Central Skåne Volcanic Province

The Central Skåne Volcanic Province was a site of volcanic activity in the Scania region of Sweden during the Mesozoic Era of the Earth's geological history. The volcanism began with a first and main phase in late Sinemurian to Toarcian times around 191 to 178 Ma. Then volcanism continued sporadically for another 80 million years.[1] More than one hundred volcanic necks of basaltic composition exist in Scania evidencing this volcanism. In central Scania, volcanism was in the form of a volcanic field of cinder cones that had strombolian eruption styles.[2] These cones produced tuffite deposits made largely of lapilli with rare volcanic bombs.[2][3] Pyroclastic materials were subsequently palagonitized or largely altered to clay minerals.[2] While eruptions occurred on land the sea was likely very close to the area.[2][3] Besides purely pyroclastic sediments, lahar deposits have also been identified around the remnants of the volcanoes.[4]

Beneath a lahar deposit at Korsaröd (Djupadal Formation), Early Jurassic plant fossils including wood, pollen and spores have been exceptionally well preserved.[5] The degree of preservation is such that cell-scale features like organelles and chromosomes have been identified in the fossils. At this location plants grew in a substrate with extensive hydrothermal alteration.[4]

The volcanism is possibly the result of decompression melting of the lithospheric mantle beneath.[1] The volcanism is linked to a rift flank fault along the Sorgenfrei–Tornquist Zone, which is a failed rift associated with extension in the North Sea and the opening of the North Atlantic.[1][2][4] The background to the volcanism is the break-up of Pangea, and thus it is analogous to the much more voluminous Karoo-Ferrar flood basalts of Southern Africa.[1]