Hafnium isotope characteristics of late Palaeoproterozoic magmatic rocks from Blekinge, southeast Sweden: possible correlation of small-scale Hf and Nd isotope variations in zircon and whole rocks

Abstract

The isotopic composition of hafnium has been measured in zircons from seven magmatic rocks from the Blekinge region, southeast Sweden, previously dated by the U–Pb zircon method to 1.74–1.76 Ga, with one rock at 1.81 Ga. The results from all samples show limited variation, with a total range in initial ϵHf between − 1.5 and +3.2, only slightly more than analytical uncertainty ( ± 1.5 epsilon units). However, taken together with previously published initial ϵNd whole-rock values of − 0.3 to +1.0 from the same rock samples, a trend with a positive correlation between average initial ϵHf (zr) for each sample and initial ϵNd (WR) can be discerned. This trend could be taken to indicate mixing between a “mildly depleted” component derived from the lithospheric mantle or lower crust, and a slightly more enriched crustal component, either by mixing of separate magmas or by contamination of a mantle-derived magma with crustal material. Such mixing may have occurred both on a regional scale, as indicated by the overall trend, and locally within each intrusion and each rock sample with small-scale variations in isotope composition of the magma during crystallization, indicated by the variation in initial ϵHf between the zircons in each sample. The overall results support the presence of a “mildly depleted” lithospheric mantle reservoir, both in terms of Nd and Hf isotopes, also beneath southern Fennoscandia in Proterozoic time.