise rotation of Baltica during the Ordovician, proved by palaeomagnetic data.