The Palaeoproterozoic Malmbäck Formation in S Sweden: age, composition and tectonic setting

• The Paleoproterozoic Malmbäck Formation in southern Sweden comprises mafic to felsic volcanic rocks and syn-eruptive volcaniclastic and volcanogenic sedimentary deposits. Field observations indicate terrestrial to fluvial deposits – predominantly with massive to highly vesicular lavas, but also with ignimbrites, ashes, redeposited volcanic rocks and conglomerates. Three groups of volcanic rocks can be distinguished geochemically; (1) primitive basalts to basaltic andesites, (2) dacites-andesites and (3) rhyolites. The groups constitute a calc-alkaline to shoshonitic series. LILE and LREE enrichment, combined with depletion in HREE and HFSE; particulary in Nb (and Ta), is characteristic of typical arc rocks. Discriminant diagrams suggest emplacement along a one-time active continental margin, which is now marked by the Transscandinavian Igneous Belt (TIB), a more than one thousand kilometres long array of ~1.85-1.65 Ga granitic to gabbroic plutonic rocks and associated volcanic rocks. In the TIB, the Malmbäck Formation forms mega-xenoliths and other inclusions. U-Pb SIMS dating of zircon from a rhyolite of the Malmbäck Formation yielded a Concordia age of 1796±7 Ma, which is interpreted as the crystallization age of the rhyolite and the age of deposition of the Malmbäck Formation, during a relatively early part of the formation period of the TIB. Altogether, the setting, composition and age of the Malmbäck Formation and TIB confirm the existence of an Andean type active continental margin in the present southern part of the TIB at c. 1.8 Ga.

Ämnesord

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap -- Geologi (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences -- Geology (hsv//eng)

Nyckelord

active continental margin

geochemistry

Malmbäck Formation

Transscandinavian Igneous Belt

volcanic rocks

U-Pb

zircon

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