Detrital zircon ages and provenance of the Upper Paleozoic successions of Kotel’ny Island (New Siberian Islands archipelago)

Abstract

Plate-tectonic models for the Paleozoic evolution of the Arctic are numerous and diverse. Our detrital zircon provenance study of Upper Paleozoic sandstones from Kotel'ny Island (New Siberian Island archipelago) provides new data on the provenance of clastic sediments and crustal affinity of the New Siberian Islands. Upper Devonian-Lower Carboniferous deposits yield detrital zircon populations that are consistent with the age of magmatic and metamorphic rocks within the Grenvillian-Sveconorwegian, Timanian, and Caledonian orogenic belts, but not with the Siberian craton. The Kolmogorov-Smirnov test reveals a strong similarity between detrital zircon populations within Devonian-Permian clastics of the New Siberian Islands, Wrangel Island (and possibly Chukotka), and the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago. These results suggest that the New Siberian Islands, along with Wrangel Island and the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, were located along the northern margin of Laurentia-Baltica in the Late Devonian-Mississippian and possibly made up a single tectonic block. Detrital zircon populations from the Permian clastics record a dramatic shift to a Uralian provenance. The data and results presented here provide vital information to aid Paleozoic tectonic reconstructions of the Arctic region prior to opening of the Mesozoic oceanic basins.

Biotic paleothermometry constrains on Arctic plates reconstructions: Carboniferous and Permian (Zhokhov Island, De-Longa Group Islands, New Siberian Archipelago)

“…Northern Hemisphere paleogeographic reconstructions (315 Ma, Early Moscovian) established with different data sets and approaches: (a) according to fusulinid occurrences in different terranes, the position of NSA, Alaska‐Chukotka composite terrane, and Wrangel Island (shown as black masses) has to be south of the forbiddance line (~30–35°N at the Early Moscovian global warming); (b) reconstruction proposed from the paleomagnetic studies [ Metelkin et al ., ]; (c) the same terranes with a reconstruction developed from lithofacies and paleoenvironmental proxies [ Golonka , ]; and (d) the reconstruction developed from detrital zircon provenance studies [ Kuzmichev and Pease , ; Colpron and Nelson , ; Miller et al ., ; Pease et al ., 2014; Ershova et al ., ]. In all reconstructions except Figure a, NSA, Alaska‐Chukotka composite terrane, and Wrangel Island positioned north from the northern forbiddance line at around 45–60°N.…”

“…Most of the Late Paleozoic Arctic paleotectonic/paleogeographic reconstructions, particularly the most recent ones, were developed from paleomagnetic, paleoenvironments/paleolithofacies distribution and detrital zircon provenance studies [ Drachev et al ., ; Ershova et al ., ; Khramov and Ustritsky , ; Kuzmichev , ; Metelkin et al ., ; Miller et al ., ; Pease et al ., ]. The biotic constrains were generally not considered in these studies.…”

“…Recently developed methods of assessing detrital zircon provenance have produced plausible paleogeographic models and reconstructions [ Kuzmichev , ; Drachev et al ., ; Miller et al ., ; Pease et al ., ; Ershova et al ., ]. These zircon provenance studies show the distribution of the sediment possessing these zircons and point to the possible source region but do not give any information on the exact paleoposition and paleoenvironments of the sampled sandstones.…”

“…Some of the recent detrital zircon provenance studies in the NSA suggest that the Late Paleozoic, synorogenic foreland basin deposits of the Uralian orogen are continuous through Taimyr toward the NSA [ Scott et al ., ; Pease et al ., ]. Another suggestion is that the paleoposition of NSA was along the northern margin of Laurentia‐Baltica, at least during the Late Devonian‐Mississippian [ Ershova et al ., ]. According to Miller et al .…”

“…The distribution of the ages of the detrital zircon population from this sample contrasts sharply with the data from other Mississippian sequences in Wrangel but has strong similarity with Middle Pennsylvanian and Lower Permian sequences in Wrangel and particularly with the detrital zircon populations from Upper Paleozoic strata of the Seward Peninsula and Brooks Range‐North Slope of northern Alaska [ Miller et al ., ]. Similarly, the consideration of the age of the rocks from where detrital zircon populations are studied, as a rule, is done in accordance of older geological maps and rarely, if at all, checked with the current biostratigraphy from these sequences [ Miller et al ., ; Pease et al ., ; Ershova et al ., ]. However, as in case with age deviation of the sample WR‐35B from Wrangel Island, the lack of chronostratigraphic control may produce significant errors in the interpretation of detrital zircon populations and consequently incorrect paleotectonic interpretations and reconstructions.…”