Eclogites in peridotite massifs in the Western Gneiss Region, Scandinavian Caledonides: Petrogenesis and comparison with those in the Variscan Moldanubian Zone

Abstract

Eclogite lenses and boudins are volumetrically minor, but petrologically important, features of peridotite massifs worldwide. In the Western Gneiss Region of the Scandinavian Caledonides, eclogites in the Almklovdalen and Raubergvik peridotites originated as basaltic to picrobasaltic dikes, comprising both olivine–normative and nepheline–normative types, with a wide variation in Mg–number from 34 to 65. Positive anomalies for Pb and Sr and negative anomalies for Zr and Hf reflect a subduction signature in the basic melts, and rare–earth element modelling requires 20% to 70% fractional crystallization, combined with 20% to 70% assimilation of peridotite. Clinopyroxenes in eclogites have a wide variation in εNd(0) from +68 to −26, which is comparable to that for associated garnet peridotites and pyroxenites, +55 to −38, and a range in 87Sr/86Sr from 0.7021 to 0.7099, which is much larger than that in peridotites and pyroxenites, 0.7014 to 0.7033.Plagioclase and amphibole inclusions in eclogite garnet provide evidence for prograde metamorphism, which attained a maximum temperature of ~775 °C and pressure of ~25 kb. Such conditions are allofacial with those of associated garnet peridotites and pyroxenites, which equilibrated at ~825 °C and ~37 kb. Eclogites yield mixed Sm-Nd isochron ages, as do the peridotites and pyroxenites, but ages in eclogites are <1000 Ma, and those in peridotites and pyroxenites are >1000 Ma. Three eclogites yield Ordovician U-Pb ages for rutile at 440 ± 12, 445 ± 51, and 480 ± 29 Ma, which are coeval with the Taconic Orogeny and are consistent with a Laurentian provenance for the host peridotites.Eclogites in both Norwegian and Czech peridotites originated from melts passing through a mantle wedge above a subduction zone, and both suites exhibit subduction geochemical signatures, although they differ dramatically in petrogenesis. Eclogites in Norwegian peridotites initially crystallized as relatively low–pressure, plagioclase–bearing basaltic or gabbroic dikes and subsequently recrystallized to high–pressure eclogite, whereas most eclogites in Variscan Moldanubian peridotites crystallized directly from magmas at high pressure to produce eclogite facies assemblages.