Provenance record of Laurentian passive-margin strata in the northern Caledonides: Implications for paleodrainage and paleogeography

Siliciclastic sequences accumulated along the eastern margin of Laurentia during the late Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic as a result of the breakup of Rodinia and formation of the Iapetus Ocean. Detrital zircon data show considerable variability in provenance of time-equivalent units that has imp...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Geological Society of America Bulletin
Main Authors: Cawood, Peter Anthony, Nemchin, Alexander A., Strachan, Rob
Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
Language:English
Published: 2007
Subjects:
provenance
Greenland
Scotland
Caledonides
detrital zircon
U-Pb
DETRITAL ZIRCON GEOCHRONOLOGY
U-PB GEOCHRONOLOGY
LEWISIAN GNEISS COMPLEX
NE GREENLAND
NW SCOTLAND
DALRADIAN SUPERGROUP
IAPETUS
SEDIMENTATION
NEWFOUNDLAND
CONSTRAINTS
Newfoundland
North Atlantic
Online Access:https://risweb.st-andrews.ac.uk/portal/en/researchoutput/provenance-record-of-laurentian-passivemargin-strata-in-the-northern-caledonides-implications-for-paleodrainage-and-paleogeography(1a4faa0d-7ae1-4da0-8adb-cc428cda8ac0).html
https://doi.org/10.1130/B26152.1
http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=34547093209&partnerID=8YFLogxK
Description
Summary:Siliciclastic sequences accumulated along the eastern margin of Laurentia during the late Neoproterozoic to early Paleozoic as a result of the breakup of Rodinia and formation of the Iapetus Ocean. Detrital zircon data show considerable variability in provenance of time-equivalent units that has implications for paleodrainage and paleogeography. Samples from northwest Scotland and northeast Greenland show detrital zircon U-Pb age groupings dominated by Archean and Paleoproterozoic populations consistent with derivation largely from the West Greenland segment of the North Atlantic craton. In Scotland, timeequivalent outboard sedimentary sequences show contrasting Archean and Proterozoic populations, including a substantial ca. 1.1-1.0 Ga component, indicative of derivation from the Grenville orogen to the southwest. These contrasting paleodrainage patterns, consistent with paleocurrent data, must have developed during the early phase of passive-margin thermal subsidence and may have been accentuated by remnant rift shoulders. In Newfoundland and the U.S. Appalachians, time-equivalent sedimentary sequences are located within the hinterland of the Grenville orogen and are dominated by ca. 1.1-1.0 detritus with very few preMesoproterozoic grains. The Grenville deformation front in these areas may have constituted a drainage divide that limited sediment input from the cratonic interior.

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