Abstract:The complex geophysical 3D model of the Earth's crust and the upper mantle is created for the Archaean Karelian Craton and the Late Palaeoproterozoic accretionary Svecofennian Orogen of the southeastern Fennoscandian Shield with the use of methods of complex inversion of geophysical data based on stochastic description of interrelations of physical properties of the medium (density, P-wave velocity, and heat generation). To develop the model, we use results of deep seismic studies, gravity and surficial heat flow data on the studied region. Numerical solutions of 3D problems are obtained in the spherical setting with an allowance for the Earth's surface topography. The geophysical model is correlated with the regional geological data on the surface and results of seismic CMP studies along 4B, FIRE-1 and FIRE-3-3A profiles. Based on results of complex geophysical simulation and geological interpretation of the 3D model, the following conclusions are drawn. (1) The nearly horizontal density layering of the continental crust is superimposed on the previously formed geological structure; rock differentiation by density is decreasing with depth; the density layering is controlled by the recent and near-recent state of the crust, but can be disturbed by the latest deformations. (2) Temperature variations at the Moho are partially determined by local variations of heat generation in the mantle, which, in turn, are related to local features of its origin and transformation. (3) The concept of the lower continental crust being a reflectivity zone and the concept of the lower continental crust being a layer of high density and velocity are not equivalent: the lower crust is the deepest, high-density element of near-horizontal layering, whereas the seismic image of the reflectivity zone is primarily related to transformation of the crust as a result of magmatic under-and intraplating under conditions of extension and mantle-plume activity. (4) At certain combinations of crustal thickness and temperature at the level of Moho discontinuity, the crust in a platform region can be transformed into eclogites. In this case, the crust-mantle boundary is determined by quantitative proportions of the rocks that underwent eclogitization or escaped this process and by corresponding density and velocity values. (5) High compaction of rocks in the crust under lithostatic loading cannot be explained by «simple» concepts of metamorphism and/or rock compaction, which are based on laboratory studies of rock samples and mathematical simulations; this is an evidence of the existence of additional, quite strong mechanisms providing for reversible changes of the rocks.Key words: geophysical simulation, complex inversion, thermal model, density model, CMP seismic profiling, crustalmantle boundary, velocity-density Moho discontinuity, Karelian Craton, Svecofennian Orogen.Recommended by E.V. Sklyarov Аннотация: Трехмерная комплексная геофизическая модель земной коры и верхней части мантии архейско-го Карельского кратона и позднепалеопро...

In 1990, Lithoprobe acquired 240 km of seismic-reflection data across parts of the Central Gneiss Belt (CGB) and the Central Metasedimentary Belt (CMB) within the western Grenville Province of southern Ontario. Interpretation of these data in conjunction with geological constraints provided by bedrock mapping supports a model of northwest-directed thrusting and crustal shortening for the Grenville Orogen. Within the CGB, the Parry Sound shear zone is imaged as a 3 km wide zone of reflections dipping southeastward at 20–25° and soling at depths < 7 km in the north and < 3 km in the south beneath Parry Sound domain. Parry Sound domain and the immediately adjacent domains are underlain by a gently southeast-dipping reflective zone at 4.5–12.0 km depth interpreted as a detachment surface, likely associated with the central Britt shear zone. This zone may have accommodated northwesterly transport of Parry Sound, southern Britt, and northwestern Rosseau domains over Britt domain during Grenvillian thrusting.Within the CMB, the seismic data indicate that crustal shortening and imbrication have not been confined to domain and terrane boundaries, as presently defined. A 6 km wide band of reflections dips south at ~20° from the surface within Bancroft terrane, soling into a mid-crustal décollement beneath Elzevir terrane. Beneath and to the north of this planar reflective zone is a complex pattern of strong, south-dipping (10–40°) reflections that extends from the near surface to the lower crust above a less reflective wedge-shaped zone. The zone of complex reflectivity projects updip to the CMB boundary zone and into the CGB; together with the linear band of reflections affiliated with Bancroft terrane, they form the tectonized boundary between the CGB and the CMB. To the south of the linear reflective zone, prominent reflective packages are restricted to the middle and upper crust. The generally nonreflective uppermost crust beneath Elzevir terrane is underlain by a series of gently southeast-dipping, antiformal reflections that appear to sole into the mid-crustal décollement beneath Mazinaw terrane. These observations suggest that the collision between the CMB and the CGB resulted in a sequence of relatively thin (15–20 km thick) allochthonous terranes within the CMB being transported along a regional décollement and thrust northwestward over footwall rocks of the CGB along a penetratively deformed tectonic zone, while a lower crustal wedge may have delaminated the CMB lower crust. Crustal thickness where defined by the seismic data is 42.0–43.5 km in both the CGB and the CMB.

The Mazinaw terrane, in the Central Metasedimentary Belt of the Grenville Province comprises, volcanic, sedimentary, and plutonic rocks that were intensely folded and faulted, and metamorphosed to as high as upper amphibolite facies. U-Pb geochronology establishes an early period of magmatism and sedimentation at about 1280-1240 Ma, probably in a marginal basin setting, and a multistage metamorphic evolution in the period between 1100 and 980 Ma, which was probably related to crustal thickening by imbrication during compression and wedging of the terrane. Some of the earliest magmatism formed calc-alkalic volcanic rocks of Kashwakamak Formation at 1276 + 2 Ma. An associated sedimentary assemblage was intruded by the Helena trondhjemite stock at 1267 + 5 Ma.

Lake Ontario marine seismic data reveal major Grenville crustal subdivisions beneath central and southern Lake Ontario separated by interpreted shear zones that extend to the lower crust. A shear zone bounded transition between the Elzevir and Frontenac terranes exposed north of Lake Ontario is linked to a seismically defined shear zone beneath central Lake Ontario by prominent aeromagnetic and gravity anomalies, easterly dipping wide-angle reflections, and fractures in Paleozoic strata. We suggest the central Lake Ontario zone represents crustal-scale deformation along an Elzevir–Frontenac boundary zone that extends from outcrop to the south shore of Lake Ontario.Seismic images from Lake Ontario and the exposed western Central Metasedimentary Belt are dominated by crustal-scale shear zones and reflection geometries featuring arcuate reflections truncated at their bases by apparent east-dipping linear reflections. The images show that zones analogous to the interpreted Grenville Front Tectonic Zone are also present within the Central Metasedimentary Belt and support models of northwest-directed crustal shortening for Grenvillian deep crustal deformation beneath most of southeastern Ontario.A Precambrian basement high, the Iroquoian high, is defined by a thinning of generally horizontal Paleozoic strata over a crestal area above the basement shear zone beneath central Lake Ontario. The Iroquoian high helps explain the peninsular extension into Lake Ontario forming Prince Edward County, the occurrence of Precambrian inlier outcrops in Prince Edward County, and Paleozoic fractures forming the Clarendon–Linden structure in New York.

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