Petrology and tectonic significance of Gates Formation (early Cretaceous) sediments in northeast British Columbia

1986 ◽  
Vol 23 (2) ◽  
pp. 129-141 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale Leckie

Moosebar–Gates sandstones are predominantly litharenites, with some feldspathic litharenites. Both the light- and heavy-mineral suites indicate a mixed source characterized by clastic and carbonate sedimentary rocks, acidic to intermediate plutonic and volcanic igneous rocks, and metamorphic rocks. The sediment sources all fall within a recycled orogenic provenance grouping. Histograms showing stratigraphic variation of mineral content do not indicate any significant progressive unroofing of more deeply buried source rocks.The source area was very extensive regionally and extended well into the Omineca Crystalline Belt and eastern margins of the Intermontane Belt. Zebraic chalcedony was derived from evaporitic rocks of the Charlie Lake Formation, situated east of the Rocky Mountain Trench. Kyanite and almandine garnet were probably derived from the Omineca Crystalline Belt west of the Rocky Mountain Trench. Regional paleoslope dipped towards the north-northwest. Restoration of strike-slip on the Rocky Mountain Trench places potential source areas to the south of the depocentre; this supports paleoslope data. During Moosebar–Gates time the Tenakihi Group in the Omineca Crystalline Belt would have been hundreds of kilometres south of its present location and south of the study area, where it could have provided sediment. Volcanic rocks were derived from west of the Rocky Mountain Trench. Source rocks in the Omineca Crystalline Belt were being eroded as early as late early Albian and providing sediment into the foreland basin to the east.

1996 ◽  
Vol 33 (5) ◽  
pp. 676-690 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Flèche ◽  
G. Camiré

The Archean Golden Pond sequence is made up of deformed and metamorphosed conglomerates, greywackes, and mafic volcanic rocks, and is overlain by ferrugineous metasedimentary rocks of the North iron formation. The clastic rocks were derived mainly from a volcanic source that had undergone weak chemical weathering. Their source area was dominated by the presence of 60–80% high-Al2O3 felsic volcanics having strongly fractionated [La/Sm]N (= 3.7 ± 0.3) and very low Ta/Th ratios (= 0.09 ± 0.02), with lesser proportions of basaltic (10–30%) and ultramafic volcanic rocks (1–10%). The ferrugineous metasedimentary rocks can be modelled by mixing 20–40% siliciclastic material, of the composition of the average Golden Pond greywacke, with an Fe- and Si-rich precipitate (molecular Fe/Si = 0.6 ± 0.2). The high-Al2O3 felsic source rocks were most likely produced by subduction processes within an oceanic arc environment, but the mafic and ultramafic volcanic rocks were derived by different processes from an asthenospheric mantle source, possibly in an oceanic rift environment. Therefore, it is suggested that the ultramafic, mafic, and felsic volcanic rocks were brought to the same erosional level by dissection of the arc system and rapid exhumation of the felsic arc lithologies and the deeper ocean floor. Intrabasinal hydrothermal activity associated with contemporaneous mafic volcanism and (or) graben development may have also been responsible for the local production of the Fe-rich precipitates of the North iron formation.


2018 ◽  
Vol 55 (1) ◽  
pp. 33-51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dominik Letsch ◽  
Mohamed El Houicha ◽  
Albrecht von Quadt ◽  
Wilfried Winkler

This article provides stratigraphic and geochronological data from a central part of Gondwana’s northern margin — the Moroccan Meseta Domain. This region, located to the north of the Anti-Atlas area with extensive outcrops of Precambrian and lower Paleozoic rocks, has hitherto not received much attention with regard to its Precambrian geology. Detrital and volcanic zircon ages have been used to constrain sedimentary depositional ages and crustal affinities of sedimentary source rocks in stratigraphic key sections. Based on this, a four-step paleotectonic evolution of the Meseta Domain from the Ediacaran until the Early Ordovician is proposed. This evolution documents the transition from a terrestrial volcanic setting during the Ediacaran to a short-lived carbonate platform setting during the early Cambrian. The latter then evolved into a rifted margin with deposition of thick siliciclastic successions in graben structures during the middle to late Cambrian. The detritus in these basins was of local origin, and a contribution from a broader source area (encompassing parts of the West African Craton) can only be demonstrated for postrifting, i.e., laterally extensive sandstone bodies that seal the former graben. In a broader paleotectonic context, it is suggested that this Cambrian rifting is linked to the opening of the Rheic Ocean, and that several peri-Gondwanan terranes (Meguma and Cadomia–Iberia) may have been close to the Meseta Domain before drifting, albeit some of them seem to have been constituted by a distinctly different basement.


1982 ◽  
Vol 19 (6) ◽  
pp. 1235-1245 ◽  
Author(s):  
Donald W. Davis ◽  
Garth R. Edwards

Five rocks have been dated from the Kakagi Lake area of the Wabigoon Subprovince by means of U–Pb analysis of zircons. Using the techniques of air abrasion and high gradient magnetic separation, zircon fractions from four of the samples have been made concordant.Stratigraphy in the Kakagi Lake area consists of tholeiitic basalts of the Snake Bay and Katimiagamak Lake Formations overlain by mainly calc-alkalic pyroclastic rocks of the Kakagi Lake Group. A felsic tuff collected from the top of the Kakagi Lake Group is dated at [Formula: see text]. This group is intruded by differentiated ultramafic to mafic sills. The age for a gabbro pegmatite from the lowermost sill near the base of the group is [Formula: see text]. The Katimiagamak Lake Formation is intruded by tonalite of the Sabaskong batholith, which gives an age of [Formula: see text]. The tonalite is flanked by the Phinney–Dash Lakes Complex of subvolcanic stocks and dacite to rhyolite volcanic rocks that intrude and overlie the Katimiagamak Lake Formation. A dacite from the complex gives an age of 2727.7 ± 1.1 Ma. A porphyry complex to the north, the Berry Creek Complex, is separated from the other rocks by the Pipestone – Cameron Lakes Fault and gives an age of [Formula: see text] on a quartz porphyry.The predominantly mafic to intermediate pyroclastic rocks of the Kakagi Lake Group are interpreted to be approximately contemporaneous with the Kakagi sills and to have evolved from the basalt magmatism. Tonalitic rocks of the Sabaskong batholith and the Phinney–Dash Lakes Complex were derived from partial melting of the hydrous lower basalts during the early stage of regional granitoid diapirism. Because of the large age difference between the lowermost sill and the felsic tuff from the top of the Kakagi Lake Group, it is suggested that this formation is not part of the group. It and the Berry Creek Complex were formed from felsic melts separating from rising granitoid gneiss domes during a slightly later stage of regional granitoid diapirism that may have resulted from the reactivation of a predominantly sialic basement by the accumulation of heat over and adjacent to the mantle sources of the basalt.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sietske Batenburg ◽  
Hugh Jenkyns ◽  
Raquel Bryant ◽  
Mark Leckie ◽  
Alexander Dickson ◽  
...  

<p>During the greenhouse climate of the mid-Cretaceous, the Western Interior Seaway (WIS) experienced semi-restricted conditions with poor water-column ventilation, leading to the accumulation of black organic-rich shales. In the Maverick Basin, the southernmost extent of the WIS, the main phase of organic-matter deposition occurred in the early to late Cenomanian, before Oceanic Anoxic Event 2 (OAE 2). A sea-level rise prior to the event may have caused the basin to become better ventilated during the Cenomanian–Turonian transition, and ocean circulation likely played a major role on productivity and the preservation of organic matter. Widely different regimes of ocean circulation are suggested to have operated, with alternating incursions of water masses from both the north and the south. Foraminiferal assemblages suggest that during the early phase of OAE 2, Tethyan waters were drawn northward into the WIS (Elderbak & Leckie, 2016), whereas dinocyst occurrences indicate an influx of boreal surface waters into the Maverick Basin at that time (Eldrett et al., 2014; 2017). This cooler episode correlates with the so-called Plenus Cold Event, recognized in northern Europe by southward invasion of boreal faunas.</p><p>Here we present neodymium-isotope records (ε<sub>Nd</sub>) of fish teeth and detrital fractions from the Eagle Ford Formation that record the presence of distinct water masses at depth and allow testing of suggested mechanisms of ocean circulation. Mid- to late Cenomanian values of ε<sub>Nd</sub> around -3 (this study) are unusually radiogenic compared to coeval open ocean ε<sub>Nd</sub> records from the North Atlantic, where values typically lie between -4 and -10 (Martin et al., 2012, Robinson & Vance, 2012) and may reflect a strong influence of regional volcanism close to the WIS and/or weathering of mafic volcanic rocks in the water-mass source area. An excursion to positive ε<sub>Nd</sub> values in the WIS during OAE 2 may reflect changes in local weathering, or alternatively, the incursion of water masses carrying a signature of volcanic activity. The coeval emplacement of several Large Igneous Provinces (LIP), including the High Arctic LIP (Estrada et al., 2015) and the Caribbean LIP, may have influenced the seawater chemistry of the WIS, as reflected in Os and Cr concentrations and isotope ratios from the USGS Portland core (Du Vivier et al., 2014; Holmden et al., 2016).  Comparison of seawater and detrital ε<sub>Nd</sub> signatures with records north and south of the Maverick Basin will elucidate the direction and degree of deep-water exchange in the southern WIS.</p><p> </p><p>References:</p><p>Du Vivier, A.D.C. et al., 2014, EPSL, 389, 23-33</p><p>Elderbak, K. & Leckie, R.M., 2016. Cret. Res., 60, pp.52-77.</p><p>Eldrett, J.S., et al., 2014. Geology, 42(7), pp.567-570.</p><p>Eldrett, J.S., et al., 2017. Climate of the Past (13), pp.855–878.</p><p>Estrada, 2015. Int. J. Earth Sci. (104), pp.1981–2005.</p><p>Holmden et al., 2016. Geochim. Cosmochim. Acta 186 (2016) 277–295</p><p>Martin, E.E., et al., 2012. EPSL, 327, pp.111-120.</p><p>Robinson, S.A. & Vance, D., 2012. Paleoceanography, 27(1).</p>


2014 ◽  
Vol 151 (6) ◽  
pp. 1034-1050 ◽  
Author(s):  
MUATASAM MAHMOOD HASSAN ◽  
BRIAN G. JONES ◽  
SOLOMON BUCKMAN ◽  
ALI ISMAEL AL-JUBORY ◽  
FAHAD MUBARAK AL GAHTANI

AbstractThe red-bed deposits in northern Iraq are situated in an active foreland basin adjacent to the Zagros Orogenic Belt, bound to the north by the Iranian plate thrust over the edge of the Arabian plate. The red-bed successions are composed of alternating red and brown silty mudstones, purplish red calcareous siltstone, fine- to coarse-grained pebbly sandstone and conglomerate. The red beds in the current study can be divided into four parts showing a trend of upward coarsening with fine-grained deposits at the top. A detailed petrographic study was carried out on the sandstone units. The clastic rocks consist mainly of calcite cemented litharenite with rock fragments (volcanic, metamorphic and sedimentary), quartz and minor feldspar. The petrographic components reflect the tectonic system in the source area, laterally ranging from a mixed orogenic and magmatic arc in Mawat–Chwarta area to recycled orogenic material rich in sedimentary rock fragments in the Qandel area. The Cretaceous–Palaeogene foreland basin of northern Iraq formed to the southwest of the Zagros Suture Zone and the Sanandaj–Sirjan Zone of western Iran. During Palaeogene time deposition of the red beds was caused by renewed shortening in the thrust sheets overlying the Arabian margin with uplift of radiolarites (Qulqula Formation), resulting in an influx of radiolarian debris in addition to continuing ophiolitic detritus. Mixed sources, including metamorphic, volcanic and sedimentary terranes, were present during deposition of the upper part of the red beds.


1990 ◽  
Vol 27 (11) ◽  
pp. 1456-1461 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. M. Friedman ◽  
J. W. H. Monger ◽  
H. W. Tipper

A new U–Pb date of [Formula: see text] for foliated felsic metavolcanic rocks of the Bowen Island Group, from Mount Elphinstone in the southwesternmost Coast Mountains of British Columbia, indicates that there the age of this hitherto undated unit is early Middle Jurassic. These rocks grade along strike to the north-northwest into a more sedimentary facies, which north of Jervis Inlet contains a probable Sinemurian (Lower Jurassic) ammonite. The Bowen Island Group thus appears to include Lower and Middle Jurassic rocks and to be coeval in part with volcanic rocks of the Bonanza Formation on Vancouver Island to the west and the Harrison Lake Formation within the central Coast Mountains 75 km to the east.


2014 ◽  
Vol 152 (2) ◽  
pp. 193-209 ◽  
Author(s):  
FRANCESCO PERRI ◽  
ROCCO DOMINICI ◽  
SALVATORE CRITELLI

AbstractThe Calcare di Base Formation is a part of the Rossano Basin characterizing the Foreland Basin System of northeastern Calabria. Messinian argillaceous marls from the Calcare di Base Formation have been studied to characterize the sedimentary evolution of this formation during the post-orogenic phases of the Calabria–Peloritani Arc. The mineralogical assemblage of the argillaceous marls is dominated by phyllosilicates (illite, chlorite, illite/smectite mixed layers and traces of kaolinite), carbonate minerals (calcite, aragonite and dolomite), quartz and traces of feldspars (both K-feldspars and plagioclase), gypsum and celestine. The palaeoweathering index records changes at the source, reflecting variations in the tectonic regime as shown in the A–CN–K plot, where the studied samples describe a trend typical of a source area in which active tectonism allows erosion of all zones within weathering profiles developed on source rocks. The studied samples are derived from an environment in which non-steady-state weathering conditions prevailed. This trend could record deformational events that affected the Mediterranean area during the Miocene. The Th/Sc versus Zr/Sc ratios and Al–Zr–Ti plot suggest that the samples likely record a recycling effect from their basement rocks. The geochemical proxies of these samples suggest a provenance from a mainly felsic source. The Messinian argillaceous marls record that deposition probably occurred in a semi-closed marine environment mainly subject to hypersalinity with local episodes of meteoric water influx, during a period characterized by persistent dry and warm/arid conditions alternating with relatively wet conditions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 90 (12) ◽  
pp. 1747-1769
Author(s):  
Xavier Coll ◽  
David Gómez-Gras ◽  
Marta Roigé ◽  
Antonio Teixell ◽  
Salva Boya ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT In the Jaca foreland basin (southern Pyrenees), two main sediment routing systems merge from the late Eocene to the early Miocene, providing an excellent example of interaction of different source areas with distinct petrographic signatures. An axially drained fluvial system, with its source area located in the eastern Central Pyrenees, is progressively replaced by a transverse-drained system that leads to the recycling of the older turbiditic foredeep. Aiming to provide new insights into the source-area evolution of the Jaca foreland basin, we provide new data on heavy-mineral suites, from the turbiditic underfilled stage to the youngest alluvial-fan systems of the Jaca basin, and integrate the heavy-mineral signatures with available sandstone petrography. Our results show a dominance of the ultrastable Ap-Zrn-Tur-Rt assemblage through the entire basin evolution. However, a late alluvial sedimentation stage brings an increase in other more unstable heavy minerals, pointing to specific source areas belonging to the Axial and the North Pyrenean Zone and providing new insights into the response of the heavy-mineral suites to sediment recycling. Furthermore, we assess the degree of diagenetic overprint vs. provenance signals and infer that the loss of unstable heavy minerals due intrastratal dissolution is negligible at least in the Peña Oroel and San Juan de la Peña sections. Finally, we provide new evidence to the idea that during the late Eocene the water divide of the transverse drainage system was located in the North Pyrenean Zone, and areas constituted by the Paleozoic basement were exposed in the west-Central Pyrenees at that time. Our findings provide new insights into the heavy-mineral response in recycled foreland basins adjacent to fold-and-thrust belts.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 ◽  
pp. 00006 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eko Bayu Purwasatriya ◽  
Sugeng Sapto Surjono ◽  
Donatus Hendra Amijaya

<p>This study attempts to reconstruct paleogeography of Banyumas Basin in association with magmatic arc evolution and its implication to petroleum potential. Based on the volcanic rocks distribution, their association and relatives age, there are three alignments of a magmatic arc, that are: (1) Oligo-Miocene arc in the south (2) Mio-Pliocene arc in the middle (3) Plio-Pleistocene arc in the north. The consequences of the magmatic arc movement were tectonic setting changing during Oligocene to Pleistocene, as well as their paleogeography. During Oligo-Miocene where magmatic arc existed in the southern part, the Banyumas tectonic setting was a back-arc basin. This tectonic setting was changing to intra-arc basin during Mio-Pliocene and subsequently to fore-arc basin since Plio-Pleistocene until today. Back-arc basin is the most suitable paleogeography to create a depositional environment for potential source rocks. Exploration activity to prove the existence of source rocks during Oligo-Miocene is needed to reveal petroleum potential in Banyumas Basin.<br></p>


1971 ◽  
Vol 8 (2) ◽  
pp. 196-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Terence Hamilton-Smith

The Siegas Formation of northwestern New Brunswick and northeastern Maine is composed mainly of sandstone and slate and has yielded fossils of early Llandovery age. It conformably overlies older rocks, indicating that there was continuous sedimentation in the Siegas area during the time of the Taconic orogeny. The formation consists of the three laterally equivalent facies, the lithic wacke, the quartz arenite, and the arkosic facies. Sandstones of the lithic wacke facies are made up mainly of mafic volcanic grains and their decomposition products: sodic plagioclase, angular quartz, and pyroxene. Sandstones of the quartz arenite facies consist mainly of medium-grained rounded quartz. Sandstones of the arkosic facies are composed mainly of potassium feldspar, quartz, and felsic plutonic fragments. The source rocks of the Siegas Formation included mafic volcanic rocks (probably andesite), felsic plutonic rocks (possibly granitic), and quartzose sandstones.Facies, paleocurrents, and regional paleogeographic evidence indicate that the source area of the Siegas Formation was in northwestern New Brunswick, a region now covered by Devonian sedimentary rocks. The source area was probably an isolated, relatively discrete uplift similar to others previously described in northeastern Maine. It probably consisted of Cambrian or Ordovician quartzose sandstones like those of the Quebec Group of the Temiscouata area, overlain by middle Ordovician andesites like those of northeastern Maine, and intruded by a "granitic" body like the Rockabema Quartz Diorite of the Weeksboro – Lunksoos Lake anticlinorium in eastern Maine. The site of active erosion of this uplift probably was shifted to the northwest in the late Llandovery, possibly accompanied by the development of local mafic volcanism.


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