Palaeovolcanology and tectonic setting of a proterozoic metatholeiitic sequence near the baltic shield margin, Northern Norway

doi:10.1016/0301-9268(88)90021-6

Precambrian Research

Volume 39, Issue 4, August 1988, Pages 227-246

https://doi.org/10.1016/0301-9268(88)90021-6 Get rights and content

Abstract

The Kvenvik Greenstone Formation ∼ 1500 m thick, is a very well preserved, 2.0–1.8-Ga-old? sequence of MORB-type, tholeiitic metabasaltic lavas and volcaniclastic rocks. They were deposited as cyclically repeated couplets in a continental, shallow-water to terrestrial environment near the margin of the Baltic Shield. The effusive facies comprise massive and amygdaloidal lava, pillow lava, pillow breccia and hyaloclastite. Volcaniclastic facies are: ash and accretionary lapilli tuff, lapilli tuff, and tuffaceous sedimentary rocks. Lithofacies associations and primary structures in the tuffs indicate air-fall, base-surge, and pyroclastic-flow deposits, with little input of epiclastic material. The prevalence of shallow-water to subaerial emplacement throughout the Kvenvik Greenstone Formation and correlative sequences to the south indicates deposition in a spasmodically subsiding basin, almost certainly formed by taphrogenic tectonism. The rifting may have been incidental to coeval plate convergence tectonism evidenced by calc-alkalic magmatism in the Repparfjord-Komagfjord area, 50–100 km northeast of the Kvenvik area.

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The second metamorphic cycle (M₂–M₅), possibly at 1400–1500 Ma, involved a clockwise P-T path with a maximum P of > 9–10 kbar and a thermal peak of approximately 800°C. This metamorphic cycle accompanied the major ductile deformations recognized (D₂–D₅), and has been labelled the “Proterozoic Reworking”. The Proterozoic Reworking has been divided into two thermo-barometric and structurally distinct periods. D₂–D₃ involved regionally inclined, ENE-WSW non-coaxial shear of high bulk shear strains, giving rise to an intense (often mylonitic) pervasive fabric (S₂-L₂) and isoclinal and sheath folds on all scales (F₂, F₃). S₂-L₂ is the first recognized kinematic fabric and does enclose and partially recrystallize M₁ mineral parageneses, including late-M₁ metamorphic reaction textures. D₂–D₃ deformation was due to crustal shortening and gave rise to crustal over-thickening (loading) accompanying prograde metamorphism (M₂). D₄–D₅ involved upright, open and asymmetrical folding (F₄) and E-W-trending shear zone development (S₅) within a regionally extensive system of inclined, oblique, sinistral transpression. Both D₂–D₃ and D₄–D₅ episodes occurred under the same approximately E–W-directed compressive stress, and are considered sequential episodes in the one tectonothermal cycle. F₄ folding accompanied significant melt formation and the peak of metamorphism of the M₂–M₅ metamorphic cycle. S₅ shear zones accompanied 3–4 kbar of decompression with cooling, presumably during uplift in isostatic response to crustal over-thickening in D₂–D₃.
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Research paperPalaeovolcanology and tectonic setting of a proterozoic metatholeiitic sequence near the baltic shield margin, Northern Norway

Abstract

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J. Volcanol. Geotherm. Res.

Tectonophysics

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Earth Planet. Sci. Lett.

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Research paper
Palaeovolcanology and tectonic setting of a proterozoic metatholeiitic sequence near the baltic shield margin, Northern Norway