Orogen proximal sedimentation in the Permian foreland basin

Abstract

The sedimentary fill of peripheral foreland basins has the potential to preserve a record of the processes of ocean closure and continental collision, as well as the long-term (i.e., 107–108 yr) sediment-routing evolution associated with these processes; however, the detrital record of these deep-time tectonic processes and the sedimentary response have rarely been documented during the final stages of supercontinent assembly. The stratigraphy within the southern margin of the Delaware Basin and Marathon fold and thrust belt preserves a record of the Carboniferous–Permian Pangean continental assembly, culminating in the formation of the Delaware and Midland foreland basins of North America. Here, we use 1721 new detrital zircon (DZ) U-Pb ages from 13 stratigraphic samples within the Marathon fold and thrust belt and Glass Mountains of West Texas in order to evaluate the provenance and sediment-routing evolution of the southern, orogen-proximal region of this foreland basin system. Among these new DZ data, 85 core-rim age relationships record multi-stage crystallization related to magmatic or metamorphic events in sediment source areas, further constraining source terranes and sediment routing. Within samples, a lack of Neoproterozoic–Cambrian zircon grains in the pre-orogenic Mississippian Tesnus Formation and subsequent appearance of this zircon age group in the syn-orogenic Pennsylvanian Haymond Formation point toward initial basin inversion and the uplift and exhumation of volcanic units related to Rodinian rifting. Moreover, an upsection decrease in Grenvillian (ca. 1300–920 Ma) and an increase in Paleozoic zircons denote a progressive provenance shift from that of dominantly orogenic highland sources to that of sediment sources deeper in the Gondwanan hinterland during tectonic stabilization. Detrital zircon core-rim age relationships of ca. 1770 Ma cores with ca. 600–300 Ma rims indicate Amazonian cores with peri-Gondwanan or Pan-African rims, Grenvillian cores with ca. 580 Ma rims are correlative with Pan-African volcanism or the ca. 780–560 Ma volcanics along the rifted Laurentian margin, and Paleozoic core-rim age relationships are likely indicative of volcanic arc activity within peri-Gondwana, Coahuila, or Oaxaquia. Our results suggest dominant sediment delivery to the Marathon region from the nearby southern orogenic highland; less sediment was delivered from the axial portion of the Ouachita or Appalachian regions suggesting that this area of the basin was not affected by a transcontinental drainage. The provenance evolution of sediment provides insights into how continental collision directs the dispersal and deposition of sediment in the Permian Basin and analogous foreland basins.

Tectonic controls on the evolution of mixed carbonate‐siliciclastic systems: Insights from the late Palaeozoic Ouachita‐Marathon Foreland, United States

“…It is generally agreed that the dominant DZs (Group A, B and C) in the Ouachita‐Marathon foreland are from peri‐Gondwana and Gondwana terranes in Mexico and Central America (Gao et al., 2020; Liu & Stockli, 2020; Soreghan & Soreghan, 2013; Soto‐Kerans et al., 2020). An inferred southern source region only signifies that the basement source lay to the south.…”

“…Deformation in the Ouachita‐Marathon collisional orogen drove basin evolution and sediment dispersal. Studies of depositional systems (Brown et al., 1973; Galloway & Brown, 1972; Hamlin, 2009; Wright, 2011) and sediment provenance (Alsalem et al., 2018; Liu & Stockli, 2020; Soto‐Kerans et al., 2020) suggest that the Pennsylvanian to lowermost Wolfcampian synorogenic clastic wedges transported sediment to the foreland by local transverse and axial systems (northward and eastward) with headwaters in the Ouachita‐Marathon orogen. In contrast, sediment delivery during the postorogenic Leonardian (North American Stage, ca.…”

Progradational slope architecture and sediment distribution in outcrops of the mixed carbonate-siliciclastic Bone Spring Formation, Permian Basin, west Texas

“…Carbonate production in the early Permian was dominated by packstone-and grainstone-bank margins of reworked skeletal debris (McDaniel and Pray, 1967;Kirkby, 1982) and transition to boundstone-and rudstone-reef-rimmed margins in the late Permian (Hills, 1984;Harman, 2011). While carbonate sediment production occurred all around the basin margins, terrigenous (i.e., siliciclastic) sediment entering the Delaware Basin was predominantly sourced from the north and east where aeolian and fluvial sediments were deposited on the shelf and shelf margin (Presley, 1987;Fischer and Sarnthein, 1988;Soreghan and Soreghan, 2013), with some terrigenous input from the Marathon-Ouachita-Sonora region to the south (Soto- Kerans et al, 2020). During Leonardian time, and especially during low sea-level conditions, the entrance to the Panthalassa Ocean to the west was restricted by a sill in the Hovey Channel (Fitchen, 1997); this sill hindered water circulation in the basin, resulting in euxinic conditions (McDaniel and Pray, 1967), minimal bioturbation, and preservation of organic-rich sediment (Hills, 1984).…”

Tectonic exhumation of the Central Alps recorded by detrital zircon in the Molasse Basin, Switzerland

“…LASS depth profiling by ICP-MS has enabled a more systematic harvesting of these relationships and hence a complete picture of the growth of the detrital zircon grains (e.g., Barber et al, 2019). We applied this methodology to samples of the Lucerne Section following the analytical procedures of Marsh and Stockli (2015) and Soto-Kerans et al (2020). For discussion purposes, these data were divided into two groups: (1) depositional ages older than 21 Ma and (2) depositional ages younger than 21 Ma.…”