Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology of the Precambrian Middle Run Formation (Eastern North America Basement): Implications for Grenvillian foreland basin evolution and Midcontinent Rifting

Triassic rocks of the Western Canada Sedimentary Basin (WCSB) have previously been interpreted as being deposited on the passive margin of North America. Recent detrital zircon provenance studies on equivalent Triassic rocks in the Yukon have suggested that these rocks were in part derived from the pericratonic Yukon–Tanana terrane and were deposited in a foreland basin related to the Late Permian Klondike orogeny. Detrital zircons within a number of samples collected from Triassic sediments of the WCSB throughout northeastern British Columbia and western Alberta suggest that the bulk of the sediment was derived from recycled sediments of the miogeocline along western North America, with a smaller but significant proportion coming from the Innuitian orogenic wedge in the Arctic and from local plutonic and volcanic rocks. There is also evidence of sediment being derived from the Yukon–Tanana terrane, supporting the model of terrane accretion occurring prior to the Triassic. The age distribution of detrital zircons from the WCSB in British Columbia is similar to those of the Selwyn and Earn sub-basins in the Yukon and is in agreement with previous observations that sediment deposited along the margin of North America during the Triassic was derived from similar source areas. Together these findings support the model of deposition within a foreland basin, similar to the one inferred in the Yukon. Only a small proportion of zircon derived from the Yukon–Tanana terrane is present within Triassic strata in northeastern British Columbia, which may be due to post-Triassic erosion of the rocks containing these zircons.

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Detrital zircon evidence of Laurentian crustal dominance in the lower Pennsylvanian deposits of the Alleghanian clastic wedge in eastern North America

Sedimentary Geology ◽

10.1016/j.sedgeo.2005.07.014 ◽

2005 ◽

Vol 182 (1-4) ◽

pp. 59-86 ◽

Cited By ~ 54

Author(s):

Thomas P. Becker ◽

William A. Thomas ◽

Scott D. Samson ◽

George E. Gehrels

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Detrital Zircon ◽

Eastern North America

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Detrital zircon geochronologic tests of the SE Siberia-SW Laurentia paleocontinental connection

Stephan Mueller Special Publication Series ◽

10.5194/smsps-4-111-2009 ◽

2009 ◽

Vol 4 ◽

pp. 111-116 ◽

Cited By ~ 4

Author(s):

J. S. MacLean ◽

J. W. Sears ◽

K. R. Chamberlain ◽

A. K. Khudoley ◽

A. V. Prokopiev ◽

...

Keyword(s):

North America ◽

Detrital Zircon ◽

Foreland Basin ◽

Detrital Zircons ◽

Death Valley ◽

Large Numbers ◽

Detrital Zircon Ages ◽

Stratigraphic Sequences ◽

Breakup Unconformity ◽

Siberian Section

Abstract. Strikingly similar Late Mesoproterozoic stratigraphic sequences and correlative U-Pb detrital-zircon ages may indicate that the Sette Daban region of southeastern Siberia and the Death Valley region of southwestern North America were formerly contiguous parts of a Grenville foreland basin. The Siberian section contains large numbers of detrital zircons that correlate with Grenville, Granite-Rhyolite, and Yavapai basement provinces of North America. The sections in both Siberia and Death Valley exhibit west-directed thrust faults that may represent remnants of a Grenville foreland thrust belt. North American detrital-zircon components do not occur in Siberian samples above a ~600 Ma breakup unconformity, suggesting that rifting and continental separation blocked transfer of clastic sediment between the cratons by 600 Ma. Faunal similarities suggest, however, that the two cratons remained within the breeding ranges of Early Cambrian trilobites and archeocyathans.

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