The Scandinavian Caledonides: main features, conceptual advances and critical questions

Thirty years of research, and especially the refinements of many geological, geochemical and geophysical techniques, have uncovered many new facets of the geology of the Scandinavian Caledonides, also correcting some fundamental misconceptions. Our present understanding is that of a sequence of allochthons, some derived from Baltica, but others of probably exotic origin, in part from the Laurentian margin that collided with Baltica, but perhaps also from other parts of Rodinia. The present paper summarizes the main features of the Scandinavian Caledonides, proposing some rethinking of the traditional schemes, which were developed lacking a substantial amount of the information we have today, and discusses the main advances since the last major synthesis in 1985.