A multidisciplinary investigation of the Notträsk Gabbro, northern Sweden

The differentiated, sulfide-bearing gabbro near the city of Boden in northern Sweden has been investigated in order to get a plausible model for its formation, shape and age. The gabbro is associated with a major fault system along which several intrusive bodies occur. The largest of these has been traversed by a gravimetric, magnetometric and geological profile. The investigated intrusion is undeformed and oval-shaped and covers some 20 km2. The outer parts of the body consist of a norite in contact with older meatasediments and granites of varying age. Inside the norite occurs a magnetite-rich gabbro, which forms a ring around the centre of the massif, which in turn consists of leucogabbro-olivine gabbro. Fe, Ti and K are low in the centre where Mg and Cr have their highest contents. Impregnations of sulfides and a massive pyrrhotite vein with some 1 % Ni are located in the norite. A number of intrusion models have been tested by computer modelling combining gravimetric and magnetic field data. The most probable model seems to be a funnel-shaped body pointing downwards. The different gabbro types dip steeply inwards indicating vertical zones rather than horizontal. Palaeomagnetic measurements show that the intrusion has a similar orientation of magnetization as other gabbros of the Haparanda series in northern Sweden (1800–1900 Ga, Rb-Sr). Furthermore, the pole distributions show that the rock cooled slowly, which may indicate that the present outcrop is a deep part of an eroded intrusion. The massif is supposed to have been formed by a diapiric re-emplacement of primary horizontal cumulates formed in the sequence olivine gabbro-leucogabbro-magnetite-bearing gabbro-norite.