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Journal ArticleDOI

The Paleoproterozoic Waterberg Group, South Africa: Provenance and its relation to the timing of the Limpopo orogeny

TL;DR: The results of point counting, major and trace element geochemistry, and U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology indicate that the Waterberg sedimentary formations in the study area were primarily sourced by siliceous (rifted margin) sedimentary and minor mafic volcanic rocks of the Archean Beit Bridge Complex, Limpopo Central Zone as discussed by the authors.
About: This article is published in Precambrian Research.The article was published on 2013-06-01 and is currently open access. It has received 17 citations till now. The article focuses on the topics: Limpopo Belt & Lithic fragment.
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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the age of the Hartley Formation of the Olifantshoek Group has been estimated to be between 1.6 ± 1.4 Ma and 1.2 ± 0.1 Ma.
Abstract: The Palaeoproterozoic Hartley Formation in the Olifantshoek Group was deposited in one of the rift-related Waterberg (sensu lato) red bed basins which formed on the Kaapvaal Craton after the 2.05 Ga Bushveld intrusions and coeval thermal event. The age of these basins is not well constrained due to the shortage of directly dateable rock types. The Hartley Formation contains rare quartz-porphyry lavas interbedded with the dominant basalts and these provide the means to date the formation by analyses of zircon. In this work zircon from one sample has been dated by six Th-U-Pb methods, namely Laser Ablation ICP Quadrupole Mass Spectrometry, Laser Ablation ICP High-resolution Mass Spectrometry, Laser Ablation ICP Multicollector Mass Spectrometry U-Pb (also Lu-Hf), Nordsim Ion probe U-Pb and Th-Pb; and Krogh method ID-TIMS. Our precise ages give a combined age of 1915.2 ± 1.1 Ma. Including one published ion probe date from the only other known occurrence of quartz porphyry, the results only agree if the quoted analytical errors are increased by 20%, which gives a combined result of 1915.6 ± 1.4 Ma. This is considered a reliable, precise and accurate age for the Hartley Formation and supersedes the published Kober method 207Pb/206Pb age of 1928 ± 4 Ma. The new Lu-Hf zircon data, supported by published whole rock Sm-Nd and Rb-Sr data, suggests that both the dominant basalts and the rare quartz porphyries of the Hartley Formation were derived from mafic source rocks which had been in the crustal domain from Archaean times. By contrast with the intracratonic rifts of the other Waterberg Basins, the Olifantshoek Supergroup reflects the development of a western passive margin as the Archaean Kaapvaal Craton rifted and drifted. This was followed by accretion of the Rehoboth Province along the Kalahari Line, accompanied by the development of the east-vergent Kheis Province thrust complex. This created a larger cratonic block against which the 1.2 Ga collisions of Namaqua-Natal terranes impacted. The Kheis Province now yields ~1.17 Ma cooling ages, reflecting the Namaqua collisions, but the true age of the Kheis event is still enigmatic.

25 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, the first geochronological study of the ultramafic-mafic succession (the Waterberg Project) located in the Southern Marginal Zone of the Limpopo Belt north of the Northern Lobe of the Bushveld Complex using U/Pb dating was conducted.

23 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this paper, Detrital Zircon in sandstone from the Palaeoproterozoic Waterberg Group in the Waterberg and Nylstroom basins of northeastern South Africa is analyzed.
Abstract: Laser-ablation ICPMS U-Pb and Lu-Hf isotope data on detrital zircon in sandstone from the Palaeoproterozoic Waterberg Group in the Waterberg and Nylstroom basins of northeastern South Africa contain a dominant Palaeoproterozoic (2 000 to 2 150 Ma) age fraction and minor, late Archaean zircon (2 650 to 2 780 Ma). Zircon in the 2 200 to 2 350 Ma age range is very scarce. There are no statistically significant differences in detrital zircon age distributions of sandstones in the two basins. In contrast, conglomerate from the northern margin of the Waterberg basin (Mogalakwena Formation) is dominated by a late Archaean age fraction (2 600 to 2 700 Ma, with minor 3 200 to 3 300 Ma), which resides in quartzite clasts. Zircon ages alone cannot distinguish between potential sources of detritus in the Kaapvaal Craton and Limpopo Belt. Hf isotope data, however, suggest that the main input to the basins was from recycled Archaean to Palaeoproterozoic sedimentary cover successions on the Kaapvaal Craton, supplemented by material from late Archaean granitic intrusions and the felsic igneous rocks of the Rooiberg Group and / or felsic members of the Bushveld Complex. The only known source of a prominent group of ca. 2.0 Ga detrital zircon with epsilon-Hf = 0 to -3 would be the youngest generation of granites in the Limpopo Belt (e.g. Mahalapye Granite). The Waterberg Group or its equivalents have provided only minor amounts of detritus to the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian basins at the western margin of the Kalahari Craton, directly or through recycling of intermediate deposits. However, erosion of the rocks in the Waterberg and Nylstroom basins provided material to the lower stratigraphic levels of the adjacent, Karoo-age Ellisras and Springbok Flats basins. Downloaded from https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gssa/sajg/article-pdf/122/1/79/4681030/79_0008_andersen_et_al.pdf by Dalhousie Univ Libraries Serials/Killam Library user on 05 August 2019 DETRITAL ZIRCON IN SANDSTONES FROM THE PALAEOPROTEROZOIC WATERBERG AND NYLSTROOM BASINS, SOUTH AFRICA: PROVENANCE AND RECYCLING 80 SOUTH AFRICAN JOURNAL OF GEOLOGY that are indistinguishable in terms of age may have sufficiently different ranges of Hf isotope composition to allow them to be distinguished (e.g. Veevers et al., 2005; Howard et al., 2009). Although detrital zircon geochronology is not a problemfree method, it has certain advantages over provenance indicators such as heavy mineral assemblages. Poly-mineralic heavy mineral assemblages may be affected by hydraulic sorting during transport, controlled by differences in density, grainshape and surface properties (Garzanti et al., 2009). Regardless of age, zircon crystals show little variation in density or other parameters promoting differentiation by sedimentary processes. On the other hand, radiation-damaged zircon is more susceptible to abrasion during transport than crystalline zircon. However, the degree of radiation damage depends on the combination of age and uranium (and thorium) concentration. Whereas old and U-rich zircon is likely to suffer, especially when older sediments are recycled, grains with lower U concentration are less affected. It is therefore unlikely that an age fraction is completely removed from a sediment by abrasion during transport, and low-U members of any age fraction, even Archaean ones, will be able to survive to the present day. This is demonstrated by examples of Phanerozoic sandstones containing abundant Archaean zircon (e.g. in the Karoo-age Ellisras Basin, Veevers and Saeed, 2007). It should, however, always be kept in mind that the U-Pb age and Hf isotopic composition of a detrital zircon grain in a clastic sediment reflect the age and Lu-Hf characteristics of the rock in which it formed, the protosource. Because a sediment may be the result of erosion and redeposition of older sedimentary strata, the protosource is not necessarily the immediate source of detritus. This is well illustrated by Neoproterozoic to Cenozoic strata in southern Africa (Figure 1). Detrital zircon data indicate the existence of two, successive provenance regimes in the region: In the early Neoproterozoic, Mesoproterozoic continental cover • successions containing a mixture of late Palaeoproterozoic (1775 to 1950 Ma) and late Mesoproterozoic (1 100 to 1 300 Ma) detrital zircons were recycled into continental margin basins forming the Port Nolloth Group of the Gariep Belt, the lower stratigraphic units in the Saldania Belt, and in the Nama Group (Andersen et al., 2018b). Since the later Neoproterozoic, detritus derived from 950 to • 1100 Ma and 550 to 750 Ma protosources have been recycled through Neoproterozoic, Phanerozoic and Cenozoic deposits, with only minor younger contributions (Andersen et al., 2016a, b and 2018b). Archaean zircon is scarce or absent from most of these deposits, even from Cenozoic sands deposited by rivers eroding Archaean rocks of the Kaapvaal Craton (Andersen et al., 2016a). This excludes not only potential source rocks in the crystalline bedrock of the Kaapvaal Craton and Palaeoproterozoic to early Mesoproterozoic terranes along its western boundary, but also recycling of sedimentary cover sequences deposited before the early Mesoproterozoic, including the lower part of the Bushmanland Group, the Keis Supergroup and Palaeoproterozoic cover sequences on the Kaapvaal Craton (Dorland, 2004; van Niekerk, 2006; McClung, 2006; Schröder et al., 2016; see also review by Andersen et al., 2018b). The Palaeoproterozoic red bed-type sandstones and conglomerates of the Waterberg Group that are exposed in northern part of the Kaapvaal Craton are potential intermediate reservoirs for material to be recycled into younger basins. Moreover, the detrital zircon signature of the Waterberg Group is important to correlate the stratigraphy of the Transvaal, Kanye and Griqualand West basins (e.g. Beukes et al., 2019). Only few detrital zircon U-Pb data from the Waterberg Group have been published (a total of 84 analyses from two samples in Dorland, 2004 and 63 analyses from one sample by Corcoran et al., 2013); neither of these studies reports Hf isotope data. The relatively scarce data from these studies indicate dominant, Palaeoproterozoic detrital zircon age fractions that do not match with those of younger deposits. In order to better understand the provenance characteristics of the Waterberg Group, as well as its role in subsequent sedimentary recycling processes in southern Africa, U-Pb and Lu-Hf analyses have been performed on eleven samples from the Waterberg and Nylstroom basins, and the results are presented here.

16 citations


Cites background from "The Paleoproterozoic Waterberg Grou..."

  • ...1: Corcoran et al. (2013); 2: Dorland (2004); 3: Foster et al. (2015); 4: Frimmel et al. (2013); 5: Veevers and Saeed (2007)....

    [...]

  • ...These deposits were sourced by denudation of the thrust-belt in the northeast (Callaghan et al., 1991; Callaghan 1993, Bumby, 2000; Bumby et al.; 2001; Corcoran et al., 2013)....

    [...]

  • ...Only few detrital zircon U-Pb data from the Waterberg Group have been published (a total of 84 analyses from two samples in Dorland, 2004 and 63 analyses from one sample by Corcoran et  al., 2013); neither of these studies reports Hf isotope data....

    [...]

Journal ArticleDOI
01 Feb 2020-Geology
TL;DR: This paper showed that the Limpopo orogen originated from >600 km of west-directed thrusting, and the thrust sheet was subsequently folded by north-south compression, which led to the formation of the orogen.
Abstract: We addressed when plate-tectonic processes first started on Earth by examining the ca. 2.0 Ga Limpopo orogenic belt in southern Africa. We show through palinspastic reconstruction that the Limpopo orogen originated from >600 km of west-directed thrusting, and the thrust sheet was subsequently folded by north-south compression. The common 2.7–2.6 Ga felsic plutons in the Limpopo thrust sheet and the absence of an arc immediately predating the 2.0 Ga Limpopo thrusting require the Limpopo belt to be an intracontinental structure. The similar duration (∼40 m.y.), slip magnitude (>600 km), slip rate (>15 mm/yr), tectonic setting (intracontinental), and widespread anatexis to those of the Himalayan orogen lead us to propose the Limpopo belt to have developed by continent-continent collision. Specifically, the combined Zimbabwe-Kaapvaal craton (ZKC, named in this study) in the west (present coordinates) was subducting eastward below an outboard craton (OC), which carried an arc equivalent to the Gangdese batholith in southern Tibet prior to the India-Asia collision. The ZKC-OC collision at ca. 2.0 Ga triggered a westward jump in the plate convergence boundary, from the initial suture zone to the Limpopo thrust within the ZKC. Subsequent thrusting accommodated >600 km of plate convergence, possibly driven by ridge push from the west side of the ZKC. As intracontinental plate convergence is a key modern plate-tectonic process, the development of the Limpopo belt implies that the operation of plate tectonics, at least at a local scale, was ongoing by ca. 2.0 Ga on Earth. INTRODUCTION The time of onset for plate tectonics on Earth has been hotly debated, with estimates ranging from >4.0 Ga to ca. 0.85 Ga (e.g., Korenaga, 2013; Cawood et al., 2018). The most commonly used proxies of plate-tectonic processes are rock records of subduction-zone–like low geothermal gradients (e.g., Hopkins et al., 2008) and modern-arc geochemical signatures (e.g., Martin et al., 2014). Since non-plate-tectonic models (e.g., Bédard, 2006; Moore and Webb, 2013) could also explain these proxies, determining the onset of plate tectonics on Earth requires direct field-based geological evidence of largescale (more than hundreds of kilometers) horizontal crustal motion. In order to address this issue, we reexamined the tectonic development of the >600-km-long Limpopo orogenic belt in southern Africa (Fig. 1). Our result shows that modern plate tectonics, expressed as intracontinental plate convergence, occurred on Earth by ca. 2.0 Ga. GEOLOGICAL SETTING The Limpopo belt consists mostly of supracrustal assemblages intruded by ca. 3.2 Ga and 2.7–2.6 Ga felsic plutons (e.g., Kröner et al., 2018). These protoliths were penetratively modified by orogen-scale ductile folding, granulitefacies metamorphism, and anatexis first at 2.7– 2.6 Ga and later at 2.02 ± 0.02 Ga (Kramers and Mouri, 2011; Brandt et al., 2018). The Limpopo belt of Mason (1973) (also known as the central zone of the Limpopo metamorphic complex) is bounded by the 5–10-km-wide, right-slip TuliSabi and left-slip Palala mylonitic shear zones in the north and south against the northern and southern marginal zones, respectively (Fig. 2). The marginal zones are composed of granuliteto amphibolite-facies granitic-greenstone associations with the metamorphic grades decreasing away from the Limpopo belt (Mason, 1973; van Reenen et al., 2019). Granuliteamphibolite–facies metamorphism occurred at 2.7–2.6 Ga and 2.0 Ga, respectively, in the northern marginal zone, whereas similar highgrade metamorphism appears to have occurred only at 2.7–2.6 Ga in the southern marginal zone (Kramers and Mouri, 2011; van Reenen et al., 2019). Both zones have yielded ca. 2.0 Ga Rb-Sr biotite and feldspar cooling ages, which are in contrast to the 2.7–2.6 Ga Rb-Sr biotite ages obtained from Zimbabwe-Kaapvaal craton (ZKC) rocks outside the marginal zones farther away from the Limpopo belt (van Breemen and Dodson, 1972). The origin of the Limpopo belt has been attributed to 2.7–2.6 Ga north-south ZimbabweKaapvaal collision (Light, 1982), protracted north-south terrane accretion from 2.7 Ga to 2.0 Ga (Barton et al., 2006), two-stage, glacierlike, gravity-driven ductile flow from east to west at 2.7–2.6 Ga and 2.0–1.8 Ga (McCourt and Vearncombe, 1987; van Reenen et al., 2019), and ca. 2.0 Ga intracontinental transpression (Schaller et al., 1999). A key piece of evidence for the 2.7–2.6 Ga Limpopo orogenic event is the presence of seemingly undeformed 2.7–2.6 Ga plutons (van Reenen et al., 2019), but such an interpretation does not consider the possible role of rheological contrasts among different lithologies in the Limpopo belt in controlling the style and distribution of deformation. A major issue with the existing models is that they all assume the orogen-bounding shear zones to have maintained their original geometry. As shown here, *E-mail: ayin54@gmail.com †Deceased on 20 May 2019 Published online 19 November 2019 Downloaded from http://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/gsa/geology/article-pdf/48/2/103/4926764/103.pdf by UCLA Digital Collect Serv user on 12 January 2021 104 www.gsapubs.org | Volume 48 | Number 2 | GEOLOGY | Geological Society of America this assertion is inconsistent with the regional geologic relationships, which require the orogen to have been tightly folded by later compression. POSTOROGENIC FOLDING OF THE LIMPOPO OROGENIC BELT Four lines of evidence suggest that the Limpopo orogen was folded by north-south compression at ca. 1.97–1.88 Ga (Fig. 1). First, the 1.97–1.88 Ga Blouberg Formation, unconformably resting on top of the Limpopo belt, was folded and then overlain by undeformed ca. 1.88 Ga upper Waterberg Group strata (Figs. 3A and 3B). Rotation of the dominantly vertical Blouberg beds to their original horizontal positions requires the nearby vertical “left-slip” Palala shear zone to have a prefolding subhorizontal geometry with top-to-the-west thrust kinematics. The folding event postdates the youngest cooling age of the Palala shear zone at ca. 1.97 Ma (Schaller et al., 1999) and the youngest detrital zircon age of the Blouberg Formation at ca. 2.04 Ga (Corcoran et al., 2013) but predates a mafic dike intruding the undeformed overlying Waterberg Group strata at ca. 1.88 Ga (Fig. 3A; Hanson et al., 2004). Second, the lower Waterberg Group, located directly south of the Palala shear zone (unit Ptw in Fig. 2), was also folded by north-south compression between ca. 2.02 Ga and ca. 1.93 Ga (Dorland et al., 2006). This timing is similar to the aforementioned Blouberg folding event (Fig. 3A). Third, the Limpopo gneissic foliation defines an orogen-scale fold structure (e.g., McCourt and Vearncombe, 1987; see also Fig. 2), expressed by the gneissic foliation oriented at high angles to the orogen-bounding shear zones along the central section of the Limpopo belt, which becomes subparallel to the shear zones approaching the edges of the belt (Fig. 2). Rotation of the nearly vertical gneissic foliation near the orogen margins to a horizontal position would require the nearby bounding shear zones to have had a subhorizontal geometry before orogen-scale folding. This reconstruction is consistent with restoring the folded Blouberg and lower Waterberg strata mentioned above, which places the currently vertical Palala shear zone into a prefolding subhorizontal orientation. Fourth, gravity and seismic-reflection surveys show that the low-density Limpopo belt lies above the high-density ZKC craton, separated by a synformal thrust with the Tuli-Sabi and Palala shear zones as its surface traces (de Beer and Stettler, 1992). The inferred Limpopo belt thickness above the fault is <8 km (de Beer and Stettler, 1992). Although our own field observations corroborate the earlier work showing that the Tuli-Sabi (Fig. 3C) and Palala (Fig. 3D) shear zones are rightand left-slip features, respectively, in their current orientations (McCourt and Vearncombe, 1987), contradictory right-slip shear bands in the overall left-slip Palala shear zone were reported locally by Schaller et al. (1999). The minor right-slip indicators, used as the supporting evidence for a right-slip transpressional model of the Limpopo belt (Kramers et al., 2011), could have resulted from postshear folding or development of antithetic structures (Figs. 3E and 3F). TECTONIC MODEL Unfolding the currently oriented eastnortheast–trending Limpopo belt and the steep bounding Tuli-Sabi and Palala shear zones requires the Limpopo belt to have formed by west-southwest–directed thrusting, placing the Limpopo belt over the ZKC (Figs. 3E and 3F). Because the Limpopo rocks are dominated by supracrustal assemblages in the hanging wall that do not match the granitic-greenstone rocks of the ZKC and the marginal zones in the footwall (Kröner et al., 2018; van Reenen et al., 2019), the total motion on the Limpopo thrust must have exceeded 600 km (Fig. 1). This interpretation raises the question of whether the Limpopo belt was part of the ZKC or a separate craton. For the Limpopo belt to be a separate continent, its collision with the ZKC would require the presence of a magmatic arc immediately predating the ca. 2.0 Ga Limpopo thrust. The absence of such an arc in either the Limpopo belt or the ZKC and marginal zones rules out this possibility. In contrast, the presence of the diagnostic 2.7–2.6 Ga felsic plutons and the records of coeval granulite metamorphism in the hanging-wall Limpopo belt and footwall marginal zones (Kröner et al., 2018; van Reenen Figure 1. Tectonic map of southern Africa, modified from Hanson (2003) and McCourt et al. (2013). 2.25-2.0 Ga “regional granites” (McCourt et al., 2013) 0 400 800 km Congo Craton Tanzania Craton Kaapvaal Craton Roheboth Block Bangweulu Block 2.04-1.93 Ga Magondi belt (Hanson, 2003) Zimbabwe Craton 06o00’S 29o00’S Eastern edge of Kaapvaal before rifting (Hanson, 2003) 20o00’E 32o00’E 17o30’S Kalahari Desert 2.04-2.00 Ga Limpo

14 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Waterberg Project is located in the Southern Marginal Zone of the Limpopo Belt as mentioned in this paper, and the first comprehensive study of the lower ultramafic section of the area has been completed, and wholerock chemical analyses and PGE data are presented.

11 citations

References
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01 Jan 1985
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors describe the composition of the present upper crust and deal with possible compositions for the total crust and the inferred composition of lower crust, and the question of the uniformity of crustal composition throughout geological time is discussed.
Abstract: This book describes the composition of the present upper crust, and deals with possible compositions for the total crust and the inferred composition of the lower crust. The question of the uniformity of crustal composition throughout geological time is discussed. It describes the Archean crust and models for crustal evolution in Archean and Post-Archean time. The rate of growth of the crust through time is assessed, and the effects of the extraction of the crust on mantle compositions. The question of early pre-geological crusts on the Earth is discussed and comparisons are given with crusts on the Moon, Mercury, Mars, Venus and the Galilean Satellites.

12,457 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
18 Jun 1982-Nature
TL;DR: The early Proterozoic Huronian Supergroup of the north shore of Lake Huron (Fig. 1) is a thick succession of sedimentary and volcanic rocks deposited between about 2,500 and 2,100 Myr ago as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The early Proterozoic Huronian Supergroup of the north shore of Lake Huron (Fig. 1) is a thick (up to 12,000 m) succession of sedimentary and volcanic rocks deposited between about 2,500 and 2,100 Myr ago1. Here we present a palaeoclimatic interpretation of the Huronian based on approximately 200 major elements analyses of lutites. Most of these are new analyses from the Gowganda and Serpent Formations (Fig. 2). The remainder are from published sources cited in Fig. 4. The composition of lutites from the Huronian Supergroup records an early period of intense, probably tropical, weathering followed by climatic deterioration that culminated in widespread deposition of glaciogenic sediments of the Gowganda Formation. Climatic amelioration followed during deposition of the succeeding Huronian formations. The Huronian succession can be interpreted using a uniformitarian approach in that present day seafloor spreading rates and latitude-related climatic variations are compatible with available geochronological and palaeomagnetic data.

4,822 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, a large variation in trace element characteristics of graywackes of the Paleozoic turbidite sequences of eastern Australia show a large increase in light rare earth elements (La, Ce, Nd), Th, Nb and the Ba/Sr, Rb, Sr, La/Y and Ni/Co ratios.
Abstract: The graywackes of Paleozoic turbidite sequences of eastern Australia show a large variation in their trace element characteristics, which reflect distinct provenance types and tectonic settings for various suites. The tectonic settings recognised are oceanic island arc, continental island arc, active continental margin, and passive margins. Immobile trace elements, e.g. La, Ce, Nd, Th, Zr, Nb, Y, Sc and Co are very useful in tectonic setting discrimination. In general, there is a systematic increase in light rare earth elements (La, Ce, Nd), Th, Nb and the Ba/Sr, Rb/Sr, La/Y and Ni/Co ratios and a decrease in V, Sc and the Ba/Rb, K/Th and K/U ratios in graywackes from oceanic island arc to continental island arc to active continental margin to passive margin settings. On the basis of graywacke geochemistry, the optimum discrimination of the tectonic settings of sedimentary basins is achieved by La-Th, La-Th-Sc, Ti/Zr-La/Sc, La/Y-Sc/Cr, Th-Sc-Zr/10 and Th-Co-Zr/10 plots. The analysed oceanic island arc graywackes are characterised by extremely low abundances of La, Th, U, Zr, Nb; low Th/U and high La/Sc, La/Th, Ti/Zr, Zr/Th ratios. The studied graywackes of the continental island arc type setting are characterised by increased abundances of La, Th, U, Zr and Nb, and can be identified by the La-Th-Sc and La/Sc versus Ti/Zr plots. Active continental margin and passive margin graywackes are discriminated by the Th-Sc-Zr/10 and Th-Co-Zr/10 plots and associated parameters (e.g. Th/Zr, Th/Sc). The most important characteristic of the analysed passive margin type graywackes is the increased abundance of Zr, high Zr/Th and lower Ba, Rb, Sr and Ti/Zr ratio compared to the active continental margin graywackes.

2,133 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The relationship between provenance and basin is important for hydrocarbon exploration because sand frameworks of contrasting detrital compositions respond differently to diagenesis, and thus display different trends of porosity reduction with depth of burial as mentioned in this paper.
Abstract: Detrital framework modes of sandstone suites from different kinds of basins are a function of provenance types governed by plate tectonics. Quartzose sands from continental cratons are widespread within interior basins, platform successions, miogeoclinal wedges, and opening ocean basins. Arkosic sands from uplifted basement blocks are present locally in rift troughs and in wrench basins related to transform ruptures. Volcaniclastic lithic sands and more complex volcano-plutonic sands derived from magmatic arcs are present in trenches, forearc basins, and marginal seas. Recycled orogenic sands, rich in quartz or chert plus other lithic fragments and derived from subduction complexes, collision orogens, and foreland uplifts, are present in closing ocean basins, diverse succ ssor basins, and foreland basins. Triangular diagrams showing framework proportions of quartz, the two feldspars, polycrystalline quartzose lithics, and unstable lithics of volcanic and sedimentary parentage successfully distinguish the key provenance types. Relations between provenance and basin are important for hydrocarbon exploration because sand frameworks of contrasting detrital compositions respond differently to diagenesis, and thus display different trends of porosity reduction with depth of burial.

1,648 citations