Evolution of the Archean crust in Finland

Abstract

An Archean age for Finnish rocks in the range 2500–3000 Ma has been determined north of the NW-striking Ladoga—Raahe shear belt. The Archean may be divided into two main units: the granitoid association and the greenstone-belt association. The complex is characterized by stockwork tectonics. The granitoid association forms the basement infrastructure and the greenston-belt association forms the suprastructure which is present in synforms between granitoid diapirs. The infrastructure has been subjected to ultrametamorphism, and the second and third generation palingenetic magmas so formed have intruded the suprastructure. The granitoid association contains widespread migmatized relicts of the greenstone-belt association, indicating that the latter originally covered much larger areas, but the granitoids are also thought to be partly transformed primitive ensialic crust on which rocks of the greenstone-belt association were deposited. The Archean rocks have been deformed in at least four subsequent phases, of which part developed in Proterozoic time. The youngest deformation is the overthrust of the granulite belt of Lapland towards SSW. NWSE striking transcurrent faults played a major role in Proterozoic time and affected cratonized Archean crust. On the whole the greenstone belts in eastern and northern Finland form a NNW-trending zone 750 km long. On a geochemical basis the volcanic rocks of the greenstone belts can be divided into two groups: tholeiites with a low potassium content and extremely low aluminium content and a calc-alkalic group with some alkalic affinities.