High-resolution mineralogical and rock magnetic study of ferromagnetic phases in metabasites from Oscar II Land, Western Spitsbergen—towards reliable model linking mineralogical and palaeomagnetic data

Typical ‘whole rock’ rock magnetic analyses are limited to the identification of the magnetic properties of the mixture of all ferromagnetic minerals within the samples. In this contribution standard ‘whole rock’ rock magnetic studies of two types of metabasites (metadolerites and metavolcanics) from the metamorphic Proterozoic–Lower Palaeozoic complex of Oscar II Land (Western Spitsbergen) are followed by separation of Fe-containing fractions and conducting magnetic analyses on Fe-containing separates. The main aim here is to determine if any ferromagnetic carriers of a palaeomagnetic signal preceding the Caledonian metamorphism persisted in the metabasites. A comprehensive set of applied methods has allowed for the precise identification of the ferromagnetic carriers and have revealed their textural context in the investigated rocks. The results of mineralogical and rock magnetic analyses of separates confirmed a dominance of low coercivity magnetite/maghemite and pyrrhotite in the metadolerites while in the metavolcanics the existence of magnetite/maghemite and hematite was highlighted. Our investigations support the hypothesis that Caledonian metamorphic remineralization has completely replaced the primary magmatic - Proterozoic/Lower Palaeozoic ferromagnetic minerals in the metadolerites. In the case of the metavolcanics, however, the existence of the ferromagnetic pre-Caledonian relicts cannot be excluded. Furthermore, this approach provided a unique opportunity for conducting rock magnetic experiments on natural mono-ferromagnetic fractions. The described methodologies and results of this study form a new approach that can be applied in further palaeomagnetic and petrographic studies of metamorphosed rock complexes of Svalbard.