Baltic Shield - Belomorian and Karelian Provinces

Belomorian and Karelian Provinces

The Archean segment of the Baltic/Fennoscandian shield is divided into the Karelian, Belomorian and Kola provinces. The Karelian province is a granite-greenstone province reworked during the Proterozoic. The North Karelian greenstone belt sequence (NKGBS) is dominated by volcanics of calc-alkaline series, diorite-plagiogranitic batholith, and xenoliths of ultramafic to andesite-dacite composition.

According to a study by Slabunov (1999): "The Belomorian Province is a mobile belt that evolved in a polycyclic manner. A lateral sequence of Late Archean tectonic units has been revealed in the Belomorian Province and in the eastern part of the Karelian Province. The collision events in the Belomorian Province are represented by high pressure (6–12 kbar) and high temperature (500–700°C) kyanite-facies metamorphism, granitoid magmatism, and the formation of folded nappe structure and granite gneiss domes. The time of collision is estimated at 2.7–2.74 Ga. This stage of evolution in the NE part of Karelian Province is accompanied by the generation of North Karelian greenstone belt (NKGB).

The Belomorian Belt is a tectonic pile of metasedimentary, metavolcanic and metaplutonic rocks which has been folded and metamorphosed several times. According to a study by Bibikova et al. (1999), the earliest metamorphic event took place ca. 2.8 Ga. "Sm-Nd isotope studies of whole rock metasediment samples have constrained their mean protolith ages to between 3.00 and 2.86 Ga, indicating a short prehistory....Zircons were separated from different localities and at various levels of the Belomorian tectonostratigraphical column. We have recognized three age groups of ancient cores at 3.2–3.1 Ga, 3.00–2.97 Ga and 2.93–2.90 Ga. The plus 3.1 Ga cores were obtained solely from localities in the northern part of the Belt. It has also been possible to distinguish three groups of metamorphic grains and overgrowths which are 2.84–2.80 Ga, 2.72–2.68 Ga and ca. 2.61 Ga old. The data presented confirm the absence of detrital material older than 3.2 Ga in the Belomorian metasediments. This differs from the adjacent Karelian craton where crustal rocks of about 3.4 Ga have been recorded. If these ages are representative of the rocks discussed, our data suggest that the Belomorian Belt represents a Neoarchaean accretionary environment in the vicinity of the Karelian craton." (Bibikova et al., 1999).

From NE to SW the Baltic shield consists of the following structural-formational zones: 1) the Central Belomorian mafic zone (CBMZ) dominantly formed by mafic and ultramafic rocks, 2) the Chupa Paragneissic Belt (ChPB) composed of deep and repeatedly metamorphosed metagraywackes (mainly high-alumina gneisses), 3) the North Karelian system of greenstone belts (NKGB) dominated by volcanics of calc-alkaline series, and 4) the North Karelian diorite-plagiogranitic batholith (NKB) and xenoliths of ultramafic to andesite-dacite composition that occur in it. The CBMZ is dominated by metabasalts (amphibolites) with widespread metaultrabasic rocks (metaperidotites, serpentinites and apoultramafic amphibolites), and extremely rare acid metavolcanics. The chemical composition of metabasalts in the CBMZ is similar to that of mid-oceanic ridge basalts (MORB). The isotopic age of the rhyolite-dacites is 2.887 Ga. This association is interpreted as a fragment of a Late Archean ophiolitic complex. The CBMZ marks a collision suture. The supracrustal strata of NKGBS consist of metabasalts, metakomatiites and felsic to intermediate metavolcanics. Metaandesites-metarhyolites make up a considerable portion of the sequence. The age of these volcanics is estimated at 2.877–2.820 Ga. Between the NKGB and the CBMZ there lies the ChPB which consists of metagraywackes (garnet-biotite kyanite-bearing gneisses. This lateral series indicates the Late Archean (3.0–2.8 Ga) subduction stages in the evolution of the eastern Baltic shield. During the first stage, the oceanic lithosphere subducted from NE to SW under the subcontinental crust. In the second stage it subducted under the continental crust of the Karelian plate." (Slabunov, 1999)

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