Modelling of drainage dynamics influence on sediment routing system in a fold-and-thrust belt

Marc Viaplana-Muzas; Julien Babault; Stéphane Dominguez; Jean Van Den Driessche; Xavier Legrand

doi:10.1111/bre.12321

Competing sediment sources during Paleozoic closure of the Marathon-Ouachita remnant ocean basin

Geological Society of America Bulletin ◽

10.1130/b35201.1 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 132 (1-2) ◽

pp. 3-16 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Zihui Gao ◽

Nicholas D. Perez ◽

Brent Miller ◽

Michael C. Pope

Keyword(s):

Ocean Basin ◽

Sediment Provenance ◽

Thrust Belt ◽

Sediment Sources ◽

Volcanic Arc ◽

Delaware Basin ◽

Continental Scale ◽

Sediment Routing ◽

West Texas ◽

Fold And Thrust Belt

Abstract The Paleozoic construction of Pangea advanced southwestward from the Appalachian system to the Marathon fold-and-thrust belt in west Texas and progressively closed a remnant ocean basin between Laurentia and Gondwana. The resulting collisional orogen was a potential driver of Ancestral Rocky Mountain tectonism and impacted continental-scale sediment routing. New detrital zircon U-Pb geochronologic and heavy mineral provenance data from Ordovician–Pennsylvanian strata in the Marathon fold-and-thrust belt, and Permian strata in the Guadalupe Mountains of west Texas record changes in sediment provenance during the tectonic development of southwestern Laurentia and the Delaware Basin. In the Marathon fold-and-thrust belt, Ordovician rocks (Woods Hollow and Marathon Formations) record peri-Gondwanan sediment sources prior to continent collision. Syncollisional Mississippian and Pennsylvanian rocks (Tesnus, Haymond, Gaptank Formations) record contributions from distal Appalachian sources, recycled material from the active continental suture, and volcanic arc material from Gondwana. Near the Guadalupe Mountains, postcollisional Permian strata (Delaware Mountain Group) from the northern Delaware Basin margin suggest a dominantly southern catchment that was sourced from the deforming suture and Gondwanan arc. The results demonstrate that both plates and the active suture zone were sources for the siliciclastic wedge, but their proportions differed through time. These results also suggest that the delay between initial late Mississippian suturing in the Marathon region and increased mid-Permian siliciclastic deposition into the northern Delaware Basin may have been linked to a southward catchment expansion that integrated the collisional belt and southern volcanic arc into a broadly north-directed sediment dispersal system.

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Orogen proximal sedimentation in the Permian foreland basin

Geosphere ◽

10.1130/ges02108.1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 16 (2) ◽

pp. 567-593 ◽

Cited By ~ 2

Author(s):

Graham M. Soto-Kerans ◽

Daniel F. Stockli ◽

Xavier Janson ◽

Timothy F. Lawton ◽

Jacob A. Covault

Keyword(s):

Detrital Zircon ◽

Foreland Basin ◽

Continental Collision ◽

Proximal Region ◽

Thrust Belt ◽

Foreland Basins ◽

Zircon Core ◽

Sediment Routing ◽

Pan African ◽

Fold And Thrust Belt

Abstract The sedimentary fill of peripheral foreland basins has the potential to preserve a record of the processes of ocean closure and continental collision, as well as the long-term (i.e., 107–108 yr) sediment-routing evolution associated with these processes; however, the detrital record of these deep-time tectonic processes and the sedimentary response have rarely been documented during the final stages of supercontinent assembly. The stratigraphy within the southern margin of the Delaware Basin and Marathon fold and thrust belt preserves a record of the Carboniferous–Permian Pangean continental assembly, culminating in the formation of the Delaware and Midland foreland basins of North America. Here, we use 1721 new detrital zircon (DZ) U-Pb ages from 13 stratigraphic samples within the Marathon fold and thrust belt and Glass Mountains of West Texas in order to evaluate the provenance and sediment-routing evolution of the southern, orogen-proximal region of this foreland basin system. Among these new DZ data, 85 core-rim age relationships record multi-stage crystallization related to magmatic or metamorphic events in sediment source areas, further constraining source terranes and sediment routing. Within samples, a lack of Neoproterozoic–Cambrian zircon grains in the pre-orogenic Mississippian Tesnus Formation and subsequent appearance of this zircon age group in the syn-orogenic Pennsylvanian Haymond Formation point toward initial basin inversion and the uplift and exhumation of volcanic units related to Rodinian rifting. Moreover, an upsection decrease in Grenvillian (ca. 1300–920 Ma) and an increase in Paleozoic zircons denote a progressive provenance shift from that of dominantly orogenic highland sources to that of sediment sources deeper in the Gondwanan hinterland during tectonic stabilization. Detrital zircon core-rim age relationships of ca. 1770 Ma cores with ca. 600–300 Ma rims indicate Amazonian cores with peri-Gondwanan or Pan-African rims, Grenvillian cores with ca. 580 Ma rims are correlative with Pan-African volcanism or the ca. 780–560 Ma volcanics along the rifted Laurentian margin, and Paleozoic core-rim age relationships are likely indicative of volcanic arc activity within peri-Gondwana, Coahuila, or Oaxaquia. Our results suggest dominant sediment delivery to the Marathon region from the nearby southern orogenic highland; less sediment was delivered from the axial portion of the Ouachita or Appalachian regions suggesting that this area of the basin was not affected by a transcontinental drainage. The provenance evolution of sediment provides insights into how continental collision directs the dispersal and deposition of sediment in the Permian Basin and analogous foreland basins.

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