The history of remagnetization of sedimentary rocks: deceptions, developments and discoveries

2012 ◽  
Vol 371 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-53 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rob Van Der Voo ◽  
Trond H. Torsvik
Keyword(s):  
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.


1968 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 737-747 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. D. Obradovich ◽  
Z. E. Peterman

This paper presents new radiometric data that permit some qualified statements to be made on the depositional history of the Belt sedimentary rocks. The period of deposition of sedimentary rocks of the Precambrian Belt Series has been placed within a broad time interval, for they rest on metamorphosed basement rock dated at ~ 1800 m.y. and are overlain by the Middle Cambrian Flathead Quartzite (circa 530 m.y.). Prior geochronometric data gathered during the last decade indicate most of the Belt Series to be older than ~ 1100 m.y.K–Ar and Rb–Sr techniques have been applied recently to a variety of samples selected from the whole gamut of the Belt Series. Glauconite from various formations in the sequence McNamara Formation down to the uppermost beds of the Empire Formation in the Sun River area has been dated at 1080 ± 27 m.y. by the K–Ar method and at 1095 ± 22 m.y. by the Rb–Sr mineral isochron method. A Rb–Sr whole-rock isochron based on argillaceous sedimentary rocks from this 5000-ft section gives an age of 1100 ± 53 m.y. The concordance of the preceding results and the K–Ar ages (1075 to 1110 m.y.) on Purcell sills and lava imply that this age represents the time of sedimentation of these units.A Rb–Sr isochron based on whole-rock samples stratigraphically far below the Umpire Formation— the Greyson Shale, Newland Limestone, Chamberlain Shale, and Neihart Quartzite in the Big Belt and Little Beit Mountains—yields an age of 1325 ± 15 m.y. This result is interpreted as indicating a substantial unconformity beneath the Belt Series, at least in central Montana; it also suggests a major hiatus, unsuspected from field evidence, between the uppermost part of the Empire Formation and the Greyson Shale.The results for the youngest of Belt rocks—the Pilcher Quartzite and the Garnet Range Formation, which are exposed in the Alberton region—are equivocal in that there is widespread dispersion. A large component of detrital muscovite in some of the samples could readily account for the magnitude and sense of this dispersion. A maximum age of ~930 m.y. based on an isochron of minimum slope through the various points may be inferred for this sequence. A K–Ar age of 760 m.y. obtained on biotite from a sill in the Garnet Range Formation provides a minimum age for these younger Belt rocks.Three distinct periods of sedimentation for Belt rocks sampled are suggested at ≥ 1300, 1100, and ≤ 900 m.y., with two substantial hiatuses of 200 m.y. or more. In addition the data for the sequence in the Big and Little Belt Mountains suggest that sedimentation may not have commenced for a period of possibly 400 m.y. after the metamorphism that affected basement rocks, while the data for the Garnet Range and Pilcher sequence suggest that sedimentation ceased some 200 to 400 m.y. prior to the deposition of the Middle Cambrian Flathead Quartzite.To suggest that the Belt sediments were deposited continuously over a period of 400 m.y. or more would imply an unusually low average rate of deposition of ≤ 0.1 ft/1000 yr, and this for the thickest part of the Belt Series. As a realistic expression of the depositional history of the Belt Series, both viewpoints are open to question, but the viewpoint that the Belt basin has been characterized by discontinuous sedimentation would be more in keeping with the principle of uniformity.


2018 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 1 ◽  
Author(s):  
DANY AZAR ◽  
JACEK SZWEDO ◽  
EDMUND JARZEMBOWSKI ◽  
NEAL EVENHUIS ◽  
DIYING HUANG

Palaeoentomology started in the late XVIIIth century, shortly after the 10th edition of Linnaeus’ Systema Naturae (the foundation of modern taxonomy), when papers on the curiosities of insects entombed in fossil resins were published. The beginning of XIXth century (with the growing interest in geological sciences and prehistoric life) witnessed the first attempts to study and describe insects from sedimentary rocks. This discipline then developed during the XIXth and beginning of the XXth centuries; and resulted in some major works and reviews (summarizing the knowledge on fossil insects and other terrestrial arthropods) published in the geological and biological literature. The XXth century was a period of relatively slow but constant development in palaeoentomology, during which the famous “Treatise on invertebrate paleontology: Arthropoda 4. Superclass Hexapoda” (cataloguing the knowledge on fossil insects) was published (Carpenter, 1992). At the beginning of XXIst century, palaeoentomology grew significantly and exponentially; and two major manuals (“History of insects” and “Evolution of the insects”) were published (Rasnitsyn & Quicke, 2002; Grimaldi & Engel, 2005, respectively). These manuals helped to encourage more students and researchers to work on fossil insects and other terrestrial arthropods. 


1995 ◽  
Vol 32 (8) ◽  
pp. 1180-1193 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. Elizabeth Anderson ◽  
Donald W. Davis

The Mesoproterozoic Purcell Supergroup (and its equivalent in the United States, the Belt Supergroup) is a thick sedimentary sequence formed in an extensional basin of uncertain age and tectonic setting. The voluminous tholeiitic Moyie sills intrude turbidites of the lower and middle Aldridge Formation, the lowest division of the Purcell Supergroup. Many of the sills were intruded into soft sediment and one intrudes the Sullivan sedimentary exhalative (SEDEX) orebody, so their age approximates that of the sediments and the Sullivan deposit. New U–Pb dates of zircon from four sills are older than previously published U–Pb zircon ages. One sill contained concordant zircons with an age of 1468 ± 2 Ma. Near concordant zircons from the other samples have similar 207Pb/206Pb ages, indicating that all of the sills crystallized at the same time. U–Pb dates of titanites from two of these sills yielded concordant dates ranging from 1090 to 1030 Ma, indicating that they have undergone a previously unrecognized Grenville-age metamorphism. The U–Pb systematics of abraded zircons from one sill indicate that they have also been affected by this event. The recognition of Grenville-age metamorphism in the Purcell (Belt) basin suggests that the prevalent 1.0–1.1 Ga Rb–Sr and K–Ar mineral and whole-rock dates from a wide variety of Purcell (Belt) igneous and sedimentary rocks are also metamorphic, and are not ages of sedimentation or "hybrid" dates reflecting partial resetting by the ca. 760 Ma Goat River orogeny. On this basis, all sedimentation in the Purcell (Belt) basin is constrained to be older than 1.1 Ga and is probably older than 1.25 Ga.


1984 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 135-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. H. F. Robertson ◽  
W. G. Henderson

ABSTRACTNarrow, intermittent, fault-bounded outcrops forming the largely Ordovician Highland Border Complex comprise terrigenous-derived turbidities, a dismembered ophiolite, and ophiolite-derived sediments.New major- and trace-element analyses of the mafic igneous rocks confirm that two main groups exist. One, represented in outcrops the length of the Highland Boundary fault-zone, has a mostly MORB-like chemistry with some trace-element compositions conventionally pointing to genesis above a subduction zone. The other group, found more locally, has an alkalic ‘within-plate’ character. Amphibolites interpreted as ophiolitic ‘sole’ rocks are chemically similar to the MORB-type mafic extrusive rocks. X-ray diffraction of the sedimentary rocks reveals kaolinite to be widespread and this is attributed to tropical weathering of the Highland Border Complex beneath a (?mid-Devonian) unconformity surface. New major- and trace-element analyses show that the turbidities of the Highland Border Complex were derived from a terrigenous terrane similar to that which supplied the Dalradian Supergroup. Inter-lava sediments reflect varied terrigenous (distal turbidites), hydrothermal (iron oxide sediments), mafic extrusive (volcaniclastic silt) and biogenic (jaspers) provenances. The ophiolite-derived Highland Border Complex sediments also have a terrigenous component. Unlike, for example, the early Ordovician rocks of the South Mayo trough (Ireland), coeval differentiated volcanic material is not a significant component of the Complex.No one existing model adequately explains all the available data. We favour an origin of the Complex in the Ordovician as a small Gulf of California-type marginal basin which was later tectonically emplaced in stages involving a long history of alternating extension, strike-slip and compression.


Geologos ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 141-155
Author(s):  
Piotr Migoń ◽  
Krzysztof Parzóch

Abstract Among sites of geomorphological interest in the tableland of the Stołowe Mountains, consisting of clastic sedimentary rocks of Late Cretaceous age, are enigmatic occurrences and clusters of sandstone boulders within plateau levels that are underlain by mudstones and marls. These boulders are allochthonous, having been derived from the quartz sandstone beds that support the upper plateau level and stratigraphically are in excess of 50 m above the altitudinal position of the boulders. Topographic conditions preclude long-distance transport from the escarpment slopes; boulders are hypothesised to be the last remnants of completely degraded outliers (mesas) of the upper plateau. Their present-day altitudinal position is explained by passive ‘settling’ following disintegration of caprock and denudation of the underlying weaker rocks. Two localities are here presented in detail, Łężyckie Skałki and Pustelnik, along with adjacent boulder trains in the valleys incised into the plateau. It is argued that both localities have considerable geoheritage value and both play the role of geosites, although on-site facilities are so far limited. However, the complex history of boulders sets a series of challenges for successful geo-interpretation.


Solid Earth ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 9 (6) ◽  
pp. 1535-1558
Author(s):  
Jean-Baptiste P. Koehl ◽  
Jhon M. Muñoz-Barrera

Abstract. In the Devonian–Carboniferous, a rapid succession of clustered extensional and contractional tectonic events is thought to have affected sedimentary rocks in central Spitsbergen, Svalbard. These events include Caledonian post-orogenic extensional collapse associated with the formation of thick Early–Middle Devonian basins, Late Devonian–Mississippian Ellesmerian contraction, and Early–Middle Pennsylvanian rifting, which resulted in the deposition of thick sedimentary units in Carboniferous basins like the Billefjorden Trough. The clustering of these varied tectonic settings sometimes makes it difficult to resolve the tectono-sedimentary history of individual stratigraphic units. Notably, the context of deposition of Mississippian clastic and coal-bearing sedimentary rocks of the Billefjorden Group is still debated, especially in central Spitsbergen. We present field evidence (e.g., growth strata and slickensides) from the northern part of the Billefjorden Trough, in Odellfjellet, suggesting that tilted Mississippian sedimentary strata of the Billefjorden Group deposited during active (Late/latest?) Mississippian extension. WNW–ESE-striking basin-oblique faults showing Mississippian growth strata systematically die out upwards within Mississippian to lowermost Pennsylvanian strata, thus suggesting a period of widespread WNW–ESE-directed extension in the Mississippian and an episode of localized extension in Early–Middle Pennsylvanian times. In addition, the presence of abundant basin-oblique faults in basement rocks adjacent to the Billefjorden Trough suggests that the formation of Mississippian normal faults was partly controlled by reactivation of preexisting Neoproterozoic (Timanian?) basement-seated fault zones. We propose that these preexisting faults reactivated as transverse or accommodation cross faults in or near the crest of transverse folds reflecting differential displacement along the Billefjorden Fault Zone. In Cenozoic times, a few margin-oblique faults (e.g., the Overgangshytta fault) may have mildly reactivated as oblique thrusts during transpression–contraction, but shallow-dipping, bedding-parallel, duplex-shaped décollements in shales of the Billefjorden Group possibly prevented substantial movement along these faults.


Author(s):  
Matthew J. Genge

Sedimentary rocks are the commonest rocks found on the surface of the Earth’s crust and record much of the history of both our planet and life on Earth. This chapter describes how to draw outcrops of sedimentary rocks in the field and the most important features of these rocks to record and describe. The stratigraphy and interpretation of sedimentary rocks is also considered in the chapter and includes a description of common sedimentary structures. The use of sedimentary facies in evaluation of depositional environment is introduced. Five worked examples of field sketches of sedimentary outcrops are given to illustrate how to make accurate and detailed observations of sediments. Examples include how to draw unconformities, sedimentary structures, lithologies, and graphic logs.


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