Petrochemical and petrological characteristics of 1.9 Ga old volcanics in northern Sweden

Abstract

Abstract Palaeoproterozoic, ∼ 1.9 Ga old, subaerial felsic to mafic volcanics of the Kiruna-Arvidsjaur Porphyry Group (KAPG) are abundant in northernmost Sweden. The felsic-dominated KAPG is situated north of a proposed north-dipping subduction zone along the boundary between the Archaean craton in the northeastern part of the Baltic Shield and juvenile Proterozoic crust in the south. The geochemistry of the volcanics indicates that plate-tectonic and volcanic-arc processes similar to recent ones occurred in northern Sweden ∼ 1.9 Ga ago. The volcanics were formed in extensional as well compressional environments. Calc-alkaline volcanics mark compression in the south and in the east. Mildly alkaline volcanics occurring in the west were formed in an extensional setting. The same rift zone gave rise to a basin filled with a thick sequence of younger sediments. On the basis of regional differences in geochemistry and petrology, the KAPG has been divided into the Kiruna, Arjeplog. Arvidsjaur and Lulea subprovinces. The volcanics in the Skellefte ore district south of the KAPG occurrence area have a volcanic-arc character and can be related to the volcanics of the Arvidsjaur subprovince immediately to the north; however, the latter are subaerial whereas the Skellefte volcanics represent a marine facies. The northerly Kiruna subprovince represents a different tectonic environment with a mafic to intermediate, trachytic volcanism that indicates extensional environments. The pattern of the different geotectonic settings indicates that the development of the ∼ 1.9 Ga old volcanics cannot be assigned solely to the action of a subduction zone dipping northwards beneath the Skellefte district.