Provenance of Jurassic–Cretaceous siliciclastic rocks from the northern Siberian Craton: an integrated heavy mineral study

Abstract

The U–Pb ages of detrital zircons and the chemical compositions of detrital garnets and tourmalines from Jurassic– Cretaceous sedimentary rocks of the northern part of the Priverkhoyansk Foreland Basin, the central part of the Yenisey–Khatanga Depression, and the northern part of the Taimyr–Severnaya Zemlya Fold and Thrust Belt were used for a provenance study. Detrital zircons display two age populations, dominated by Late Paleozoic and Paleoproterozoic– Archean zircons, respectively. The first population was recognized in all samples, whereas the second is restricted to Cretaceous samples, suggesting that erosion of the Siberian Craton basement was the main source of clastic sediments only during the Cretaceous. The chemical compositions of the garnets also indicate several sources of detrital material, which changed with time. There are significant differences in the composition of Jurassic (grossular–almandine) and Cretaceous (mainly pyrope) garnets. The pyrope association is characteristic of the high-grade metamorphic rocks of the Siberian Craton, which correlates well with our zircon data. The chemical composition of tourmaline grains varies widely and does not show significant differences between samples of different ages, therefore could not be used to discriminate between different provenance areas in this study.