1.9-1.8 Ga old strike-slip megashears in the Baltic Shield, and their plate tectonic implications

The tectonic evolution of the ca. 2.0-1.75 Ga old Svecokarelian fold belt is reviewed, and evidence is presented for large-scale intraplate strike-slip movements along ductile megashears. After the formation of the Kola collision suture and the neighbouring Granulite-Tanaelv thrust belt around 1.9 Ga ago, dextral shearing was initiated along N-S trending megashears. Subsequent anticlockwise rotation of the initially NNE-SSW oriented principal compressive stress caused dextral shearing along a NW-SE trending megashear and reversal in the sense of shearing in the N-S trending ones. Further anticlockwise stress rotation (to a total of about 120°) brought an end to sinistral shearing along the N-S megashears around 1.8 Ga ago and caused reversal to sinistral slip along the NW-SE megashear. Both the older (1.9-1.85 Ga) and younger (1.84-1.8 Ga) parts of this evolution are recorded within the Karelian province and its southwestern margin, where consolidation of the lithosphere took place shortly after 1.9 Ga ago. In the Svecofennian province, where crustal accretion did not start until around 1.9 Ga ago, the older movements may have caused synaccretional crustal folding, but with increasing consolidation, the deformation was concentrated along megashears. Although it is still not possible to interrelate the function of active subduction zones and intraplate megashears. the evolution traced so far provides support for plate tectonic interpretations of the Early Proterozoic geodynamics of the Baltic Shield.