The provenance of Middle Jurassic sandstones in the Scotian Basin: petrographic evidence of passive margin tectonics 1This article is one of a series of papers published in this CJES Special Issue on the theme of Mesozoic–Cenozoic geology of the Scotian Basin. 2Geological Survey of Canada Contribution 20110319.

2012 ◽  
Vol 49 (12) ◽  
pp. 1463-1477 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gang Li ◽  
Georgia Pe-Piper ◽  
David J.W. Piper

The tectonic and geomorphological evolution of the Scotian margin and its hinterland is poorly known between Late Triassic rifting and the Early Cretaceous progradation of major deltas. This study determined sedimentary provenance of Middle Jurassic Mohican Formation sandstones from three wells using heavy minerals and mineral chemistry. Indicator minerals such as xenotime, altered ilmenite, and varietal types of garnet and tourmaline are similar to those in Hauterivian–Barremian sandstones in the western Scotian Basin, which are almost exclusively derived from the Meguma terrane. The wells adjacent to the Canso Ridge have more zircon and less ilmenite, indicating a greater contribution of polycyclic reworking, but with an ultimate source in the Meguma terrane. Zircon and ilmenite were likely derived in part from Carboniferous sandstones in eastern mainland Nova Scotia and Cape Breton Island. Any river drainage from the inboard terranes of the Appalachians either was diverted through the Fundy Basin or entered the easternmost Scotian Basin, where the Mohican Formation is 5.5 km thick, along the linear continuation of the southwest Grand Banks transform. Such sediment did not reach the Canso Ridge, suggesting that the Cobequid–Chedabucto fault zone in Orpheus graben was not a significant physiographic feature. This tectonically controlled paleogeography in the Middle Jurassic is quite different from that during active rifting in the Late Triassic – Early Jurassic. Middle Jurassic quiescence was followed in the Tithonian – Early Cretaceous by renewed tectonic uplift associated with rifting of Grand Banks from Iberia and Labrador from Greenland.

1998 ◽  
Vol 16 (2-3) ◽  
pp. 173-194 ◽  
Author(s):  
Flavio Jadoul ◽  
Fabrizio Berra ◽  
Eduardo Garzanti

2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (9) ◽  
pp. 1006-1020
Author(s):  
F.I. Zhimulev ◽  
E.V. Vetrov ◽  
I.S. Novikov ◽  
G. Van Ranst ◽  
S. Nachtergaele ◽  
...  

Abstract —The Kolyvan’–Tomsk folded zone (KTFZ) is a late Permian collisional orogen in the northwestern section of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. The Mesozoic history of the KTFZ area includes Late Triassic–Early Jurassic and Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous orogenic events. The earlier event produced narrow deep half-ramp basins filled with Early–Middle Jurassic molasse south of the KTFZ, and the later activity rejuvenated the Tomsk thrust fault, whereby the KTFZ Paleozoic rocks were thrust over the Early–Middle Jurassic basin sediments. The Mesozoic orogenic events induced erosion and the ensuing exposure of granitoids (Barlak complex) that were emplaced in a within-plate context after the Permian collisional orogeny. Both events were most likely associated with ocean closure, i.e., the Paleothetys Ocean in the Late Triassic–Early Jurassic and the Mongol–Okhotsk Ocean in the Late Jurassic–Early Cretaceous. The apatite fission track (AFT) ages of granitoids from the Ob’ complex in the KTFZ range between ~120 and 100 Ma (the Aptian and the Albian). The rocks with Early Cretaceous AFT ages were exhumed as a result of denudation and peneplanation of the Early Cretaceous orogeny, which produced a vast Late Cretaceous–Paleogene planation surface. The tectonic pattern of the two orogenic events, although being different in details, generally inherited the late Paleozoic primary collisional structure of the Kolyvan’–Tomsk zone.


1993 ◽  
Vol 30 (10) ◽  
pp. 2002-2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dale A. Russell

Dinosaurian biogeography may have been largely controlled by the Mesozoic fragmentation of Pangea and the reassembly of its fragments into a new, boreal supercontinent (Laurasia). Although Late Triassic and Early Jurassic dinosaurs were globally distributed, Chinese assemblages were dominated by endemic forms from Middle Jurassic into Early Cretaceous time. The affinities of Aptian – Albian immigrants to Asia were strongest with North America and Europe rather than Gondwana, indicating that the northern and southern hemispheres had by then attained their biogeographic identity. This distinctiveness was maintained through Cretaceous time. Europe seems to have been a buffer area between Paleolaurasia and Gondwana; of the northern continents it was the most strongly influenced by Gondwana dispersants. Late Jurassic dinosaur assemblages in North America exhibited Gondwana affinities, but by Late Cretaceous time they were dominated by forms of Asian ancestry.


Author(s):  
Juan José Gómez ◽  
Roque Aguado ◽  
Ana Cristina Azerêdo ◽  
José Emilio Cortés ◽  
Luís Vítor Duarte ◽  
...  

2014 ◽  
Vol 65 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
Oliver Krische ◽  
Špela Goričan ◽  
Hans-Jürgen Gawlick

Abstract The microfacies and biostratigraphy of components in mass-flow deposits from the Lower Cretaceous Rossfeld Formation of the Northern Calcareous Alps in Austria were analysed. The pebbles are classified into six groups: 1) Triassic carbonates (uppermost Werfen to basal Gutenstein Formations), 2) Upper Jurassic to lowermost Cretaceous carbonates (Oberalm Formation and Barmstein Limestone), 3) contemporaneous carbonate bioclasts (?Valanginian to ?Hauterivian), 4) siliceous pebbles (radiolarites, ophicalcites, siliceous deep-sea clays, cherts), 5) volcanic and ophiolitic rock fragments and 6) siliciclastics such as quartz-sandstones and siltstones. The radiolarites show three age groups: Ladinian to Early Carnian, Late Carnian/Norian and Late Bajocian to Callovian. The Middle Triassic radiolarites are interpreted as derived from the Meliata facies zone or from the Neotethys ocean floor, whereas the Late Triassic radiolarites give evidence of the sedimentary cover of the Neotethys ocean floor. During late Early to early Late Jurassic, the Triassic to Early/Middle Jurassic passive margin of the Neotethys attained a lower plate position and became obducted by the accreted ocean floor of the Neotethys Ocean. The accreted ocean floor was contemporaneously eroded and resedimented in different deep-water basins in front of the nappe-stack. These basin fills were subsequently incorporated in the orogen forming mélanges in this complex ophiolitic nappe-stack. The Middle Jurassic radiolarites are interpreted as the matrix of these mélanges. Together with the volcanic and ophiolitic material the siliceous rocks were eroded from this ophiolitic nappe-stack in Early Cretaceous times and brought by a fluvial system to the Rossfeld Basin within the Tirolic realm of the Northern Calcareous Alps. The different fining-upward sequences in the succession of the Lower Cretaceous Rossfeld Formation can be best explained by sea-level fluctuations and decreasing tectonic activity in the Jurassic orogen


Minerals ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 11 (6) ◽  
pp. 573
Author(s):  
Shahid Iqbal ◽  
Michael Wagreich ◽  
Mehwish Bibi ◽  
Irfan U. Jan ◽  
Susanne Gier

The Salt Range, in Pakistan, preserves an insightful sedimentary record of passive margin dynamics along the NW margin of the Indian Plate during the Mesozoic. This study develops provenance analyses of the Upper Triassic (Kingriali Formation) to Lower Jurassic (Datta Formation) siliciclastics from the Salt and Trans Indus ranges based on outcrop analysis, petrography, bulk sediment elemental geochemistry, and heavy-mineral data. The sandstones are texturally and compositionally mature quartz arenites and the conglomerates are quartz rich oligomictic conglomerates. Geochemical proxies support sediment derivation from acidic sources and deposition under a passive margin setting. The transparent heavy mineral suite consists of zircon, tourmaline, and rutile (ZTR) with minor staurolite in the Triassic strata that diminishes in the Jurassic strata. Together, these data indicate that the sediments were supplied by erosion of the older siliciclastics of the eastern Salt Range and adjoining areas of the Indian Plate. The proportion of recycled component exceeds the previous literature estimates for direct sediment derivation from the Indian Shield. A possible increase in detritus supply from the Salt Range itself indicates notably different conditions of sediment generation, during the Triassic–Jurassic transition. The present results suggest that, during the Triassic–Jurassic transition in the Salt Range, direct sediment supply from the Indian Shield was probably reduced and the Triassic and older siliciclastics were exhumed on an elevated passive margin and reworked by a locally established fluvio-deltaic system. The sediment transport had a north-northwestward trend parallel to the northwestern Tethyan margin of the Indian Plate and normal to its opening axis. During the Late Triassic, hot and arid hot-house palaeoclimate prevailed in the area that gave way to a hot and humid greenhouse palaeoclimate across the Triassic–Jurassic Boundary. Sedimentological similarity between the Salt Range succession and the Neo-Tethyan succession exposed to the east on the northern Indian passive Neo-Tethyan margin suggests a possible westward extension of this margin.


2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 103-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nathan T Petersen ◽  
Paul L Smith ◽  
James K Mortensen ◽  
Robert A Creaser ◽  
Howard W Tipper

Jurassic sedimentary rocks of southern to central Quesnellia record the history of the Quesnellian magmatic arc and reflect increasing continental influence throughout the Jurassic history of the terrane. Standard petrographic point counts, geochemistry, Sm–Nd isotopes and detrital zircon geochronology, were employed to study provenance of rocks obtained from three areas of the terrane. Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks, classified by inferred proximity to their source areas as proximal or proximal basin are derived from an arc source area. Sandstones of this age are immature. The rocks are geochemically and isotopically primitive. Detrital zircon populations, based on a limited number of analyses, have homogeneous Late Triassic or Early Jurassic ages, reflecting local derivation from Quesnellian arc sources. Middle Jurassic proximal and proximal basin sedimentary rocks show a trend toward more evolved mature sediments and evolved geochemical characteristics. The sandstones show a change to more mature grain components when compared with Lower Jurassic sedimentary rocks. There is a decrease in εNdT values of the sedimentary rocks and Proterozoic detrital zircon grains are present. This change is probably due to a combination of two factors: (1) pre-Middle Jurassic erosion of the Late Triassic – Early Jurassic arc of Quesnellia, making it a less dominant source, and (2) the increase in importance of the eastern parts of Quesnellia and the pericratonic terranes, such as Kootenay Terrane, both with characteristically more evolved isotopic values. Basin shale environments throughout the Jurassic show continental influence that is reflected in the evolved geochemistry and Sm–Nd isotopes of the sedimentary rocks. The data suggest southern Quesnellia received material from the North American continent throughout the Jurassic but that this continental influence was diluted by proximal arc sources in the rocks of proximal derivation. The presence of continent-derived material in the distal sedimentary rocks of this study suggests that southern Quesnellia is comparable to known pericratonic terranes.


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