Abstract Trachyandesitic to trachybasaltic lavas, interlayered siliciclastic sedimentary rocks and subaerial ignimbrites with a rhyolitic to trachydacitic composition lie unconformably above metamorphic rocks in west-central Sweden. These volcanic rocks erupted at 1711 + 7/−6 to 1691 ± 5 Ma and belong to a high-K, calc-alkaline to shoshonitic suite deposited in a continental arc setting. Positive ɛ Nd values and Nb/Yb ratios in the trachyandesitic to trachybasaltic rocks indicate an enriched mantle source. Coeval, 1710 ± 11 to 1681 ± 16 Ma plutonic and subvolcanic rocks are mainly granitic or quartz syenitic in composition. Subordinate components include quartz monzonite, quartz monzodiorite and monzogabbro or gabbro. ɛ Nd values in the range −1.0 to + 1.1 overlap with those in the inferred 1.9–1.8 Ga source rocks. All these rocks belong to the youngest phase of the lithodemic unit referred to as the Transscandinavian Igneous Belt. This magmatic province extends in a roughly NNW direction for at least 900 km, variably deformed and metamorphosed equivalents occurring inside and beneath younger orogenic belts to the south (Sveconorwegian) and north (Caledonian). The part of the province in west-central Sweden addressed here represents a far-field and shallow crustal component in this 1.7 Ga accretionary orogenic system.

Abstract Separate pulses of magmatic activity involving the emplacement of plutons with predominantly granitic or bimodal granitic and gabbroic composition, as well as dolerite dykes, occurred in a cratonic setting in eastern Sweden at c. 1.59–1.58 Ga, c. 1.53–1.50 Ga and c. 1.47–1.44 Ga; anorthosite, monzodiorite and syenitoid rocks are locally present. Most of the granites have been compared with rapakivi granites in Finland and elsewhere. Isotopic data (Hf in zircons and ɛ Nd values) from the plutons in north-central Sweden show contamination by an Archean source. Siliciclastic rocks dominated by aeolian or deltaic sandstones overlie c. 1.58 Ga or c. 1.50 Ga plutons, are intercalated with 1.46 Ga basaltic lavas and were deposited prior to the emplacement of 1.27–1.25 Ga dolerites. The magmatic rocks are subalkaline (tholeiitic) to alkaline and the mafic components have been compared with continental flood basalts, suggesting an intracratonic, rift-related tectonic setting for the magmatism and sand deposition. These rocks constitute the westerly part of a late Paleoproterozoic to early Mesoproterozoic magmatic province in northern Europe, located along roughly north–south- and WSW–ENE-trending linear belts. This tectonic development was coeval with accretionary orogenic activity further to the west and SW.

Abstract Doleritic sills, lopoliths and dykes were emplaced into the Paleoproterozoic craton in central Sweden at 1271–1264, 1259–1256 and c. 1247 Ma, a complex temporal zonation occurring in a WSW–ENE direction. The dolerites are subalkaline to alkaline and show predominantly gabbroic, with a trend towards monzogabbroic and quartz monzodioritic, compositions. Positive ɛ Nd and ɛ Hf values suggest a significant depleted mantle component in the source volume of the parental magmas. Dyke orientations indicate extension, at least locally, in a northwesterly direction, consistent with a magma flow direction determined using the anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility values. Intracratonic rifting linked to the break-up of the supercontinent Columbia, back-arc extension above a subduction boundary in a westwards-retreating mode or a mantle plume tail above a continental hotspot have all been proposed for the tectonic setting. Renewed intracratonic rifting at c. 1.14 Ga in the coastal area in northeasternmost Sweden resulted in the emplacement of alkaline ultrabasic dykes, including carbonatites (beforsites), silico-carbonatites and lamprophyres, in a north–south direction along an older shear belt. The broader tectonic setting of this extensional event is not known.

Abstract Sub-ophitic, equigranular or plagioclase-phyric dolerite dykes, referred to as the Blekinge–Dalarna dolerite (BDD) swarm, were emplaced during the time span 0.98–0.95 Ga and trend NNE–NNW in an arcuate fashion, parallel to and east of the Sveconorwegian orogen. Dolerite sills are locally present. These rocks are subalkaline to alkaline with a monzogabbroic or gabbroic composition and show a predominantly within-plate tectonic affinity. ɛ Nd and ɛ Hf values fall in the range −2 to +4 and +1 to +5, respectively. Siliciclastic sedimentary rocks (Almesåkra Group) in a small outlier in southern Sweden were deposited in an aeolian to fluviatile or lacustrine environment and an arid or semi-arid warm palaeoclimate, coevally with the dolerite sills. Smaller occurrences of sandstone with peperitic field relationships to the BDD dykes are known from other localities. The spatial distribution, orientation and age of the BDD magmatic suite suggest roughly east–west extension in the eastern, cratonic foreland to the Sveconorwegian orogen during the latest phase of this mountain-building event, the age data tentatively suggesting a younging to the east. The siliciclastic sedimentary rocks represent an erosional relict of a larger and spatially much more extensive early Tonian foreland basin to this orogen, as proposed earlier on the basis of fission-track thermochronology.