Sequence of REE-Th-U minerals in the Litsa uranium ore area (the Kola Region)

Mineralogical and petrographic study of REE-Th-U mineralization in rocks of the Litsa uranium ore area has been carried out to detail the sequence of formation of rare-earth, uranium and thorium minerals in rocks. The study has been aimed to Dikoe ore occurrence with the earliest in the area REE-Th-U mineralization described by previous workers. Rocks and minerals have been studied by means of optical and electron microscopy, as well as microprobe methods, this has made it possible to identify the relationship of minerals and the sequence of their crystallization. In monzodiorite veins and host biotite gneisses are found accessory minerals represented by monazite-(Ce), uraninite, zircon, apatite, and thorite, which are in close association with each other, but are formed at different stages of formation and transformation of the host rocks. Monazite-(Ce) with high thorium content (9–10 %) in association with apatite grows at the magmatic stage of monzodiorite crystallization both in the veins themselves and after the fine-grained mass of minerals in the biotite plates of the host gneisses. Magmatic zircon with elevated content of thorium and uranium crystallizes in veins together with monazite and apatite. The formation of uraninite, containing impurities of sulfur, yttrium and calcium, and associated with areas of granulation of plagioclase, occurs as a result of hydrothermal-metasomatic processes in veins simultaneously with the formation of textureless zircon rims with high calcium, iron, and hafnium content in the host gneisses. The development of galgenbergite and anglesite rims around uraninite grains reflects the next superimposed hydrothermal processes

Raman spectra of impact zircons in the Jarva-varaka layered massif (the Monchegorsk ore region, the Kola Peninsula)

Zircon crystals from granophyre norites of the Jarva-varaka massif of the Monchegorsk ore region (the Kola Peninsula) have been studied by means of back-scattered electron (BSE) imaging and Raman spectroscopy. The Jarva-varaka massif according to geological and geochemical data has been compared with the Sudbury structure, for which an impact origin is assumed. Zircon study is stipulated by zircon ability to keep signs of shock metamorphism even under granulite-facies conditions, thus it can be used for identification of ancient impact structures. BSE images reveal complicated internal texture – darker central domains (cores) and light rims without texture. Mineral inclusions in zircon are represented by sillimanite and plagioclase which indicates that the studied zircon grains were inherited from the host aluminous gneisses. Zircon crystals show variation of Raman spectra from the core of crystals with typical zircon Raman pattern to complete absence of spectral bands in the marginal parts and rims. Mineral inclusions in zircon rims also have no Raman spectra. Such patterns may be associated with the transformation of crystalline zircon (and mineral inclusions in it) to diaplectic glass under the influence of shock metamorphism, core domains were screened by rims and thus preserved their structure. The received data suggest the participation of the meteorite impact in the formation of the Jarva-varaka massif that requires further investigation

Mesoarchean mafic dykes of the Belomorian eclogite province (Gridino Village Area, Russia)

Archean processes of eclogitization in the Gridino metamorphic association (the Belomorian eclogite province) developed in mafic dykes, boudins, and acidic rocks of the Archean continental crusts. To determine the U-Pb age of the intrusion of the latest dykes, the geochronological samples were taken from the dyke of ferriferious metagabbro that cross-cuts the dyke of eclogitzed and granulitized olivine gabbronorite. The igneous zircons were dated by the SHRIMP II technique. The zircons showed a concordia age of 2846 ± 7 Ma, which is considered as the time of intrusion of a mafic melt. The younger low-thorium zircon rims of 2.78-2.81 Ga age around the igneous cores are typical formations that appeared under metamorphic conditions in equilibrium with a migmatite melt, and may characterize the time of formation of the granite leucosome under metamorphism, probably of eclogite facies.7 page(s

The Belomorian eclogite province : unique evidence of Meso-Neoarchaean subduction and collision

Original Russian Text © M.V. Mints, A.N. Konilov, K.A. Dokukina, T.V. Kaulina, E.A. Belousova, L.M. Natapov, W.L. Griffin, S.Y. O’Reilly, 2010, published in Doklady Akademii Nauk, 2010, Vol. 434, No. 6, pp. 776–781.6 page(s

Mesoarchean subduction processes : 2.87 Ga eclogites from the Kola Peninsula, Russia

The nature of tectonic processes on the early Earth is still controversial. The scarcity of high-pressure metamorphic rocks such as eclogite (the high-pressure equivalent of basalt) in Archean cratons has been used to argue that plate tectonics did not operate until Earth had cooled to a critical point, perhaps around the 2.5 Ga Archean-Proterozoic transition. However, eclogites occur as meter- to kilometer-sized lenses enclosed in Archean gneisses of the Belomorian Province of the Fennoscandian shield. Geochemistry and internal features suggest that the protoliths of the eclogites were interlayered olivine gabbros, troctolites, and Fe-Ti oxide gabbros. Greenschist facies mineral parageneses are enclosed in prograde-zoned eclogite garnets, and peak metamorphic conditions define an apparent thermal gradient (12–15 °C/km), consistent with metamorphism in a warm Archean subduction zone. We show here that these eclogites represent the oldest known high-pressure metamorphic rocks. U-Pb dating and Hf isotope analyses of zircons from the eclogites and a crosscutting felsic vein define a minimum age of 2.87 Ga for the Uzkaya Salma eclogite; a 2.70 Ga age for the Shirokaya Salma eclogite is interpreted as the age of a granulite facies overprint. Thermal overprinting and growth of new zircon also occurred during the Svecofennian (1.9–1.8 Ga) orogeny. These new data imply that plate tectonic processes operated at least locally in late Mesoarchean time. The adakitic nature of the felsic vein suggests that partial melting of hydrated eclogites could produce Archean tonalite-trondhjemite-granodiorite–type magmas.4 page(s