The palaeoproterozoic Northwestern region of the Ukrainian shield hosts two compositional types of mafic dykes and associated magmatism that intruded at c. 1800-1760 Ma: (1) high-Ni dolerite dykes and layered intrusions of tholeiitic affinity and (2) high-Ti dolerite dykes of jotunitic affinity associated with anorthosite-mangerite-charnockite-granite (AMCG) suites. The jotunitic dykes represent initial melts for basic rocks of the Korosten AMCG plutonic complex, whereas tholeiitic dykes may reflect emplacement of a mantle plume and formation of a large igneous province (LIP). New U-Pb baddeleyite ages indicate that both compositional types can be coeval: the jotunitic Rudnya Bazarska dyke was emplaced at 1793 ± 3 Ma, and the Zamyslovychi tholeiitic dolerite dyke at 1789 ± 9 Ma. In our model, the mantle plume-derived tholeiitic melts (underplate) supplied heat required for melting of the mafic lower crust and the production of jotunitic melts. As formation of the jotunite melts requires pressures in the range 10-13 kbar, either a thickened crust is needed or the lower crust must be subducted, or downthrusted, into the mantle. Alternatively, emplacement and ponding of large volume of tholeiitic melts might cause delamination of the lower crust, its sinking into the mantle, and further fusion to produce jotunitic melts.

International audiencePalaeoproterozoic (ca. 1.8 Ga) mafic and ultramafic dykes are widely distributed within the whole Sarmatian segment of the East-European craton. This paper focuses on new geochronological, geochemical and isotope data obtained for mafic and ultramafic dykes of the Ingul terrain. Geochronological data available for these dykes indicate ages around 1800 Ma. We provide a new U–Pb zircon age of 1810 ± 15 Ma obtained for a dolerite dyke in the Kirovograd area. Geochemical and petrographical data allow identification of three groups of dykes: (1) kimberlites, (2) high-Mg# subalkaline rocks (picrite, camptonite, subalkaline dolerite etc.) and (3) tholeiite dolerite. Rocks of these groups were probably derived from different sources. εNd1800 values of studied rocks vary from 0.7 to 2.8. The highest values were obtained for mantle xenoliths and their kimberlite host (εNd1800 = 2.5–2.8). Rb–Sr data yield a regression age of 1729 ± 20 Ma with an initial 87Sr/86Sr = 0.70366 ± 41 (MSWD = 10.8). The whole-rock lead isotope data scatter, but data for sub-groups of samples can tentatively be fitted to parallel 1.8 Ga isochrons. The geochemical data indicate rocks to have formed by partial melting and the degree of melting is thought to be a function of formation depth, the latter ranging from sub-lithospheric to lower-crustal levels; we assume that melting was caused by a mantle plume. Dyking in the Ingul terrain was closely associated in time and space with metasomatic albitites that host numerous economic U deposits

No abstract

The results of a laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) U–Pb dating and a Hf isotope study of zircon crystals separated from small eclogite xenoliths found in Devonian kimberlites within the Prypyat horst, Ukraine, have been reported. The studied area is located in the junction zone between the Sarmatian and Fennoscandian segments of the East European Platform. Four laser ablation sites on two zircon grains yielded Paleoproterozoic U–Pb ages between 1954 ± 24 and 1735 ± 54 Ma. In contrast, three of four Hf sites revealed negative εHf values and Paleoarchean to Mesoarchean model ages, excluding the possibility that the eclogite xenoliths represented segments of a juvenile Paleoproterozoic subducted slab or younger mafic melts crystallized in the subcontinental lithospheric mantle. A single laser ablation Hf spot yielded a positive εHf value (+3) and a Paleoproterozoic model age. Two models for eclogite origin can be proposed. The first foresees the extension of the Archean lower-crustal or lithospheric roots beneath the Sarmatia–Fennoscandia junction zone for over 200 km from the nearest known outcrop of Archean rocks in the Ukrainian Shield. The second model is that the Central Belarus Suture Zone represents a rifted-out fragment of the Kola–Karelian craton that was accreted to Sarmatia before the actual collision of these two segments of Baltica.

No abstract