The Friningen Garnet Peridotite (central Swedish Caledonides). A good example of the characteristic PTt path of a cold mantle wedge garnet peridotite

Abstract

We present pseudosections of Cr-bearing garnet peridotite that together with new mineral–chemical data allow quantification of the early PT conditions of the original lithospheric mantle assemblage (M1) of the Friningen Garnet Peridotite (FGP) located in the central/middle belt of the Seve Nappe Complex in central Sweden. Results indicate that the early, coarse grained, olivine + orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene + “high Cr” garnet assemblage (M1a) was formed at 1100 ± 100 °C and 5.0 ± 0.5 GPa. These metamorphic conditions were followed by an inferred late Proterozoic exhumation event down to 850–900 °C and 1.5 GPa (M1b). The latter PT estimate is based on the breakdown of high-Cr M1a garnet (Cr# = 0.065) + olivine into an orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene + spinel (Cr# = 0.15–0.25) ± pargasite kelyphite (M1b) and the exsolution of garnet from Al-rich orthopyroxene and clinopyroxene. The M1b kelyphite is overprinted by an early-Caledonian UHPM mineral assemblage (M2; T = 800 °C and P = 3.0 GPa), equivalent to the earlier discovered UHP assemblage within an eclogitic dyke that cross-cuts FGP. In the garnet peridotite M2 is displayed by low-Cr garnet (Cr# = 0.030) growing together with spinel (Cr# = 0.35–0.45), both these minerals form part of the olivine + orthopyroxene + clinopyroxene + garnet + spinel + pargasite M2 assemblage. The formation of plagioclase + diopside symplectites after omphacite and breakdown of kyanite to sapphirine + albite in internal eclogite and the breakdown of M2 olivine + garnet to amphibole + orthopyroxene + spinel assemblages (M3) in garnet peridotite indicate post-UHP isothermal decompression down to 750–800 °C and 0.8–1.0 GPa (= M3). Multiphase solid-and fluid inclusion assemblages composed of Sr-bearing magnesite, dolomite or carbon decorate linear defect structures within M1a–b minerals and/or form subordinate local assemblages together with M2 minerals. The latter are interpreted as evidence for infiltration of early-Caledonian COH-bearing subduction zone fluids. The well-defined PTt-deformation path of the FGP resembles that of a mantle wedge garnet peridotite. The M1 assemblage originates from the base of a cold, old and thick subcontinental lithospheric mantle that is inferred to extend asymmetrically leading to extreme exhumation of FGP down to lithospheric conditions around 1.5 GPa and 850–900 °C. After that the FGP became incorporated into the subducting continental crust of the SNC during “early-Caledonian” subduction (M2) down to UHPM conditions (800 °C/3.0 GPa), subsequently followed by eduction back to sub-crustal levels. As such, FGP is the first locality in the Swedish Caledonides from which two UHP metamorphic events are described, the first event can be related to the formation of an ancient (> 1.0 Ga) lithosphere underneath a craton (Rodinia) and the second is of early-Caledonian age.