The Salittu Formation in southwestern Finland, part II: Picritic-basaltic volcanism in mature arc environment

Abstract

The Salittu Formation is one of the few metavolcanic successions in the Svecofennian orogen that contain ultramafic rocks. New samples were collected from the picritic and basaltic rocks as well as spatially associated gabbroic rocks, and their major and trace element compositions are presented and discussed here. Although the metavolcanic rocks have experienced primary alteration and two metamorphic events, elements that are insensitive to alteration (rare earth elements, Zr, Nb, Ni) have been used to infer their source and evolution. Based on the similar shapes of the rare earth element patterns in the metabasalt and metapicrite, basaltic melt derived from picritic one by fractional crystallization. The high Ni and Mg contents, Ni/MgO and Zr/Nb ratios, and multielement patterns make a slightly enriched garnet lherzolite a likely source for the metapicrite. With the exception of synvolcanic gabbros within the metavolcanic rocks, the gabbroic intrusions at Salittu have no genetic link to the metavolcanic rocks. Geochemical comparison with modern basalts suggests that the picritic and basaltic melts were generated in a mature arc environment during a rifting event. Picritic melt rose from convective mantle to the crust and formed a magma chamber. Basaltic melt fractionated in the chamber and extruded upon an earlier formed volcanic pile as basalt and synvolcanic gabbro. Soon after extrusion of the basalt, picritic melts, similar in composition to the earlier picrite, rose through the crust and extruded on top of the basalt. Comparison with three other metapicrite occurrences in southern Finland suggests that although the occurrences may be considered broadly comagmatic, each had their specific sources and probably also tectonic environments during emplacement.