FROM RIFT TO DRIFT - CONSTRUCTION OF THE MAGMA-RICH IAPETUS MARGIN OF BALTICA

The northern part of the pre-Caledonian Iapetus margin, which now rests within nappes in the Scandinavian Caledonides, is generally characterized as a fossil magma-rich rifted margin. The margin developed in the late Ediacaran during the opening of the Iapetus Ocean. It was deformed and metamorphosed during the Caledonian orogeny, but large parts of the margin escaped the penetrative strain and regional metamorphism related to this event and are now preserved in kilometer-scale boudins. The boudins preserve a several kilometer-thick sedimentary package mostly composed of siliciclastic and carbonaceous rocks. A key unit in the stratigraphy is a stromatolite-bearing dolomitic marble containing pure magnesite lenses as well as Cl-rich scapolite, both indicative of evaporite deposits. This unit can be found at several localities along the Scandinavian Caledonides. A recently described glaciogenic diamictite directly overlies the carbonates, which in turn is overlain by a > 1 km thick shallow marine sandstone succession, possibly marking the onset of rifting. The youngest detrital zircon from the sandstone unit is 698 Ma, providing a useful maximum deposition age. The sedimentary succession rests on top of a basement slice with top-W extensional shear indicators. The deformation has been dated to 637 Ma and corroborates the interpretation that Baltica and Laurentia were rifting at this time. The entire sedimentary succession is dissected by a dense network of mafic dikes, which has been dated to range from 596-608 Ma, providing a minimum estimate for the deposition of the sedimentary succession. This minimum age also rules out the Gaskiers glacial event to be responsible for the deposition of the diamictite. The emplacement of the dike swarm was short and intense and led to local partial melting of the host rocks. The rapid influx of magma exceeded the tectonic stretching rate, which together with their conjugate geometry, allowed the dike emplacement to also cause a vertical thickening of the crust synchronous with extension. The diking event led to the break-up of Baltica and Laurentia in the Late Ediacaran after at least 30 million years of rifting and show that the magmatic event started late in the overall rifting history.