Tertiary thrust sheets of the Paikon (Vardar Zone, Greece): stratigraphic arguments for a new structural interpretation.

Several interpretations concerning the structures of the Paikon mountains ( Greece) have been proposed. Our new results (Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretac eous Radiolaria, Jurassic Gasteropoda...), some of them from metamorphic se ries (Ellipsactinies and Rudistes in the Lower Unit), give new constraints to build the palaeogeography and the tectonic history. These data permitted to define new series (e.g., the Lakka series) and reconstruct most of the others (e.g., the series of the lower units). Their palaeogeographic simila rities are detailed and a new hierarchy of the tectonic contacts is settled (fundamental tectonic contacts or simple disharmonic structures). In that way, it appears that the Gola Tchouka window is the main one in the Paikon massive (Tertiary nappes) under another major unit (Elefterochori unit), wh ich is simply buckled by secondary faults. (C) 2001 Academic des sciences / Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.