Pillow lavas as protoliths for eclogites: evidence from a late Precambrian-Cambrian continental margin,Seve Nappes,Scandinavian Caledonides

Pillow lavas containing an eclogitic mineral assemblage, locally with glaucophane/crossite, are described from the Tsäkkok Lens within the Seve Nappes, north-central Scandinavian Caledonides. Critical primary relationships to the host metasedimentary rocks which are dominated by marble and quartz-garnet-phengite schist are preserved. It is argued that these clastic rocks, and the ongoing igneous activity in the Tsäkkok Lens, are late Precambrian to Cambrian in age and that these rocks were deposited/emplaced along the outermost part of a continental margin related to the continent Baltica.Variations in the whole-rock chemistry of the eclogitic rocks within the Tsäkkok Lens suggest that most elements were mobile during post-extrusive/intrusive evolution. Only Ti, P and Y show significant magmatic trends in element vs Zr plots. Discriminant diagrams employing the elements Ti, P, Zr, Y, Nb and Cr suggest a tholeiitic protolith with a tendency towards enriched mid-ocean ridge basalt (E-MORB) affinity characterized by a relatively low Zr/Nb ratio. A similarity to metabasic rocks occurring in other Seve thrust sheets but lacking evidence for high-P metamorphism is apparent. A common origin for all these rocks is inferred. The Tsäkkok eclogites formed by in situ high-P metamorphism and provide further evidence for subduction of continental crustal material down to mantle depths. This subduction event has been related to collision of Baltica with an outboard are system during the late Cambrian to early Ordovician.