A four-phase model for the Sveconorwegian orogeny, SW Scandinavia

The Sveconorwegian orogenic belt is situated at the southwestern margin of Fennoscandia. It is one of the classical, well-exposed Grenvillian orogenic belts (Fig. 1) (Berthelsen 1980). Like most Grenvillian belts, it is deeply eroded and its hinterland rifted away during Neoproterozoic continent dispersal (Torsvik et al. 1996). On the basis of paleomagnetic and geological information, the Sveconorwegian belt is generally restored, in a variety of configurations, to the east of the Grenville belt of Laurentia, facing Amazonia, at the end of the Mesoproterozoic and during the Neoproterozoic (Gower et al. 1990; Hoffman 1991; Torsvik et al. 1996; Karlstrom et al. 2001; Cawood & Pisarevsky 2006; Bogdanova et al. 2008). Geological models for the Grenvillian-Sveconorwegian orogeny, derived from these reconstructions, involve an oblique collision between a common Laurentia-Baltica margin and the Amazonia indenter.