Relict eclogites and associated high-pressure rocks are present in the Eastern Segment of the SW Swedish gneiss region (the tectonic counterpart of the Parautochthonous Belt of the Canadian Grenville). These rocks give evidence of Sveconorwegian eclogite facies metamorphism and subsequent pervasive reworking and deformation at granulite and amphibolite facies conditions. The best-preserved eclogite relics suggest a clockwise P-T -t history, beginning in the amphibolite facies, progressing through the eclogite facies, decompressing and partially reequilibrating through the high-and medium-pressure granulite facies, before cooling through the amphibolite facies. Textures demonstrate the former coexistence of the plagioclase-free assemblages garnet+clinopyroxene+quartz+rutile+ilmenite, garnet+clinopyroxene+ kyanite+rutile, and garnet+kyanite+quartz+rutile. The former existence of omphacite is evidenced by up to 45 vol.% plagioclase expelled as small grains within large clinopyroxene. Matrix plagioclase is secondary and occurs expelled from clinopyroxene or in fine-grained, granulite facies reaction domains formed during resorption of garnet and kyanite. Garnet shows preserved prograde growth zoning with rimward increasing pyrope content, decreasing spessartine content and decreasing Fe/(Fe+Mg) ratio, but is partly resorbed and reequilibrated at the rims. P-T estimates from microdomains with clinopyroxene+plagioclase+quartz+garnet indicate pressures of 9.5-12 kbar and temperatures of 705-795°C for a stage of the granulite facies decompression. The preservation of the prograde zoning suggests that the rocks did not reside at these high temperatures for more than a few million years, and chemical disequilibrium and 'frozen' reaction textures indicate heterogeneous reaction progress and overstepping of reactions during the decompression through the granulite facies. Together these features suggest a rapid tectonic exhumation. The eclogite relics occur within a high-grade deformation zone with WNW-ESE stretching and associated oblique normal-sense, top-to-the-east (sensu lato) displacement, suggesting that extension was a main cause for the decompression and exhumation. Probable tectonic scenarios for this deformation are Sveconorwegian late-orogenic gravitational collapse or overall WNW-ESE extension.

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We demonstrate a case of eclogite exhumation in a partially molten, low-viscosity fold nappe within high-grade metamorphosed crust in the Eastern Segment of the Sveconorwegian orogen. The nappe formed during tectonic extrusion, melt-weakening assisted exhumation and foreland-directed translation of eclogitized crust, and stalled at 35-40 km depth within the collisional belt. The eclogites are structurally restricted to a regional recumbent fold in which stromatic orthogneiss with pods of amphibolitized eclogite make up the core. Hightemperature mylonitic gneiss with remnants of kyanite eclogite (P N 15 kbar) composes a basal shear zone 50 km long and b 4 km wide. Heterogeneously sheared and partly migmatized augen gneiss forms a tectonostratigraphic marker in front of and beneath the nappe, and is in turn structurally enveloped by a composite sequence of orthogneisses and metabasites. The entire tectonostratigraphic pile underwent near-pervasive deformation and recrystallization under high-pressure granulite and upper amphibolite conditions. U-Pb SIMS metamorphic zircon ages of eclogite and stromatic orthogneiss constrain the time of eclogitization at 988 ± 6 Ma and 978 ± 7 Ma. Migmatization, concomitant deformation, and exhumation are dated at 976 ± 6 Ma, and crystallization of post-kinematic melt at 956 ± 7 Ma. Orthogneiss protoliths are dated at 1733 ± 11 and 1677 ± 10 Ma (stromatic gneiss) and 1388 ± 7 Ma (augen gneiss in footwall), demonstrating origins indigenous to the Eastern Segment. Eclogitization and exhumation were coeval with the Rigolet phase of the Grenvillian orogeny, reflecting the late stage of continental collision during construction of the supercontinent Rodinia.

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Absolute ages of migmatization in the polymetamorphic, parautochthonous basement of the Sveconorwegian Province, Sweden, have been determined using U-Pb ion probe analysis of zircon domains that formed in leucosome of migmatitic orthogneisses. Migmatite zircon was formed by recrystallization whereas dissolution-reprecipitation and neocrystallization were subordinate. The recrystallized migmatite zircon was identified by comparison of zircon in mesosomes and leucosomes. It is backscatter electron-bright, U-rich (800-4400 ppm) with low Th/U-ratios (generally 0.01-0.1), unzoned or Ôoscillatory ghost zonedÕ, and occurs as up to 100 lm-thick rims with transitional contacts to cores of protolith zircon. Protolith ages of 1686 ± 12 and 1668 ± 11 Ma were obtained from moderately resorbed, igneous zircon crystals (generally Th/U ¼ 0.5-1.5, U < 300 ppm) in mesosomes; protolith zircon is also present as resorbed cores in the leucosomes. Linkage of folding, synchronous migmatization and formation of recrystallized zircon rims allowed direct dating of southvergent folding at 976 ± 7 Ma. At a second locality, similar recrystallized zircon rims in leucosome date pre-Sveconorwegian migmatization at 1425 ± 7 Ma; an upper age bracket of 1394 ± 12 Ma for two overprinting phases of deformation (upright folding along gently SSW-plunging axes and stretching in ESE) was set by zircon in a folded metagranitic dyke. Lower age brackets for these events were set at 952 ± 7 and 946 ± 8 Ma by zircon in two crosscutting and undeformed granitepegmatite dykes. Together with previously published data the present results demonstrate: (i) Tectonometamorphic reworking during the Hallandian orogenesis at 1.44-1.42 Ga, resulting in migmatization and formation of a coarse gneissic layering. (ii) Sveconorwegian continent-continent collision at 0.98-0.96 Ga, involving (a) emplacement of an eclogite unit, (b) regional high-pressure granulite facies metamorphism, (c) southvergent folding, subhorizontal, east-west stretching and migmatization, all of which caused overprint or transposition of older Mesoproterozoic and Sveconorwegian structures. The Sveconorwegian migmatization and folding took place during or shortly after the emplacement of Sveconorwegian eclogite and is interpreted as a result of north-south shortening, synchronous with east-west extension and unroofing during late stages of the continentcontinent collision.