Abstract The Protogine Zone comprises a system of anastomosing deformation zones which approximately parallel the eastern boundary of the Sveconorwegian (1200–900 Ma) province in south‐west Sweden. Ages of granulite facies metamorphism in the Sveconorwegian province require exhumation from c . 30 to 35 km crustal depths after 920–880 Ma. 40 Ar/ 39 Ar cooling ages are presented for muscovite from high‐alumina rocks formed by hydrothermal leaching associated with the Protogine Zone. Growth of fabric‐defining minerals was associated with a ductile deformational event; muscovite from these rocks cooled below argon retention temperatures ( c . 375 ± 25° C) at c . 965–955 Ma. Muscovite from granofels in zones of intense alteration indicates that temperatures > 375 ± 25° C were maintained until c . 940 Ma. Textural relations of Al 2 SiO 5 polymorphs and chloritoid suggest that dated fabrics formed during exhumation. The process of exhumation, brittle overprint on ductile structures and hydrothermal activity along faults within the Protogine Zone tentatively are interpreted as the peripheral effects of initial Neoproterozoic exhumation of the granulite region of south‐western Sweden. Muscovite in phyllonites associated with the ‘Sveconorwegian thrust system’cooled below argon retention temperatures at c . 927 Ma. Exhumation associated with this cooling could have been related to extension and onset of brittle‐ductile deformation superimposed on Sveconorwegian contraction.
ABSTRACT Eclogite‐grade metamorphism of the Seve Nappe Complex (SNC) in Norrbotten, Sweden, records the attempted subduction of the Baltic continental margin during the early Palaeozoic evolution of the Iapetus Ocean. Metamorphic titanite sampled from several calcsilicate gneisses of the SNC in Norrbotten occurs as part of a prograde, eclogite facies metamorphic mineral assemblage and yields concordant to nearly concordant U/Pb ages of 500–475 Ma. Later structural disruption of these rocks occurred during the Siluro‐Devonian Scandian phase of the Caledonide orogeny, but the U/Pb systematics show no evidence of a second generation (metamorphic or recrystallized) of titanite, or of post‐Early Ordovician disturbance through Pb loss. Hence the U/Pb ages are believed to record the time of prograde mineral growth during eclogite facies metamorphism of the SNC. These results support earlier Sm/Nd and 40 Ar/ 39 Ar studies indicating an Early Ordovician metamorphic age for the eclogitic Norrbotten SNC, and confirm the Early Ordovician destruction of at least this segment of the Palaeozoic passive margin of Baltica. These results indicate that the SNC in the northern Scandinavian Caledonides was subducted and metamorphosed to high grade some 50–70 Myr prior to the high‐grade metamorphism of the SNC in the central Scandinavian Caledonides. This result requires significantly different early Palaeozoic tectonic histories for rocks mapped as SNC in the northern Caledonides and those in the central Caledonides, despite a seemingly similar tectonostratigraphic position and broadly similar high‐grade metamorphism.
Abstract Several recent plate reconstructions of the Iapetus Ocean describe the margins of Baltica as passive until Silurian collision with Laurentia. Yet there is a variety of evidence to suggest that the accretion of the Scandinavian Caledonides began by latest Cambrian—early Ordovician subduction and imbrication of the passive continental margin. One such evidence is provided by eclogites occurring in the Seve Nappe Complex. Previous work by others dated the high-pressure metamorphism at 503±14 Ma (Sm—Nd garnet-omphacite age), and the uplift through the c . 500°C isotherm at 491±8 Ma ( 40 Ar/ 39 Ar hornblende plateau ages). The protolith dolerites of the eclogites have been correlated with Iapetan rift-facies dolerites of the Baltoscandian margin. If valid, such a correlation implies early Caledonian destruction of the margin, and thus modification of those plate reconstructions which require passive margins around Baltica in latest Cambrian-early Ordovician time. This paper provides a substantially improved basis for the concept that the protoliths of eclogites and their host rocks derived from Baltoscandian rift basins. The chemical similarity between coronitic dolerites and dolerites of the rift basins pertains not only to element concentrations and variations but also to the specific T-MORB signature shared by the two groups. The variation of psammitic and pelitic schists, graphitic schists, calc-silicate gneisses and marbles of the eclogite host rocks equates with sequences of sandstones, siltstones, shales, black shale, quartzite, dolomite and limestones of Baltoscandian palaeobasins. At the same time, the paper calls attention to the remarkable preservation of structural and metamorphic contrasts within the eclogite-bearing thrust sheets of the Seve Nappe Complex. Such disequilibrium is generally ascribed to the kinetics of localized deformation and fluid infiltration into dry crust. This paper presents evidence that disequilibrium is found also within inferred subducted sedimentary complexes, which are generally assumed to be pervasively flushed by fluids. Preservation of sedimentary, volcanic and magmatic structures and fabrics, and of both undeformed dolerite dykes and eclogitized dykes demonstrates that neither deformation nor high-pressure metamorphism were pervasive.
Abstract Abstract Structural and metamorphic discontinuities in the Tømmerås basement-cover sequence confirm the allochthonous character of the Lower Snåsa Group, the Leksdalsvann Group, and the upper basement of the Tømmerås Window. Three major deformational events are recognized. During an early event the upper unit (the Snåsa Group amphibolites and gneisses) was metamorphosed under amphibolite facies conditions and thereafter became emplaced above the unmetamorphosed Leksdalsvann sediments. The interkinematic (D1-D2) parageneses of these sediments indicate a high P H2O and T ca. 450°C. D2 recrystallization, corresponding to the transitional greenschist-amphibolite facies (500–550°C, P > 600 MPa), is largely controlled by the distribution of shear strain. Calcium-rich mantles of late D2 garnets in the same sediments indicate a pressure peak before the main thrusting (late D2). D3 folded the thrusts and the isograd pattern established during D2 around the NE-SW trending axis of the Tømmerås Antiform. Various features indicate the subordinate role of Caledonization in the Tømmerås 'autochthon': the decrease of grade with increasing tectono-stratigraphic depth, the open megastructures and the mylonites and local PT-peaks. This is noteworthy because Tømmerås is located on the very border of the coastal gneiss region, an area previously supposed to have been subject to Caledonian mobilization. Key Words: Metamorphismdeformationallochtonsnappesbasement-cover relationsgeologic thermometryparagenesistexturegreenschist-amphibolitefaciesphengitebiotitegarnetchemical compositiongarnet zoningmetasedimentary rocksmetamorphic rocksamphiboliteTømmerås AntiformTømmerås WindowLeksdalsvann GroupLower Snåsa GroupBjørntjern schistCaledonidesOrdovicianSilurianTrondheimsfjordcentral NorwayN6346 N6414 E1239 E1119
In the Caledonide orogen of northern Sweden, the Seve Nappe Complex is dominated by rift facies sedimentary and mafic rocks derived from the Late Proterozoic Baltoscandian miogeocline and offshore‐continent–Iapetus transition. Metamorphic breaks and structural inversions characterize the nappe complex. Within the Sarek Mountains, the Sarektjåkkå Nappe is composed of c. 600‐Ma‐old dolerites with subordinate screens of sedimentary rocks. These lithological elements preserve parageneses which record contact metamorphism at shallow crustal levels. The Sarektjåkkå Nappe is situated between eclogite‐bearing nappes (Mikka and Tsäkkok nappes) which underwent high‐ P metamorphism at c. 500 Ma during westward subduction of the Baltoscandian margin. 40 Ar/ 39 Ar mineral ages of c. 520–500 Ma are recorded by hornblende within variably foliated amphibolite derived from mafic dyke protoliths within the Sarektjåkkå Nappe. Plateau ages of 500 Ma are displayed by muscovite within the basal thrust of the nappe and are consistent with metamorphic evidence which indicates that the nappe escaped crustal depression as a result of detachment at an early stage of subduction. Cooling ages recorded by hornblende from variably retrogressed eclogites in the entire region are in the range of c. 510–490 Ma and suggest that imbrication of the subducting miogeocline was followed by differential exhumation of the various imbricate sheets. Hornblende cooling ages of 470–460 Ma are recorded from massive dyke protoliths within the Sarektjåkkå Nappe. These are similar to ages reported from the Seve Nappe Complex in the central Scandinavian Caledonides. Probably these date imbrication and uplift related to Early Ordovician arrival of outboard terranes (e.g. island‐arc sequences represented by structurally lower horizons of the Köli Nappes). Metamorphic contrasts and the distinct grouping of mineral cooling ages suggest that the various Seve structural units are themselves internally imbricated, and were individually tectonically uplifted through argon closure temperatures during assembly of the Seve Nappe Complex. The cooling ages of 520–500 Ma recorded within Seve terranes and along terrane boundaries of the Sarek Mountains provide evidence of significant accretionary activity in the northern Scandinavian Caledonides in the Late Cambrian–Early Ordovician.