Grenvillian and Caledonian evolution of eastern Svalbard - a tale of two orogenies

• Published in: Terra nova (Oxford, England) Vol. 17; no. 4; pp. 317 - 325
• Main Authors: Johansson, Åke, Gee, David G., Larionov, Alexander N., Ohta, Yoshihide, Tebenkov, Alexander M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Oxford, UK Blackwell Science Ltd 01-08-2005; Blackwell Publishing Ltd
• Subjects: Geological time; Geology; Plate tectonics; Rocks; Svalbard Islands; Arctic region; Greenland; Eurasian Plate; PNE, Barents Sea; PN, Arctic; ANE, Greenland, Oestgroenland; PNE, Norway, Svalbard; AN, Greenland
• ISSN: 0954-4879; 1365-3121
• DOI: 10.1111/j.1365-3121.2005.00616.x

Svalbard is located in the north‐west corner of the Barents Sea shelf and the Eurasian Plate, in a key area for interpreting Caledonian and older orogens in the Arctic region. Recent U–Pb dating in the Nordaustlandet Terrane of eastern Svalbard shows this terrane to consist of a Grenville‐age basement, overlain by Neoproterozoic to early Palaeozoic platformal sediments, and intruded by Caledonian anatectic granites. Deformation, metamorphism and crustal anatectic magmatism occurred both during the Grenvillian (960–940 Ma) and Caledonian (450–410 Ma) orogenies. This evolution shows great similarities with that of eastern Greenland. In the classical model, eastern Svalbard is placed outboard of central east Greenland in pre‐Caledonian time. Alternatively, it may have been located north‐east of Greenland and transferred west and rotated anticlockwise during Caledonian continent–continent collision. In the Neoproterozoic, easternmost Svalbard may have been part of a wider area of Grenville‐age crust, now fragmented and dispersed around the Arctic.