Chapter 4 Central Lapland greenstone belt

Abstract

This chapter focuses on the Paleoproterozoic rocks, particularly the Central Lapland greenstone belt, which runs as an almost uninterrupted zone from northern Norway through central Finnish Lapland where it bifurcates to reach both the western and eastern borders of Finland. The Central Lapland greenstone belt contains several different areas in which either volcanic or sedimentary rocks prevail. Volcanic terrains in Kittili and Salla are assigned to the Kittili and Salla greenstone areas, respectively. These are separated by the SodankylS. schist area, which is composed predominantly of metasedimentary rocks. Lehtonen and others (1998) regarded the Salla greenstone area as the easternmost part of the Central Lapland greenstone belt, whereas Nironen and others (2002) considered it the northernmost part of the Kuusamo belt, a supracrustal belt in southeast Lapland running across the Finnish-Russian border. In southwestern Lapland, there is the Peripohja belt that is separated from the Central Lapland greenstone belt by the Central Lapland granitoid complex. Smaller, less intensively studied Paleoproterozoic schist belts are found in the most northwestern corner of Finland in the fight hand of the Finnish Lady and in northernmost Finland north of the Lapland granulite.