A Multi-proxy Provenance Study of Late Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic Sandstones in the Eastern Sverdrup Basin and Its Bearing on Arctic Palaeogeographic Reconstructions

Abstract

A multi-proxy provenance study of Late Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic sandstones from the eastern Sverdrup Basin was undertaken employing optical petrography and heavy mineral analysis, chemical analysis of apatite, garnet and rutile grains, as well as detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology and Hf isotope analysis. Late Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic strata on the southern basin margin are inferred as being predominantly reworked from Silurian to Devonian strata within the adjacent Franklinian Basin succession. Higher-grade metamorphic detritus appeared during Middle to Late Triassic times and indicates exhumation and erosion of lower (Neoproterozoic to Cambrian) levels within the Franklinian Basin succession and/or a direct detrital input from the Canadian-Greenland Shield. The provenance of northern-derived sediments is more enigmatic owing to the subsequent opening of the Arctic Ocean. Northern-derived Middle Permian to Early Triassic sediments were likely derived from proximal areas of the Chukotkan part of the Arctic Alaska-Chukotka microplate. Late Triassic northern-derived sediments have different detrital zircon U–Pb age spectra from Middle Permian to Early Triassic ones and were likely derived from the Uralian orogenic belt and/or the Arctic Uralides. The loss of this sand input during latest Triassic times is interpreted to reflect drainage reorganisation farther upstream on the Barents Shelf. Middle Jurassic sands in the northern and axial parts of the basin were largely reworked from local northern-derived Late Triassic strata. This may have been facilitated by rift flank uplift of the northern basin margin in response to rifting in the adjacent proto-Amerasia Basin.