Caledonian reactivation and reworking of Timanian thrust systems and implications for latest Mesoproterozoic to mid-Paleozoic tectonics and magmatism in northern Baltica.

Abstract

Background: The Trollfjorden-Komagelva Fault Zone is the southernmost thrust fault of the Timanian Orogen and extends for thousands of kilometers from northwestern Russia to northern Norway. Though there is little about its location onshore northeastern Norway, where it is mapped as a major fault system dominantly comprised of NNE-dipping thrust faults, its continuation to the west below Caledonian nappes and offshore post-Caledonian sedimentary basins remains a matter of debate.

Methods: The present study provides a more definitive answer about the continuation of Trollfjorden-Komagelva Fault Zone west of the Varanger Peninsula by using seismic reflection, bathymetric, topographic, and magnetic data onshore Finnmark and offshore on the Finnmark Platform.

Results: The present study demonstrates that the Sørøya-Ingøya shear zone represents a portion of the Trollfjorden-Komagelva Fault Zone that was folded into a NE-SW orientation and reactivated as a top-southeast thrust during the Caledonian Orogeny, while other portions of the Trollfjorden-Komagelva Fault Zone (e.g., on the Varanger Peninsula) were reactivated as strike-slip faults. The study also documents the presence of another major, NNE-dipping Timanian shear zone with a similar geometry to the Trollfjorden-Komagelva Fault Zone north of the Varanger Peninsula.

Conclusions: The Trollfjorden-Komagelva Fault Zone may continue offshore as a NE-SW-striking folded structure. This has the following implications: (1) the Seiland Igneous Province likely formed in a backarc setting, (2) metasedimentary rocks of the Kalak Nappe Complex deposited along the Baltican margin of the Iapetus Ocean, possibly in a late-post-Grenvillian collapse basin, (3) the Iapetus Ocean was much narrower than the several thousands of kilometers width commonly proposed, and (4) early Neoproterozoic magmatism in northern Norway is possibly related to the initial breakup of Rodinia.