Detrital zircon geochronology of the Shoo Fly Complex, northern Sierra Terrane, northeastern California

Understanding a critical basinal link in Cretaceous Cordilleran paleogeography: Detailed provenance of the Hornbrook Formation, Oregon and California

“…Grove et al, 2008). These Precambrian age distributions are not unique (LaMaskin, 2012), and match well with detrital ages found in the Antelope Mountain Quartzite of the eastern Klamath terranes (Wallin et al, 2000), quartzose sedimentary rocks in the Eastern Hayfork terrane of the Klamath Mountains (Scherer et al, 2010), and the Shoo Fly complex and overlap assemblage in the Sierran Foothills belt (Harding et al, 2000;Spurlin et al, 2000). Detrital zircon ages in the Blue Mountains Province and the Black Rock terrane also overlap with the Klamath River Conglomerate cobble ages (Darby et al, 2000), but these regions are not characterized by quartzite units and therefore are not considered likely sources here.…”

Regional Detrital Zircon Provenance of Exotic Metasandstone Blocks, Eastern Hayfork Terrane, Western Paleozoic and Triassic Belt, Klamath Mountains, California

“…The lack of any Mesozoic and/ or Paleozoic zircons precludes long transport distances during the Paleozoic or early Mesozoic from the northern British Columbia miogeocline and further supports the conclusion that the original depositional realm of these blocks was a continental margin. Figure 5 illustrates that the age spectra for detrital zircon suites from the five studied metasandstone blocks in the Eastern Hayfork terrane are similar to those of multiple Cordilleran terranes: the AMQ of the Eastern Klamath Yreka terrane (Wallin et al 2000), the Harmony B sequence of the RMA (Gehrels et al 2000b), the PVF of the Northern Sierra terrane (Spurlin et al 2000), and the LDC allochthon stack of the Shoo Fly Complex of the Northern Sierra terrane (Harding et al 2000). The similarity in age spectra for these different units requires further consideration.…”

“…It was interpreted Figure 5. Probability density plots for sandstones from the Eastern Hayfork terrane (a; this study), the Antelope Mountain Quartzite (b; Wallin et al 2000), the Picayune Valley Formation (c; Spurlin et al 2000), the Lang-Duncan Peak-Culbertson Lake allochthon of the Shoo Fly Complex (d; Harding et al 2000), and the Harmony B sequence of the Roberts Mountains allochthon (e; Gehrels et al 2000b). as deposited in a channelized deep-sea fan environment (Harwood 1992) lying unconformably above the Shoo Fly Complex and was thought by Spurlin et al (2000) to have been sourced in the Shoo Fly Complex and/or the RMA.…”

“…The LDC samples analyzed for detrital zircons are poorly sorted, continentsourced, deep-sea turbidites (Harding et al 2000). Petrographic analysis indicates that they are matrix-rich quartz arenites (subfacies B2 of petrofacies B; Dickinson and Gehrels 2000).…”

Geochemistry of the Great Valley Group: an integrated provenance record

“…Similarly, reduction in the percentage of Precambrian grains in Upper Cretaceous strata may reflect dilution of the Precambrian signal by the increasingly abundant zircon eroded from the zircon-rich magmatic arc. Furthermore, the shift in the Precambrian age signature from abundant Grenville-age zircon in Lower Cretaceous strata to a larger proportion of >1800 Ma zircon in Upper Cretaceous strata may reflect derivation of zircon from different meta-sedimentary terranes in the Sierran foothills (Figure 10), such as the Shoo Fly Complex (Harding et al 2000) and overlap sequence (Spurlin et al 2000), rather than from Klamath Mountains sources. This shift to Sierran sources for the Upper Cretaceous GVG is consistent with a change from southto west-directed palaeocurrent indicators and may be related to Late Cretaceous subsidence of the eastern Klamath Mountains and deposition of the middle to Upper Cretaceous Hornbrook Formation on eastern Klamath terranes (Haggart 1986;Nilsen 1993;Surpless and Beverly 2013 Eastern Hayfork Terrane; n = 162 Scherer et al (2010) G r e n v i l l e o r o g e n Y a v a p a i -M a t z a t z a l A n o r o g e n i c g r a n i t e s northwestern Laurentia…”