Early Proterozoic regolith at Pasvik, NE Norway: palaeoenvironmental implications for the Baltic Shield

Regolith occurs at a number of localities along the northern margin of the early Proterozoic Pechenga Greenstone Belt marking a profound stratigraphic unconformity at the base of the 10 km thick Petsamo Supergroup. The age of regolith formation can be bracketed between 2.453 ± 42 Ga (Sm-Nd) and 2.330 ± 36 Ga (Rb-Sr). Regolith is developed on a varied substrate of Archaean rocks including early Proterozoic layered gabbros (2.45 Ga). The best example of the regolith occurs in the Pasvik valley at Brattli, Norway. Analogues are widespread on the Baltic Shield at the base of early Proterozoic 'greenstone belts' showing a low degree of chemical weathering and carbonatisation. Fluviatile deposits overlying the Brattli regolith preserve unweathered pyrite-magnetite boulders and terrigenous pyrite grains. These features are considered to relate an arid or semi-arid palaeoenvironment, possibly with some deficiency of oxygen in the atmosphere-hydrosphere system. A systematic and well-preserved regolith or palaeosaprolite at the base of the Petsamo Supergroup is proof that the northern boundary of the Pechenga Greenstone Belt is a fundamental first-order unconformity. This places constraints on geotectonic modelling of this early Proterozoic rift-basin.