Petrology of the Europe-Largest Burakovka early Paleoproterozoic layered pluton (Southern Karelia, Russia)

The Burakovka layered pluton of basic and mafic rocks is the largest intrusive massif in the Baltic Province composed of Si- and Mg-rich boninite-like rocks. The pluton consists of two individual bodies, each having its own internal structure, and contacting each other in their apical parts, known as the Aganozero and Shalozero-Burakovka bodies. Both bodies have a similar rock sequence including five dierentiated zones (upward): mafic rocks, pyroxenite, gabbro norite, pigeonite gabbro norite, and magnetite gabbro diorite (the latter found only in the Shalozero-Burakovka Body). Being generally similar to each other, these bodies dier notably in the styles of their cumulate stratigraphy and, to a lesser extent, in composition. The pluton is distinguished by the presence of markers - singular interlayers of high-temperature mafic cumulates emplaced in the sequence of lower-T formations. Their origin is believed to have been associated with the intrusion of fresh magma portions into the crystallizing magma chambers. The same mechanism is believed to have been responsible for a macrorhythmic pattern found in the southeastern portion of the Shalozero-Burakovka intrusive body. Using chemical and mineralogical data, it is shown that the bodies discussed were derived from similar high-Si and high-Mg magmas, except that the Aganozero Body was emplaced 50 million years later than the Shalozero-Burakovka intrusion: the former was dated (Sm-Nd isochron) 2372±22 Ma ("Nd = 3.22 ± 0.13), and the latter, 2433±28 Ma ("Nd = 3.14 ± 0.14). It is concluded that the Burakovka Pluton was a long-lived magma center which developed above a local mantle plume, the origin of which had been associated with the activity of a megaplume which had been responsible for the existence of the Baltic province throughout a period of 200 million years.