The accretion rate of extraterrestrial 3He based on oceanic 230Th flux and the relation to Os isotope variation over the past 200,000 years in an Indian Ocean core

New U¯Pb data (zircon, monazite and rutile) obtained from rocks of the uppermost allochthon in the Variscan belt of NW Spain indicate that the hangingwall to the suture includes an allochthonous unit with a pre-Variscan tectonothermal evolution. This evolution is characterised by an Early Ordovician (498¯500 Ma) bimodal magmatism followed almost immediately (493¯498 Ma) by a Barrovian style metamorphism up to the granulite facies. The metamorphism subsequent to the igneous intrusions requires convergence and crustal thickening in order to generate the Barrovian facies pattern shown by the lithologies of the uppermost allochthon. The almost coeval magmatism and metamorphism, and the chemistry of the metabasites suggest an accretionary complex, probably related to a volcanic arc, as the most probable setting for the origin of the uppermost unit. The implications of the existence of Early Ordovician convergent plate boundaries are discussed in the context of Gondwana¯Laurentia¯Avalon interactions.