Timing and Petrogenesis of the Permo-Carboniferous Larvik Plutonic Complex, Oslo Rift, Norway: New Insights from U–Pb, Lu-Hf, and O Isotopes in Zircon

Abstract

Abstract The Permo-Carboniferous Oslo Rift is a narrow, aborted continental rift with comparatively little extension but voluminous magmatism, developed at a Proterozoic lithospheric discontinuity. On the southern flank of the onshore part of the rift, the multiple intrusive phase Larvik plutonic complex (LPC) encompasses almost the width of the rift with a conspicuous over- to undersaturated assemblage of monzonite (larvikite, tønsbergite) and nepheline syenite (lardalite, foyaite). We present new single-crystal U–Pb–, Lu–Hf–, and O–in–zircon isotope data for the intrusive centers of the complex. U–Pb ages of slightly over- to undersaturated monzonites show a shift in igneous activity from 299 Ma on the eastern edge of the complex to 289 Ma in the west. The western part of the complex is built of two consanguineous magmatic systems with a northward shift in the locus of magmatism, from 296 to 289 Ma (undersaturated monzonite) and 296 to ~288 Ma (nepheline syenite). Moreover, an early oversaturated monzonite was emplaced in the eastern part of the complex at ~302 Ma. The Hf and O isotope composition of the monzonites and nepheline syenites shows little variation with zircon εHf (295 Ma) values of +5.5 to +8 and δ18Ο values of +4.79‰ to +5.49‰. No change in isotope values is observed with varying alkalinity and the Hf and O isotope compositions are interpreted as mantle source values. The source of the precursors of the monzonitic and nepheline syenitic magmas was probably a mildly depleted, sublithospheric peridotite in the lithosphere-asthenosphere boundary zone (at 3–4 GPa). Rhyolite–MELTS modeling implies polybaric fractionation of weakly alkaline basaltic melts from the source having led to an oversaturated/saturated liquid line of descent at ~0.5 GPa and an undersaturated one at ~1 GPa. Magmatism had an imperative role in the evolution of the rift by localizing strain and weakening the lithosphere along the discontinuity. A fractionating crustal melt column was tapped at varying depths in the course of advancing rupturing with no significant mixing of the over- and undersaturated melts, and magma batches were emplaced as sequential nested plutons in response to differential opening of the rift. Among continental saturated-undersaturated alkaline complexes, the LPC may be unique in the emplacement of successive magma batches across a continental rift in the direction of opening, tapping of increasingly deeper parts of the melt column with advancing rifting, and intrusion of two contemporaneous, contrasting magmatic lineages at the end of igneous activity. The marked lithospheric step at the rift locus in the Precambrian basement of southeastern Norway was probably the driving force for the inception and evolution of the Larvik magmatic system.