Circum-Arctic Structural Events: Tectonic Evolution of the Arctic Margins and Trans-Arctic Links with Adjacent Orogens

The circum-Arctic region has received considerable attention over the past several decades with vigorous debate focused on topics such as mechanisms for opening the Eurasian and Amerasian basins, the importance of plume-related magmatism in the development of the Arctic Ocean, and mechanisms for ancient terrane translation along the Arctic margins. In recognition of the 25th anniversary of the Circum-Arctic Structural Events (CASE) program, an international polar research effort organized and led by the Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe (BGR) of Germany, this volume presents results from 18 major field expeditions involving over 100 international geoscientists from a broad spectrum of disciplines. The resulting publication focuses on the Proterozoic to Cenozoic tectonic evolution of the circum-Arctic region with correlations to adjacent orogens.
Detrital zircon U-Pb and Lu-Hf analysis of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks from the Pearya terrane and Ellesmerian Fold Belt (northern Ellesmere Island): A comparison with Circum-Arctic datasets and their implications on terrane tectonics
*Emails: Malone: sjmalone@bsu.edu; McClelland: bill-mcclelland@uiowa.edu; von Gosen: werner.von.gosen@fau.de; Piepjohn: karsten.piepjohn@bgr.de
*Emails: Malone: sjmalone@bsu.edu; McClelland: bill-mcclelland@uiowa.edu; von Gosen: werner.von.gosen@fau.de; Piepjohn: karsten.piepjohn@bgr.de
*Emails: Malone: sjmalone@bsu.edu; McClelland: bill-mcclelland@uiowa.edu; von Gosen: werner.von.gosen@fau.de; Piepjohn: karsten.piepjohn@bgr.de
*Emails: Malone: sjmalone@bsu.edu; McClelland: bill-mcclelland@uiowa.edu; von Gosen: werner.von.gosen@fau.de; Piepjohn: karsten.piepjohn@bgr.de
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Published:June 14, 2019
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CiteCitation
Shawn J. Malone*, William C. McClelland*, Werner von Gosen*, Karsten Piepjohn*, 2019. "Detrital zircon U-Pb and Lu-Hf analysis of Paleozoic sedimentary rocks from the Pearya terrane and Ellesmerian Fold Belt (northern Ellesmere Island): A comparison with Circum-Arctic datasets and their implications on terrane tectonics", Circum-Arctic Structural Events: Tectonic Evolution of the Arctic Margins and Trans-Arctic Links with Adjacent Orogens, Karsten Piepjohn, Justin V. Strauss, Lutz Reinhardt, William C. McClelland
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ABSTRACT
Detrital zircon U-Pb and Hf isotopic data from Ordovician to Devonian–Carboniferous sedimentary rocks sampled from the Pearya terrane and adjacent areas, northern Ellesmere Island, record temporal variation in detrital zircon signature on the northeastern Arctic margin of Laurentia. Ordovician to Silurian clastic sediments deposited on the Pearya terrane record a provenance signal from before terrane accretion. This signal is dominated by Ordovician arc material and grains derived from recycling of Proterozoic metasedimentary and metaigneous basement. This pattern is similar to Neoproterozoic detrital zircon spectra from the Svalbard and East Greenland Caledonides, supporting the exotic nature of the Pearya terrane and links between Pearya and the Arctic Caledonides. Sedimentary rock deposited in the late Ordovician and early Silurian deep water basin of the Clements Markham fold belt likewise record a recycled source containing abundant early Neoproterozoic and Mesoproterozoic aged zircon. This contrasts with similarly aged units on Franklinian shelf, which contain much more abundant Paleoproterozoic zircon ages.
The provenance of the late Devonian–Carboniferous(?) Okse Bay Formation is dominated by sediment reworked from the units exposed in Pearya or the East Greenland Caledonides, with new sources derived from Paleoproterozoic domains of the Canadian-Greenland shield and late Devonian igneous rocks documented in Ellesmere and Axel Heiberg Islands, and Arctic Alaska. In contrast, detrital zircon age spectra from Devonian sedimentary rocks in the western Ellesmerian Clastic Wedge and northern Cordilleran clastic wedge of the Mackenzie Mountains contain abundant zircon grains yielding ages characteristic of the Caledonian and Timanian Orogens. This contrast suggests that the northeastern and northwestern sectors of the Paleozoic Laurentian Arctic margin received sediments from different terranes, with the northeast being dominated by reworked Caledonide terrane and Laurentian craton detritus, and the northwest likely receiving sediment from elements of Arctic Alaska–Chukotka. These detrital zircon data indicate that the Pearya terrane was isolated from northern Laurentia until after the late Silurian. The accretion of the Pearya terrane is constrained between the late Silurian and middle Devonian by stratigraphy, detrital zircon provenance shifts indicating a Laurentian cratonic source by the early Carboniferous, metamorphism in the orthogneiss basement observed between ca. 395 and 372 Ma, and the emplacement of the Cape Woods post-tectonic pluton at 390 Ma.
- absolute age
- Alaska
- Alexander Terrane
- Arctic region
- Asia
- Axel Heiberg Island
- Caledonides
- Canada
- Chukotka Russian Federation
- Commonwealth of Independent States
- Devonian
- Ellesmere Island
- Ellesmerian Orogeny
- fold belts
- Greenland
- lithofacies
- Lu/Hf
- nesosilicates
- Nunavut
- Ordovician
- orthosilicates
- paleogeography
- Paleozoic
- Queen Elizabeth Islands
- Russian Federation
- sedimentary rocks
- silicates
- Silurian
- stratigraphic units
- Svalbard
- Sverdrup Islands
- tectonics
- terranes
- U/Pb
- United States
- zircon
- zircon group
- Franklinian Basin
- detrital zircon
- Okse Bay Formation
- Pearya Terrane
- Danish River Formation
- Clements Markham Belt