20 research outputs found

    Detrital zircon U–Pb ages of Silurian–Devonian sediments from NW Svalbard: a fragment of Avalonia and Laurentia?

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    <p>Detrital zircon populations from Silurian–Devonian clastic rocks of NW Svalbard were analysed by U–Pb laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry to investigate the pre-Caledonian provenance of Svalbard's Northwestern Terrane. Changes in the resulting age spectra suggest a major shift in sources from the Laurentian–Avalonian suture in the latest Silurian to the local metasedimentary basement of the Northwestern Terrane in the Late Silurian–Early Devonian, and in the Lochkovian to Grenvillian–Sveconorwegian sources. These data, together with structural, additional geochronological and metamorphic data from Svalbard, East Greenland and Avalonia, support the amalgamation of Svalbard as the result of long-distance transport along sinistral strike-slip faults. A unifying model for the final amalgamation of Svalbard, consistent with the stratigraphical and tectonothermal history of Svalbard, involves fragments from the Grampian orogen and Avalonian crust originally accreted to the Laurentian margin being subsequently transported northward along sinistral strike-slip faults during Scandian deformation. </p

    Silurian flysch successions of Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada, and their significance to northern Caledonian palaeogeography and tectonics

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    <p>Detrital zircon provenance studies of Silurian flysch units that underlie the Hazen and Clements Markham fold belts of Ellesmere Island, Arctic Canada, were conducted to evaluate models for northern Caledonian palaeogeography and tectonics. Llandovery flysch was deposited along an active plate margin and yields detrital zircons that require northern derivation from the adjacent Pearya terrane. If Pearya originated near Svalbard and NE Greenland, it was transported by strike-slip faults to Ellesmere Island by the Early Silurian. Wenlock to Ludlow turbidites yield Palaeozoic–Archaean detrital zircons with dominant age-groupings <em>c</em>. 650, 970, 1150, 1450 and 1650 Ma. These turbidite systems did not fill a flexural foreland basin in front of the East Greenland Caledonides, but rather an east–west-trending trough that was probably related to sinistral strike-slip faulting along the northern Laurentian margin. The data support provenance connections with the Svalbard Caledonides, especially Baltican-affinity rocks of SW Spitsbergen that were proximal to NE Greenland during the Baltica–Laurentia collision. Pridoli flysch has sources that include Pearya, the East Greenland Caledonides and the Canadian Shield. Devonian–Carboniferous molasse in Arctic Canada has analogous detrital zircon signatures, which implies recycling of Silurian flysch during mid-Palaeozoic (Ellesmerian) collisional tectonism or that some collisional blocks were of similar Baltican–Laurentian crustal affinities. </p

    Neoproterozoic evolution of the eastern Arabian basement based on a refined geochronology of the Marbat region, Sultanate of Oman

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    <p>New high spatial resolution secondary ion mass spectrometry (SIMS) U–Pb zircon data from the Sadh gneiss complex and the intruding Marbat granodiorite of the Marbat region, southern Sultanate of Oman, yield Cryogenian magmatic protolith ages for gneisses ranging from <em>c.</em> 850 to 830 Ma. Zircon ages record a <em>c.</em> 815–820 Ma period of deformation and migmatization, followed by intrusion of a hornblende gabbro/diorite and the undeformed Marbat granodiorite at <em>c.</em> 795 Ma. Following break-up and rifting of Rodinia at <em>c.</em> 870 Ma, crustal growth in the Marbat region occurred via arc accretion at <em>c.</em> 850–790 Ma, possibly in the easternmost part of the Mozambique Ocean based on earlier cessation of accretion here compared to the Arabian–Nubian Shield. Similarity of the new zircon geochronology to peaks of detrital zircon ages in the unconformably overlying Ediacaran Marbat sandstone suggests relatively local derivation from uplifted basement for the latter. </p

    Timing, petrogenesis, and setting of granites from the southern Beishan late Palaeozoic granitic belt, Northwest China and implications for their tectonic evolution

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    <div><p>Late Palaeozoic granites are widely distributed in the southeastern Beishan area, which is located in the central part of the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (CAOB). U–Pb zircon dates of five late Palaeozoic granitic plutons from the southeastern Beishan area yield Permian ages: 285 ± 2 Ma (Shuwojing and Western Shuwojing plutons), 269 ± 3 Ma (Jianquanzi and Jiuquandihongshan plutons), and 260 ± 1 Ma (Jiujing pluton). The early Permian Shuwojing pluton, an unfractionated calc-alkaline biotite monzogranite with slightly positive εNd(<i>t</i>) (+0.7 and +0.6) and low initial <sup>87</sup>Sr/<sup>86</sup>Sr (0.70722 and 0.70712), and the early Permian Western Shuwojing pluton, a high-K calc-alkaline biotite granite with slightly negative εNd(<i>t</i>) (−0.2 and −0.1) and low initial <sup>87</sup>Sr/<sup>86</sup>Sr (0.70390 and 0.70919), are likely derived from a mixture of depleted (juvenile) mantle and upper continental crustal (or sedimentary) material. The mid-Permian Jianquanzi and Jiuquandihongshan monzogranites have highly fractionated potassium-rich calc-alkaline characteristics with negative εNd(<i>t</i>) (−4.3) and very high initial <sup>87</sup>Sr/<sup>86</sup>Sr (0.71949), reflecting a continental crustal component. The compositionally diverse Jiujing pluton and the granodiorite and high-Sr monzogranite phases display adakite-like compositions with relatively low εNd(<i>t</i>) (−0.1 and −2.2) and high initial <sup>87</sup>Sr/<sup>86</sup>Sr (0.70822 and 0.70913). The Jiujing low-Sr monzogranite has higher initial <sup>87</sup>Sr/<sup>86</sup>Sr (0.73464) and lower εNd(<i>t</i>) (−2.8), indicating a significant continental crustal component in its genesis. This work, combined with the regional geology and previous studies, suggest that the early to middle Permian southern Beishan plutons formed in a post-collisional environment, probably an intracontinental rift environment linked to asthenospheric upwelling in response to the break-off of a subducted slab. In the late Permian, the southern Beishan area was in a compressive tectonic regime and thickening of the continental crust resulted in the formation of the Jiujing adakite-like granite.</p></div
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