Structural Reconnaissance Mapping of the Nasa Basement Window, Southern Norrbotten Caledonides

Sammanfattning: Too few documentative descriptions exist from the reactivated Proterozoic Nasa Basement window in Sweden. This re-exposed crustal piece predominantly consisting of 1.8 Ga granite and volcanic basement rock lack structural evidences on maps. The Western Gneiss region gave example of how rocks in extreme cases may experience protolith overprinting through collisional vertical granite basement subduction to eclogite ambient conditions, which would give traces in metamorphic quartz (coesite), muscovite, pyroxene and kyanite, and increased densities. Preliminary indications from literature points towards a locally passive Nasa Basement with limited translation, but because of too little documentation it cannot be assured metamorphic inertia under fluid absence has been unimportant in the basement evolution. To address this highly structural issue, field reconnaissance mapping and sampling was carried out, and aimed to achieve a structural characterisation of historic deformation back to Proterozoic time. Observations were collected from 166 outcrop vicinities, and 17 of 27 carefully examined thin sections aimed to describe microscopic structures, in addition to mineral relation to metamorphic minerals. Collected evidences in this project encompass a Proterozoic macroscopic concentric fold with axis striking NW-SE, as well as, mesoscopic folds striking WNW-ESE. Tectonic movements record syn-collisional top-SE and post- collisional top-SW translation, which truncate weakly shortened and foliated blocks. Basement blocks locally preserve igneous coarse but weakly recrystallized texture fabrics. Overall optically produced paleothermometry indicates low- to medium grade facies conditions of deformation, through widespread bulging recrystallization, occasional subgrain rotation and rare grain boundary migration in quartz. Feldspar response to deformation is brittle and rarely ductile. Hydrous biotite, chlorite and epidote are abundant. Mineralogy together with an observed average density of 2,6 g/cm3 can possibly reject the idea of unreacted local continental subduction to eclogite depths, due to the overall presence of hydrous mineral phases. Top-to-the shear sense proves Caledonian reactivation, but Bourguer anomaly indicates at least locally an important limited translation. NW-SE striking lineaments and strikes of foliation show best accordance with lineaments mapped in Norway and alignment with tectonic contacts in the Baltica interior, and do so show the best examples of candidates for Proterozoic structures.