A very well exposed sandstone dyke swarm in the basement of Bornholm (Vang and Hammer granite) has been discovered recently north of Vang. It strikes 120" to 125" on average. Individual dykes are up to 23 cm thick. The fillings consist of pale, greyish to brownish, fine-grained to medium-grained quartz sandstone. It has a grain-supported structure, and the porespace is filled with argillaceouslimonitic material and carbonate (dolomite) cement. The opening and filling of the fissures were caused by normal extension movements in NNE-SSW direction in several steps, probably during the earIy Cambrian. The overlying Balka sands were implosively sucked down into the fissure vacuums caused by the sudden opening. The downwards moving of the water saturated sediments led to a loss of material above and to the creation of funnel structures. Tapering down ring structures in the Hardeberga sandstone at the east coast of Scania (Sweden) are interpreted as such funnel structures.
The Caledonian deformation of the Brabant Massif and the Rügen Early Palaeozoic has been compared by structural analysis including strain determinations, X-ray texture analysis, illite crystallinity and vitrinite reflectivity. Both areas have experienced weak internal deformation under anchimetamorphic to very low-grade metamorphic conditions. The deformation of the Brabant Massif is characterized by (a) a pronounced diagenetic foliation which resulted from compaction and weak extensional tectonics; (b) tilting or weak folding of the Cambrian strata around the Cambrian/Ordovician boundary without internal deformation; (c) a main phase of Caledonian deformation in the Lower Devonian which was associated with open folding and an axial-plane pressure solution cleavage; (d) bending of Caledonian structures from northwest–southeast to northeast–southwest. The internal deformation appears homogeneous with decreasing strain values towards upper structural levels. The strain ellipsoid is predominantly prolate with the main axis of extension parallel to the bedding–cleavage intersection lineation. It is interpreted as the result of superposition of compaction, tectonic shortening and volume loss through pressure solution. The Rügen Early Palaeozoic is less deformed and less metamorphosed under anchizonal conditions. While the upper structural level is almost undeformed, towards the deeper structural levels a spaced and then a continuous slaty cleavage is developed which is successively crenulated by a fracture cleavage. The internal deformation appears inhomogeneous due to several thrust zones with somewhat higher strain values. Outside the thrust zones strain values increase towards lower structural levels, but not significantly. The strain ellipsoid is prolate with a strongly varying orientation of the X-axis. The structural inventory of both areas is comparable with other fold-and-thrust belts. While the Rügen Palaeozoic represents an imbricated thrust-fan of an upper structural level with discrete thrusts and inhomogeneous strain, the Brabant Massif represents a deeper structural level dominated by folding and more homogeneous internal deformation.
Waterlain fallout ashes are interbedded in the upper part of the Cyrtograptus Shale of Bornholm, theyoungest preserved member of the Lower Palaeozoic sequence at the southern coast of the island.Graptolite faunas indicate that these tuffaceous sediments belong to the Cyrtograptus lundgreni Zonedeposited during Late Wenlock. A 207Pb/206Pb mean age of 430 ± 1.9 Ma obtained by evaporation of idiomorphic single zircons from the tuff layers supports this observation. Geochemical studies of the pyroclastic rocks point to an explosive, calc-alkaline magmatic arc volcanism which probably occurred along or slightly south of the Tornquist-Teisseyre Lineament, and could have been induced by the collision of Avalonia with the southern margin of Baltica during the Silurian. This assumption is supported by the contemporaneous deposition of bentonites on the Swedish island of Gotland which might represent a distal facies of these fallouts. Further, the subduction-related volcanic activity is interpreted as a fingerprint for closing of the Tornquist Ocean during the Caledonian orogeny.
Abstract Saxo‐Thuringia is a suture bounded part of the Variscan belt in central Europe and represents a fragment of the Armorica microplate. Structural investigations and a critical review of other geologic data allow the reconstruction of its geodynamic history. Two south‐dipping subduction zones, corresponding to the Rheno‐Herzynian and the Tepla sutures, delimited Saxo‐Thuringia before the Variscan orogeny. As a result of the continental collision between Avalonia to the north and a further fragment of Armorica to the south, both outer realms of Saxo‐Thuringia record high‐grade metamorphism and a subsequent uplift between 340 and 310 Ma. Contemporaneously, the low‐grade metamorphic internal zone of Saxo‐Thuringia records thrust contraction of the late Pre‐Cambrian basement and the formation of a fold belt in the overlaying Palaeozoic deposits. Two pre‐Variscan tectonic imprints are distinguishable: (1) the consolidation of late Pre‐Cambrian basement in the Cadomian–Avalonian belt and (2) a Cambrian and early Ordovician rift setting related to the opening of the Rheic ocean and the fragmentation and separation of Armorica.
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