Numerous sandstone filled depressions hosted in upper Cambrian to Middle Ordovociain dolostones in south-central Missouri have historically been identified as Pennsylvanian paleokarst structures. U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology is at odds the time of formation and sedimentological evidence challenges their classification. Filled sink deposits yield primary zircon age populations of 2.8-2.6 Ga (~50% of all analyzed grains), 1.2-1.1 Ga (~25%), 1.8-1.6 Ga (~15%) and 1.5-1.3 Ga (~10%). These zircon populations most likely originated from the Superior Craton and Midcontinent Rift and/or Grenville orogen, respectively. The Warrensburg and Moberly channel-fill sandstones of central Missouri were identified as good candidates for Pennsylvanian aged strata to which results from filled sinks may be compared. In contrast to filled sink deposits, channel-fill sandstones contain a population of Paleozoic zircon grains presumably derived from exhumed plutons of the uplifting and eroding Appalachian Mountains to the east. Existing data from Ordovician clastic strata (e.g., the Roubidoux and St. Peter Sandstones) in central Missouri show zircon age distributions that are strikingly similar to those filled-sink deposits. We suggest that the Taconic orogeny led to modest uplift in central Missouri, resulting in a significant disconformity below the St. Peter sandstone during the middle Ordovician. Far-field tectonism appears to have caused a reorganization of sediment dispersal pathways from the Archean Superior craton to the north to the growing mountains to the east, and in the process created a depositional hiatus forming the filled-sinks. The Taconic orogeny then proceeded to provide a source for detritus which arrived in the Missouri basin as early as the Upper Mississippian --Abstract, page iv
