Detrital zircons from Cretaceous midcontinent strata reveal an Appalachian Mountains–Cordilleran foreland basin connection

Abstract

U-Pb ages (n = 403) of detrital zircons from the Dakota Formation in western Iowa and eastern Nebraska provide evidence for westwardflowing fluvial systems that stretched from the Appalachian highlands to the western U.S. Cordilleran foreland basin during Albian-Cenomanian time. Approximately 78% of detrital zircon grains match the ages of Grenvillian (1.3-1.0 Ga), Pan-African (750-500 Ma), and Paleozoic (500-310 Ma) bedrock sources located within the present-day Appalachian Mountains. The presence of minor detrital zircon grains of Paleoproterozoic (2.5-1.5 Ga) or Archean age (>2.5 Ga) indicates that northern source regions in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Canada did not contribute a significant volume of sediment, as had been previously interpreted. Based on similarities between detrital zircon signatures in the midcontinent strata and time-equivalent Cordilleran foreland basin strata, Appalachian sources may have contributed a previously unrecognized volume of sediment to the Albian-Cenomanian foreland basin system. Sediment flux from the Appalachian region to the Cordilleran foreland basin during middle Cretaceous time may have been related to increased uplift and exhumation due to passage over a mantle plume track.

Distinct Responses of Intraplate Sedimentation to Different Subsidence Mechanisms: Insights From Forward Landscape Evolution Simulations

“…This provides an important constraint on the mechanism of the underlying tectonic subsidence. For instance, the WIS formation has been attributed to a variety of tectonic driving mechanisms, including flexural isostatic subsidence within the Sevier foreland basin (DeCelles, ; Finzel, ), geographically stationary dynamic subsidence above a shallow Farallon slab (Mitrovica et al., ), as well as subsidence within the westward‐shifting continent above a sinking slab (Liu et al, ; Spasojevic et al, ). The observed landward migratory sedimentation of WIS recorded in systematically tilted strata and migrating depocenters (Heller & Liu, ; Liu et al, ) supports the geographically shifting dynamic subsidence theory (Liu et al, ; Spasojevic et al, ).…”

“…This research is partly motivated by the unique stratigraphy of the Cretaceous Western Interior Seaway (WIS) in North America ( Figure 1B; Liu et al, 2011), whose sedimentary structures are inconsistent with Liu et al (2011), where the strata are generally tilted in one direction, in contrast to the traditional flat-lying strata in A. the traditional, isostasy-based model ( Figure 1A). Previous models for the formation of the WIS include the foreland basin hypothesis (DeCelles, 2004;Finzel, 2014), dynamic subsidence above a shallow Farallon slab (Mitrovica et al, 1989), and dynamic subsidence of a moving continent over a sinking slab (Liu et al, 2008;Spasojevic et al, 2009). These are all conceptual models that lack detailed predictions of surface responses to the tectonic forcing.…”

Age and provenance of upland gravels in Missouri, USA, and their relationship to Early Pleistocene glaciation

“…Grenville-age zircons (1200-900 Ma) constitute a prominent, but smaller, portion (20-29%). Some of the Grenville grains inevitably recycled from strata within the Mississippi River Basin (Moecher & Samson 2006;Laskowski et al 2013;Finzel 2014). However, given that the granitic clasts in the Dunn Road gravel are glacial erratics and that these were eroded from Grenville-age rock, some of the Grenvilleage zircons in that sample (20%) must have undergone glacial transport.…”

Detrital Zircon Geochronologic Constraints on Patterns and Drivers of Continental‐Scale Sediment Dispersal in the Late Mississippian

“…An increasing number of studies have focused their efforts on testing various aspects of the Gehrels et al () model (e.g., Finzel, ; Benyon et al, ; Lawton et al, ; Xie, O'Connor, et al, ; Xie, Cains, et al, ; Xie, Buratowski, et al, , Xie, Anthony, & Busbey, ; Xu et al, ; Thomas et al, ; Alsalem et al, ; Kissock et al, ). However, most of these published investigations have focused on Pennsylvanian and younger strata.…”