Guidebook to the Field Excursions in the Nordfjord - Stadlandet - Almklovdalen Area

Abstract

This report is a guidebook for the field excursions conducted during the Alice Wain Memorial West Norway Eclogite Field Symposium held in Selje from June 21st-28th, 2003. Eskola (1921) drew attention to some of the aesthetically impressive eclogites and garnet peridotites that outcrop in the coastal region of west Norway between Bergen and Trondheim. These occurrences lie within the socalled Western Gneiss Region (WGR), the lowest exposed structural level in the southern Scandinavian Caledonides. The WGR is now recognised as a composite tectono-metamorphic terrane that mostly comprises Proterozoic autochthonous to para-autochthonous basement rocks with minor late Proterozoic cover belonging to the leading edge of the Baltic Plate, along with infolds of the main, outboard-derived Caledonian allochthon. Much of this composite edifice experienced short-lived deep level subduction beneath the Laurentian Plate during the Scandian phase of the Caledonian orogeny. When coupled with the symposium presentations, the field excursions conducted during the symposium week and described herein aredesigned to give the symposium delegates an opportunity to observe and discuss the geologic history of these high- and ultrahigh-pressure rocks.