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The Melville Bugt Dyke Swarm of Greenland: A Connection to the 1.5-1.6 Ga Fennoscandian Rapakivi Granite Province?

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Dyke Swarms:Keys for Geodynamic Interpretation

Abstract

The sense of a magnetic polarity change in the Melville Bugt dyke swarm of western Greenland has been obtained from precise U-Pb dating on baddeleyite. A SW-directed down magnetization is older (1,635 ± 3 to 1,632 ± 1 Ma) than an upward, NE-directed remanence (1,629 ± 1 to 1,622 ± 3 Ma). Assuming only one polarity change during this interval, the same field reversal may be recorded by the 1,633 Ma Sipoo dykes of Finland, where approximately antipodal remanences of similar direction have the same relative age from magnetic overprinting studies. This observation, together with a comparison of paleomagnetic pole positions between Laurentia and Fennoscandia, allow the possibility that the 1.6 Ga Melville Bugt dyke swarm once trended towards the 1.5–1.6 Ga Fennoscandian rapakivi province, or its possible extension in Amazonia, raising the conjecture that the dyke swarm was fed laterally from this magmatic province. Satellite imagery from southeast Greenland shows several NNW-trending dykes that may represent a southerly continuation of the Melville Bugt swarm, necessary if the dykes are to have the rapakivi province as a source. The use of high precision U-Pb geochronology to establish the sense of paleomagnetic reversals promises to be a useful tool in continental reconstructions.

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Acknowledgments

For outstanding and friendly logistical support in Ilulissat and Upernavik, we thank Flemming Bisgaard, Flemming Lassen and Ole Sørensen and the crew of M/V Duda Lasøe. Field work by HCH and SWD in the Inglefield Bredning area was supported by the 2001 Nares Strait GeoCruise and by the Canadian Polar Continental Shelf Project. Subsequent field work in the Melville Bugt region was supported by NSERC Discovery grants to HCH and MAH. We are grateful for discussions with Ken Buchan and Tom Frisch (Geological Survey of Canada), Troels Nielsen (GEUS, Copenhagen), Tapani Rämö (Univ. of Helsinki), and Satu Mertanen (GSF, Espoo, Finland). MAH thankfully acknowledges Jim Connelly (Geol. Museum, Copenhagen), Adam Garde and the 2001 GEUS field party for sample collection at Torsukattak. Continental reconstructions shown in Figs. 27.8 and 27.9 were prepared using GMAP, courtesy of Trond Torsvik (NGU, Trondheim). HCH thanks Alan Lovette for making many of the measurements at the UTM Paleomagnetism Laboratory, and Alison Dias (UTM Computing Services) for expert digital graphics support. MAH and SWD gratefully acknowledge the assistance of colleagues and staff of the Jack Satterly Geochronology Laboratory.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Toronto, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 3B1

    H.C. Halls

  2. Department of Chemical and Physical Sciences, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, ON, Canada, L5L 1C6

    H.C. Halls

  3. Jack Satterly Geochronology Laboratory, Department of Geology, Earth Sciences Centre, Toronto, ON, Canada, M5S 3B1

    M.A. Hamilton

  4. Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA, 94709, USA

    S.W. Denyszyn

Authors
  1. H.C. Halls
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  2. M.A. Hamilton
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  3. S.W. Denyszyn
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Correspondence to H.C. Halls .

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Halls, H., Hamilton, M., Denyszyn, S. (2011). The Melville Bugt Dyke Swarm of Greenland: A Connection to the 1.5-1.6 Ga Fennoscandian Rapakivi Granite Province?. In: Dyke Swarms:Keys for Geodynamic Interpretation. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-12496-9_27

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