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Geological Society, London, Memoirs; 2006; v. 32; p. 579-598;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.MEM.2006.032.01.35
© 2006 Geological Society of London

Precambrian Europe

The Lapland-Kola orogen: Palaeoproterozoic collision and accretion of the northern Fennoscandian lithosphere

J. Stephen Daly1, Victor V. Balagansky2, Martin J. Timmerman3 & Martin J. Whitehouse4

1 School of Geological Sciences, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland(stephen.daly{at}ucd.ie)
2 Geological Institute, Kola Science Centre, Russian Academy of Sciences, 14 Fersman St., Apatity, 184209, Russia
3 Institutfur Geowissenschaften, Universitat Potsdam, Postfach 60 15 53, 14415 Potsdam, Germany
4 Swedish Museum of Natural History, Box 50007, 10405 Stockholm, Sweden

A tectonic model is proposed for the Palaeoproterozoic Lapland-Kola orogen (LKO) in the northern Fennoscandian Shield. Although long regarded as an Archaean craton, integrated geological, geochemical and geophysical observations show that the Lapland-Kola orogen is a Palaeoproterozoic collisional belt containing both Archaean terranes and an important component of juvenile Palaeoproterozoic crust. Rifting, from 2.5 to 2.1 Ga, began under the influence of a mantle plume (> 1000 km diameter), related to the break-up of the Kenorland supercontinent. Two linear suture zones within the orogeriic core mark the sites of continental separation, ocean formation and closure. One of these is identified as a belt of 1.98-1.91 Ga juvenile crust of both arc magmatic and sedimentary origin, marked by the Lapland Granulite, Umba and Tersk terranes. Palaeomagnetic data and ancient sedimentary detritus within these terranes suggest limited oceanic separation. Collision of juvenile terranes with the surrounding Archaean took place mainly between 1.93 and 1.91 Ga, resulting in a Himalayan-scale mountain belt, manifest by a thick-skinned region of high-P granulite-facies metamorphism, including the classical Lapland Granulite Belt and a broad zone of compressional deformation extending southwards into the Belomorian Mobile Belt. Protracted cooling and exhumation, possibly related to the buttressing effect of surrounding lithosphere, culminated in the intrusion of 1.80-1.77 Ga post-tectonic granites.