Perovskite U–Pb ages and the Pb isotopic composition of alkaline volcanism initiating the Permo-Carboniferous Oslo Rift

The Permo-Carboniferous Oslo Rift developed in the foreland of the Variscan orogen over a period of some 50 million years through a process characterized by moderate extension and widespread magmatism. The overall tectonic situation places the Oslo Rift in a post-collisional, dextral transtensional setting related to the convergence between Baltica, Laurentia, Gondwana and Siberia during assembly of Pangea, the location probably reflecting the control by pre-existing lithospheric structures. Although a detailed understanding of these factors and processes relies strongly on having a good age control, the dating of mafic to ultramafic alkalic volcanic units formed during initial rifting has been a very challenging task. In this study we have successfully employed perovskite from melilitic and nephelinitic volcanic rocks, together with magmatic titanite in a more evolved ignimbrite, to obtain ID-TIMS high-precision U–Pb ages. Three samples from various levels of the Brunlanes succession, in the southernmost exposures of the Oslo Graben, yield ages of 300.2 ± 0.9, 300.4 ± 0.7 and 299.9 ± 0.9 Ma. A melililitic tuff at the base of the Skien succession further to the northwest yields a slightly younger age of 298.9 ± 0.7 Ma. The initial Pb compositions derived mainly from coexisting pyroxene, apatite and hornblende are characterized by extremely radiogenic initial 206Pb/204Pb ratios (up to 21.3) that confirm a provenance of these early alkaline basalts from HIMU-type sources. The U–Pb ages coincide with the Gzhelian age inferred from fossils in the upper part of the basal rift sedimentary fill of the Asker Group, and post-date the underlying basal sedimentary sequences by some 10 million years, pointing to a relatively rapid initiation of the rifting process.