Detrital zircon record of the Mesoproterozoic to Lower Cambrian sequences of NW Russia: implications for the paleogeography of the Baltic interior

Abstract

Laser ablation inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA-ICP-MS) U–Pb detrital zircon isotope data from Mesoproterozoic to Lower Cambrian strata of the St Petersburg region are used to characterize the paleogeographic and tectonic evolution of the Baltica continent. We dated fifteen samples and divided them into three groups based on their distribution of detrital zircons. The first group (comprising Lower Mesoproterozoic rocks) is dominated by Early Mesoproterozoic and Late Paleoproterozoic zircons, mostly derived from weathering of proximal source region including rapakivi granites exposed across the neighboring Baltic Shield. The second group includes Upper Ediacaran samples (Redkino and Kotlin Regional Stages), with major zircon populations ranging in age between 1970–1850 and 1600–1550 Ma, respectively, correlating with magmatic and metamorphic events within the Svecofennian Orogeny and rapakivi granite igneous activity in the interior of Fennoscandia. The third group of samples, collected from both the uppermost Ediacaran and lowermost Cambrian deposits (Kotlin, Lontova and Dominopol Regional Stages), contains older Paleo-Mesoproterozoic zircons as well as Late Neoproterozoic-earliest Cambrian zircons, indicating a Timanian source area and exhibiting a age spectra similar to spectra for coeval rocks of the Scandinavian Caledonides. Therefore, we conclude that reworking and transport of continental detritus from the Timanian Orogen began during Late Ediacaran, earlier than previously supposed, with transport of Timanian detritus not only to the marginal part of Baltica (known from the Scandinavian Caledonides), but also to the distal interior of Baltica.