Tectonic and geomechanical control of dikes and sill-like bodies: Evidence from the northwestern part of the Kola Peninsula

A study of the meticulously documented Paleoproterozoic swarms of basic dikes and sill-like bodies, as well as granite veins crosscutting Archean granite-gneiss country rocks of the Central Kola Geoblock of the Fennoscandian Shield, elucidates the question of geomechanical control of the spatial location of syntectonic sheetlike magmatic bodies intruding into heterogeneous structured geomedium. Based on structural analysis and mapping results, the succession of emplacement of several dike generations has been reconstructed and linked to structural parageneses of the corresponding deformation stages. We evaluate the effect of geomechanical and tectonic factors as well as the structural elements of enclosing strata on the places of dike localization, the character of their spatial distribution, morphology of particular bodies, and patterns of swarm systems. Geomechanical problems on the intrusion of single bodies and their communities are solved taking into account their interaction and the heterogeneity of the medium. The conditions necessary for transition of nearly vertical dikes into sills are discussed.