testing the reliability of discrimination diagrams for determining the tectonic depositional environment of ancient sedimentary basins the lower palaeozoic rocks of the west of ireland caledonides provide a novel way to test the reliability of discrimination diagrams in sedimentary rocks a comparison between the geochemical signature of the tuff bands and the signature from the adjacent sedimentary rocks reveals that a combination of multi element diagrams and discrimination diagrams is best suited to identify the tectonic environment of deposition the tuff bands from the ordovician and silurian formations all carry an active continental margin signature only three of the sedimentary discrimination diagrams assigned more than 50 of the samples to this setting the results from the discrimination diagrams indicate an active margin setting for the ordovician mweelrea and rosroe formations and the silurian formations whilst the derrylea and sheeffry sedimentary samples have a passive margin signature overall the results show that in the case where felsic volcanism occurred on a quartz rich source region the active continental margin field on many established discrimination diagrams is not reliable in identifying this setting however the study highlights one of the key strengths of discrimination diagrams in their ability to be used as a lever to reveal significant information about the sediment source as in this case to identify sediment that has been transported from different tectonic settings and deposited in one sedimentary basin

sourcelands for the carboniferous pennine river system constraints from sedimentary evidence and u pb geochronology using zircon and monazite

geochemistry and provenance of the middle ordovician austin glen member normanskill formation and the taconian orogeny in new england the austin glen member of the upper middle ordovician normanskill formation is a sandstone shale ysch succession deposited in the foreland of the taconian orogen petrographic major and trace element and nd pb isotopic data provide substantial constraints on its provenance lack of k feldspar and paucity of plagioclase in addition to the dominance of sedimentary rock fragments indicate that the source was dominated by recycled sedimentary components major and trace element data support this conclusion and indicate that the provenance of both shales and sandstones was the same no evidence of an ophiolitic or volcanic component was observed interpretation of nd isotopic characteristics are complicated by a partial resetting of the nd isotope system at about the time of sedimentation but indicate that the provenance of the austin glen member had a long term history of light rare earth element lree enrichment average tdm 1a8 ga furthermore nd isotopic compositions are extremely homogeneous end 8a1 0a6 1 s d n 23 at 450 ma the approximate depositional age indicating either a single source or very well mixed sources 207pb 204pb ratios are variable but within the range of pb isotopic compositions typically described as grenvillian the range of 207pb 204pb is greater than expected for the range of 206pb 204pb and suggests an additional component of pb possibly introduced during diagenesis the immediate source of the austin glen member may have been the accretionary prism that developed as older sediments of the laurentian margin were scraped off the basin oor incorporated within the accretionary prism and shed into the basin no evidence indicating the arrival of an undifferentiated island arc or continental fragment during the taconian orogeny has been found the data acquired during this study can be explained almost exclusively by grenville province source components but with possible additional contributions from older laurentian terranes and late proterozoic rift volcanics that are not readily quanti ed but likely to have been minor accordingly we conclude that the taconian orogeny in new england involved either 1 a continental arc that involved exclusively laurentia 2 collision of a continental block with identical geochemical characteristics as laurentia or 3 essentially no detritus from any exotic colliding block island arc or continental fragment reached the foreland basin at the time of austin glen deposition

behavior of rare earth elements in a paleoweathering profile on granodiorite in the front range colorado usa abstract a paleoweathering profile on the boulder granodiorite in northern colorado provides an opportunity to trace the behavior of rees from parent rock through a weathering profile into unconformably overlying permian sediments with progressive upward weathering of the granodiorite na2o cao sio2 ta hf co th cr sc cr th zr hf la sc zr y and la th decrease al2o3 and fe2o3t increase and tio2 mgo k2o p2o5 rb zr sc cr co hf nb ta y th u ree ti nb and zr nb increase to maximum values and then either level off or decrease lree enrichment is less in the weathering profile than in the parent granodiorite and although the parent does not have an eu anomaly or only a slight positive anomaly all samples from the weathering profile and overlying sediments have significant negative eu anomalies this observation is especially important in that it shows conclusively that a negative eu anomaly can be produced during chemical weathering of granitoids we suggest these eu anomalies are due to relative enrichment of the other rees and partial loss of eu during the breakdown of plagioclase the boulder weathering profile also has a very minor negative ce anomaly that is within error of a ce anomaly in the parent in the unweathered parent 50 of the ree are contained in sphene and in the case of la also in allanite from 10 20 of the ree are contained in apatite and biotite hornblende and from 7 10 of the hrees are in zircon with exception of eu for which feldspars contribute about 8 negligible amounts of rees occur in the feldspars in weathered samples 75 of the rees are contained in clay minerals the crossover between sphene and clay control of rees occurs over a distance of 1 m near the contact with fresh rock except for their small negative eu anomalies the clay minerals have ree patterns very similar to those of the parent rock isocon plots suggest apparent enrichments of many elements in the boulder weathering profile result from losses of na ca and si during plagioclase weathering in addition variable amounts of sr eu ta nb p and ba were lost during weathering although th u zr y th sc zr hf lu hf and ti zr may have been transferred relatively unchanged from granodiorite parent to the bulk weathering profile most other element ratios and ree distributions were significantly changed during weathering this observation implies that caution needs to be exercised when using ree patterns and element ratios to trace sediment provenance the fact that most element ratios and ree distributions also differ between fountain sediments and the bulk weathering profile may be related to one or a combination of four factors listed in order of probable decreasing importance contribution of other sources to the fountain sediments sorting of minerals during sediment deposition remobilization of elements during diagenesis and leaching of elements by water flow through the upper meter of the weathering profile

provenance of upper precambrian lower cambrian shales in the central iberian zone spain evidence from a chemical and isotopic study geochemical and isotopic sr nd o data are presented for upper precambrian and lower cambrian shale sequences from the central iberian zone spain in order to define geochemical discriminants between them and to assess the nature of the source regions supplying these basins elemental data especially th sc ratios coupled with endt values of 2 5 suggest that the upper precambrian rocks contain a greater proportion of a much younger more mafic component than the lower cambrian sequence which has high th sc and endt of 7 3 coherent trends between elemental and o isotope data imply a homogeneous recycled source as the dominant provenance for the upper precambrian shales whereas a lack of such coherence for the lower cambrian sediments suggests a more heterogeneous provenance the sedimentological geochemical and isotopic data are consistent with the upper precambrian succession being derived ultimately from a polycyclic mixture of young pre cadomian mafic sources and older 2 ga crust in contrast the lower cambrian sequence was mainly derived from old more felsic crust which would have contributed increasingly greater proportions of material as the younger sources were progressively removed by erosion

proto avalonia a 1 2 1 0 ga tectonothermal event and constraints for the evolution of rodinia the neoproterozoic evolution of avalonia is thought to have been geodynamically linked to the amalgamation and dispersal of rodinia similar sm nd isotopic signatures for different periods of arc activity suggest that avalonian basement or proto avalonia was generated in a series of primitive oceanic island arcs between 1 2 and 1 0 ga because this interval coincides with the amalgamation of rodinia proto avalonia is inferred to have been located in a panthalassa like peri rodinian ocean an early 760 660 ma phase of avalonian arc activity is attributed to renewed subduction in the peri rodinian ocean following the breakup of rodinia which caused the accretion of avalonian terranes to the gondwanan margin by ca 650 ma further subduction along the margin occurred outboard of these terranes and resulted in the onset of main phase avalonian volcanism at 630 ma the diachronous cessation of arc magmatism is attributed to ridge trench collision and the generation of a continental transform the geodynamic link between avalonia and rodinia is analogous to that between the mesozoic dispersal of pangea and the tectonothermal evolution of western north america this event also resulted in the accretion of outboard terranes and in arc related magmatism that is currently being terminated in a diachronous manner by ridge collision and the generation of the san andreas transform the model implies that the neoproterozoic evolution of avalonia and other peri gondwanan terranes provide important constraints on the tectonic history of a large portion of the rodinian continental margin

geochemistry of shales from the archean 3 0 ga buhwa greenstone belt zimbabwe implications for provenance and source area weathering abstract phyllites from the archean 3 0 ga buhwa greenstone belt zimbabwe were deposited on a stable cratonic platform analyses of the phyllites generally define a single geochemical group based on major and trace element abundances the phyllites are strongly depleted in cao na2o and sr with respect to average archean upper crust by contrast k2o ba and rb are enriched several times relative to average archean upper crust reflecting basin scale k metasomatism transition metals are somewhat depleted whereas high field strength elements are typically enriched relative to average archean upper crust samples generally have fractionated lree patterns average cen smn 2 4 with small negative eu anomalies average eu eu 0 78 and generally flat hrees average gdn ybn 1 3 such geochemical characteristics suggest that the source dominantly consisted of tonalite with less common occurrences mafic volcanic rocks and granite mixing calculations which massbalance the rees and th sc suggest 70 tonalite 15 mafic volcanic rocks and 15 granite as possible proportions for the source of the phyllites a nearby early archean 3 5 ga continental nucleus preserves similar lithologies and is the probable source intense chemical weathering of the source terrane is indicated by premetasomatized chemical index of alteration values of 95 100 nearly complete depletion of cao and na2o and high al2o3 na2o ratios fine grained sediments of comparable age and presumed tectonic setting elsewhere in southern africa show similar geochemical characteristics implying that source area compositions and weathering intensities were similar these mature platformal deposits suggest a tectonically stable environment where intense chemical weathering took place at 3 0 ga across southern africa

provenance derived from the geochemistry of late paleozoic early mesozoic mudrocks of the pyeongan supergroup korea late carboniferous early triassic pyeongan supergroup korea was deposited in paralic to nonmarine environments developed disconformably on a lower paleozoic platformal sequence pyeongan supergroup mudrocks show progressive upsection changes in major trace and rare earth element compositions mudrocks in the lower and middle parts of the pyeongan supergroup are strongly depleted in cao and na2o while those in the upper part are enriched in these elements in parallel with cao and na2o the ratio of k2o al2o3 in the lower and middle sections is less than 0 3 while uppermost strata are enriched in k2o having k2o al2o3 ratios greater than 0 3 the index of compositional variability a measure of compositional maturity is less than 0 6 in the lower to middle section whereas in the uppermost strata it is greater than 0 7 similar trends are reflected in a cn k space compared to paas mudrocks of the pyeongan supergroup except for those in uppermost units they are depleted in mn ca and na and are slightly depleted in mg and p contrasting major oxide trends between the lower and middle parts of the pyeongan and the uppermost units are due to decreasing proportions of clay minerals and a concomitant increase in the proportion of nonclay silicate minerals due to increasing input of first cycle detritus excursions marked by increases in mgo na2o and cao reflect large scale input of nonclay first cycle minerals from crystalline source rocks due to large scale basement uplift incompatible elements are generally enriched in mudrocks of the pyeongan supergroup relative to paas while transition metals co ni cr and v are progressively depleted in younger parts of the section total rare earth element concentrations are higher than paas but chondrite normalized patterns display the typical lree enriched pattern of paas eu anomalies for most mudrocks are close to that of paas the youngest mudrocks in the pyeongan supergroup have the most negative values these trends can be explained by a sedimentary system dominated by detritus derived from recycled highly weathered granitic materials in the lower to middle pyeongan section with an increased proportion of less weathered detritus derived from fractionated granitic materials in uppermost strata such an interpretation is consistent with the results of studies on coarse grained sediments of the pyeongan supergroup

rare earth element redistribution and its effects on the neodymium isotope system in the austin glen member of the normanskill formation new york usa abstract three groups of ree patterns are observed for the sandstones and shales of the middle ordovician austin glen member of the normanskill formation one sandstone sample is enriched in middle and light rare earth elements the majority of samples are light rare earth element lree enriched with negative eu anomalies and flat heavy rare earth elements hrees whereas a third group appears to have lost lrees and middle rare earth element mrees homogeneous neodymium isotopic compositions for all samples at about the time of deposition nd 470 ma 8 2 1 1 2sd indicate that the source of the austin glen member was well mixed and that the neodymium had a long term enriched history the differences in the shape and abundances of the ree patterns combined with the neodymium isotope characteristics of the samples lead us to the conclusion that samarium and neodymium were fractionated and that the neodymium isotopic system might have been disturbed at about the time of deposition 470 ma most samples appear to have been affected by this process the two most altered shales lost about half of their neodymium and their sm nd ratios are higher than the sm nd ratios of average shales these two shales give clearly erroneous mantle extraction ages but the average tdm of the provenance can still be deduced 1700 1800 ma from the least disturbed sandstones with normal upper crustal sm nd ratios accordingly this study demonstrates that the rees may be transported and neodymium isotopes may be reequilibrated under certain sedimentary conditions e g diagenesis however in spite of evidence for ree redistribution provenance information tdm original ree patterns may still be inferred

rare earth element and mineralogic changes in holocene soil and stream sediment a case study in the wet mountains colorado u s a size fractions of soil and stream sediment developed on plutonic metamorphic or mixed plutonic metamorphic sources in the wet mountains colorado have been analyzed for ree rare earth elements and mineralogy the clay sized fractions 0 5 m and 0 5 2 m or 2 m have ree contents that are similar to more enriched than the source eu sm ratios that are similar to the source and la lu ratios that are higher than their corresponding source the 0 5 m fractions have lower ree contents than the corresponding 0 5 2 m fraction in every stream sediment for example unweathered san isabel batholith near the sampled stream sediment contains ree 511 712 ppm and eusmratio 0 17 0 19 and lalu cn 9 8 10 3 the corresponding 0 5 and 0 5 2 m fractions of sediment formed from san isabel batholith are enriched in the ree ree 1135 and 2225 ppm respec are slightly lower in eu sm ratios 0 16 and 0 14 respec and are higher in la lu ratios 12 2 and 16 3 respec than the unweathered rocks the silts have lree light ree contents and eu sm ratios very similar to the source due to similar mineralogy but silts have hree heavy ree contents higher than the source due to high zircon for example silt sized fractions in stream sediment draining the san isabel batholith contain ree 808 ppm eusmratio 0 18 and lalu cn 7 4 in contrast the sands contain lower ree contents similar to higher eu sm ratios and lower la lu ratios than the corresponding source due to depletion in heavy minerals concentrated in the ree and containing lower eu sm ratios relative to quartz and feldspar depleted in the ree and containing higher eu sm ratios for example the sand fraction from stream sediment from the san isabel batholith has ree 206 ppm eusmratio 0 17 and lalu cn 5 6 small variations of accessory minerals concentrated in the ree like allanite or sphene may cause drastic variation in ree content in the sand fraction clays and silts derived only from the plutonic rocks have higher ree and similar to lower eu sm ratios than corresponding fractions derived only from migmatites e g ree of silt fractions from migmatites 224 ppm and from plutons 375 808 ppm eu sm ratios from migmatites 0 17 and from plutons 0 11 0 18 the ree content and the eu sm ratio of clays and silts derived from migmatites are much more similar to the average of mcps mid continent platform sediment than corresponding fractions derived from the plutons mcps has ree 192 ppm eusm 0 19 lalu 8 0 the eusm ratio of sands derived from plutons and migmatite are lower to mostly higher than the mcps the ree content of sands from plutons are not necessarily higher than the mcps due to variation in heavy minerals like allanite or sphene concentrated in the ree sediments derived from mixed sources have ree contents in fine fractions that may not necessarily reflect the ree content of the nearest source for example 0 5 2 m and silt fractions developed on the san isabel batholith with a migmatite upstream have the high ree content of the batholith ree in 0 5 2 m fraction 1100 ppm silt 573 ppm while the corresponding 0 5 m fraction has the very low ree content of the migmatites ree 110 ppm these results suggest fine grained material near the source may sample a much larger area than coarser material near the source thus analysis of fine grained sediment associated with coarse grained material near the source may give a much different impression of the source than would determination of the source using classic petrographic examination of the sand or gravels

elemental evidence for crustal contamination of mantle derived caledonian syenite by metasediment anatexis and magma mixing abstract this paper presents elemental evidence that the mafic unit of the caledonian glen dessarry syenite northern scotland u k has been variably contaminated with material derived from the surrounding moine metasediments uncontaminated portions are shown to have trace element abundances and ratios similar to those of the central leucosyenite and island arc high k or shoshonitic magmas from present day oceanic settings by comparison contaminated samples display grossly disturbed trace element patterns including higher u th zr hf nb ta and heavy rare earths lower ba and sr and negative eu anomalies these features are matched in the elemental systematics of the moinian envelope but bulk incorporation of excessive amounts of metasediment would be required to reproduce the observed perturbations in especially the high field strength elements xenoliths within the contaminated mela syenites and parts of the adjacent country rock show petrographic evidence of melting since the source composition moine metasediment and residual mineralogy xenoliths are known simple geochemical models of melting and subsequent mixing with uncontaminated melasyenite melt have been computed the results provide close approximations to the observed geochemistry of the contaminated melasyenites particularly for the ree s moreover the residues of this hypothetical process have similar ree patterns to several samples of metasediment from immediately adjacent to the syenite contact nevertheless contemporaneous crystal liquid separation is required to explain the full range of elemental data contamination by this mechanism of melting followed by magma mixing is not immediately apparent in the major element relationships of the two melasyenite groups this seems to be the result of the approximate colinearity of the established melasyenite crystal fractionation path and the proposed granitic contaminant and may be a more general problem in the recognition of in situ contamination with metasedimentary melts in plutons whose fractionation itself proceeds towards a broadly granitic terminus

the influence of tectonically derived relief and climate on the extent of the last glaciation east of the patagonian ice fields argentina chile abstract two large ice fields between 46 30 and 51 30 s cover the patagonian andes the north and south patagonian ice fields are separated by the transandine depth line at 47 45 to 48 15 s canal and rio baker run through this depression the two ice fields are generally considered relics of a continuous ice cap which covered the entire patagonian andes from 39 to 52 s and extended far into the eastern foreland of the andes this assumption is not correct for the 200 km long section of the andes between lago pueyrredon lago cochrane in chile 47 15 s and lago san martin lago o higgins in chile 48 45 s the lack of a continuous ice cap extending far into the east is caused by the transandine depth line playing a crucial role in the fluvial erosion and the glacial scouring of this tectonic zone this depression formed a river system e g rio baker rio bravo and rio mayer that drains towards the west reconstruction of the maximum glacial advance of the last ice age shows that the eastern outlet glaciers of the two ice fields between lago san martin and lago pueyrredon did not drain towards the east but rather followed the general gradient of the transandine depth line in this area the eastern flank of the andes between monte san lorenzo 3770 m and sa de sangra 2155 m supported valley glaciers which were independent of the expanding ice fields only a few valley glaciers advanced towards the patagonian meseta the terminal moraines of these glaciers were erroneously interpreted as the eastern edge of a continuous ice cap north of 47 30 s the outlet glaciers of the npi advanced 200 km during the lgm and the late glacial advances nearly reached to 71 w in contrast south of 49 s glacier expansion was comparatively less the lgm is situated only 85 115 km east of the present margins of the large outlet glaciers o higgins viedma and upsala and no late glacial advance reached 72 w these considerable differences of glacier expansion were influenced by the northward migration of the westerly precipitation belt during glacial cycles there is tentative evidence that the glaciers advanced three times in the period from 14 000 to 9 500 14c years bp

detrital muscovite 40ar 39ar ages from carboniferous sandstones of the british isles provenance and implications for the uplift history of orogenic belts major progradations of clastic sediments are recorded in the sedimentary record of the famennian and the visean namurian of the united kingdom and surrounding waters we have determined 40ar 39ar ages of 162 detrital muscovites from 11 coarse sandstones which were deposited between 370 and 465 ma spanning both progradations detrital mica ages are dominated by a peak at 415 ma with minor peaks at 440 ma and 390 ma the 415 ma muscovites are derived from the unroofing of the scandian nappes during the compressional phase of the caledonian orogeny in scandinavia the 440 ma muscovites record pre scandian orogenic activity which is rarely preserved in the orogenic record thermochronological evidence suggests that episodic postorogenic uplift and exhumation events kept the scandian orogen a major topographic feature and likely a sediment source for over 100 million years after nappe emplacement and implicates tectonic rather than climatic control on the clastic sediment progradations the near total absence of detrital muscovites with ages 415 ma suggests that the scandian nappes had not been entirely eroded despite repeated uplift during the postorogenic extension the river s which supplied the sediments probably ran parallel to the strike of the major scandian thrusts along the length of the caledonian orogen in a manner analogous to the major river systems of contemporary orogenic highlands

geochemistry of permian triassic shales in the salt range pakistan implications for provenance and tectonism at the gondwana margin abstract upper permian and lower triassic griesbachian dienerian smithian and spathian shales in the salt range pakistan were deposited at the margin of gondwana during a time of active rifting xrf and inaa major element trace element and rare earth element ree analyses of shales exhibit progressive change in chemistry from upper permian to spathian sio 2 al 2 o 3 decreases upsection and k 2 o na 2 o increases together with an increase in the chemical index of alteration cia hfs elements are enriched relative to paas at the base of the sequence but are progressively depleted upward most compatible elements are depleted throughout relative to paas sc however is relatively enriched producing a general decline in th sc upward with the exception of a single sample at the base of the sequence ree shows little variation from upper permian to smithian ranging from 159 to 146 but increases to 206 in the spathian chondrite normalised la n yb n also increases upsection from 9 0 to 12 8 eu eu values are 0 48 0 54 in the upper permian dienerian sequence but anomalies become smaller 0 53 0 65 and more similar to paas 0 66 in the smithian and spathian such values are typical of continentally derived sediments but the slight decrease upward suggests a small influx of more mafic material this and decreasing th sc contrasts with increasing la n yb n and ree which imply an increasingly felsic source these anomalies may be resolved by modeling potential sources using the ree and th sc the modeling suggests that the permian dienerian sediments could have been derived from a source of upper proterozoic crust upc phanerozoic granite pg and amphibolite amp in ratios around 60 38 2 in the smithian and spathian proportions change to 76 20 4 and 68 28 4 respectively although the increase in the amp component is small when combined with increase in upc at the expense of pg it is sufficient to approximate the changes in th sc and eu eu la n yb n ratios in the permian dienerian may be influenced by concentrations of hree enriched garnet and zircon cia indices and a cn k relations show that source weathering conditions oscillated between non steady state permian dienerian smithian and steady state griesbachian spathian indicative of episodic uplift at the gondwana margin cia ratios in the spathian are greatest in the spathian indicative of more intense weathering at that time however a cn k relations ree contents and the modeled upc pg amp mix in the spathian could also have been produced by recycling of smithian sediments

provenance of the pre devonian sediments of england and wales sm nd isotopic evidence nd values and clast petrography of the longmyndian sediments of shropshire indicate a provenance dominated by juvenile high nd t uriconian volcanic sources but with an increasing detrital contribution from older low nd t metamorphic sources up section by contrast most lower palaeozoic strata of england and wales have low nd t values typical of sediments derived from long established continental crust the sm nd isotopic evidence suggests that avalonia received sediment from an adjacent large continent in the cambrian to lower ordovician and in the silurian ordovician and silurian volcanicity supplied juvenile detritus only during and shortly after active volcanism

nd isotopes in the stratigraphic record of the montagne noire french massif central no significant paleozoic juvenile inputs and pre hercynian paleogeography abstract we present sm nd isotopic data on 46 shales three sandstones and four volcanogenic and volcanic rocks from the montagne noire in the southern french massif central the sedimentary record that makes up one of the most complete paleozoic sequences in europe was sampled from early cambrian to early jurassic 560 180 ma this sequence is interrupted by two hiatuses the first is situated in the middle ordovician 490 450 ma and the second during the carboniferous 330 300 ma we analyzed volcanogenic materials and lavas in order to identify possible source materials the neodymium isotopic initial compositions expressed in documentclass aastex usepackage amsbsy usepackage amsfonts usepackage amssymb usepackage bm usepackage mathrsfs usepackage pifont usepackage stmaryrd usepackage textcomp usepackage portland xspace usepackage amsmath amsxtra usepackage ot2 ot1 fontenc newcommand cyr renewcommand rmdefault wncyr renewcommand sfdefault wncyss renewcommand encodin

sedimentary rocks and crustal evolution tectonic setting and secular trends a significant change in the composition of turbidites deposited at active tectonic settings is seen at the archean post archean transition in comparison to post archean active margin turbidites archean greenstone turbidites exhibit more uniform th sc ratios but with a similar average greater hree depletion gd n yb n 2 less eu depletion eu eu mostly 0 85 and an absence of low th u ratios th u 3 these data indicate that differing mantle sources and or conditions of mantle melting existed during the archean and that intracrustally differentiated rocks older cratons or young differentiated arcs were relatively unimportant as provenance components for archean turbidites in contrast some sedimentary rocks preserved in archean platformal sequences of high grade terranes display significant negative eu anomalies similar to the majority of post archean shales indicating that the general process of cratonization including intracrustal differentiation has taken place since at least 3

upper crustal recycling in southern britain evidence from nd and sr isotopes analyses of representative rocks from southern britain are used to examine in detail the evolution of this segment of continental crust the vast majority of late precambrian basement rocks have unradiogenic 87sr 86sr ratios and model tdmnd ages of 1 3 ga although locally the rosslare complex and rushton schists have model tdmnd ages 1 7 ga identifying for the first time an old component in the basement of southern britain following the closure of the iapetus ocean sediments exhibit a progressive increase in model tdmnd ages 1 35 ga in the lower palaeozoic to 1 75 ga in the jurassic this variation demonstrates the southerly transport of detritus tdmnd 2 0 ga from the mixed archaean proterozoic terrains of northern europe and america the granitoids have significantly higher end than those of contemporaneous sediments and thus yield a different nd isotope evolution curve when considered in isolation the majority of rocks analysed have model tdmsr ages in the range 1 2 to 0 46 ga with youngest sediments generally recording the lowest model ages therefore with time the sediments record a striking increase in the ratio of model nd to model sr age the data suggest that the rb sr ratios of the crustal rocks is increased by a factor of approximately 2 every 900 ma implying that on average the british upper crust was reworked by erosion and sedimentation every 600 ma

prediction of some weathering trends of plutonic and volcanic rocks based on thermodynamic and kinetic considerations abstract the exposed crust consists mainly of plagioclase 35 quartz 20 k feldspar 11 volcanic glass 12 biotite 8 and muscovite 5 quartz is a resistate thus feldspars and glass represent approximately 75 percent of the labile minerals the weathering characteristics of these constituents are summarized in the context of thermodynamic mass balance and kinetic considerations experimentally determined release rate constants were used to predict the proportions of ca na and k released by feldspars of plutonic rocks granites to gabbros to weathering solutions the chemical weathering trends of the weathered residues calculated from the kinetic data conform closely to the initial trends observed in some recent weathering profiles demonstrating the accuracy of the predictions since the weathering of feldspars is controlled by processes that should not change through geological time the relative release rates of ca na and k from the feldspars of granitic rocks can be calculated for future and past episodes of continental weathering experimentally determined release rate constants are not available for a wide range of volcanic glass compositions but the limited data indicate that compositional trends are predictable in weathering profiles developed on volcanic rocks the kinetic data available for rhyolitic glasses accurately predict the initial weathering trends observed in a recent rhyolite weathering profile

anatomy hydrodynamics and depositional setting of a westphalian c lacustrine delta complex west midlands england studies spanning a 3 year period of westphalian c strata exposed in an active quarry have enabled three dimensional reconstruction of a lacustrine delta complex the sequence exhibits a complex history of lake infilling by sediment introduced by intermittent high energy low sinuosity distributary channel flows deposition in the small 0 2 km2 lake prior to delta formation was dominated by organic matter and typified rheotrophic swamp conditions large lycopods colonized the swamp floor the lake was filled by a prograding delta which comprised six horizontally and vertically stacked delta lobes the presence of lycopods aided sediment accumulation fluctuations in river discharge and consequent lake level rise and fall exerted a fundamental control on delta progradation and aggradation flooding during low lake levels first produced erosion on the existing lobe followed by a lake level rise which created accommodation for aggradation of a new delta lobe further lobe erosion and low stand lobe formation occurred during lake level fall the area s proximity to alluvial fans resulted in hyperconcentrated flood flow within the distributary channels the occurrence upon in channel surfaces of plant colonization including lycopods testifies to the ephemeral nature of the flow the lacustrine delta complex formed at the front of a terminal alluvial fan northward progradation of the alluvial fan was achieved by the capture and infilling of lakes by northerly flowing distributary channels

aggradation and incision since the very late pleistocene in the naas river south eastern australia past phases of aggradation and incision have been studied along a 10 km reach in the naas valley in south eastern australia detailed mapping of the stratigraphy and an ambitious dating exercise involving 23 optical dates have been used to distinguish the different periods of aggradation and incision the dated alluvial sequence shows that a period of aggradation occurred in the very late pleistocene ca 14 000 12 000 years ago alluvial deposits are absent for the period 12 000 3300 years ago whether this truly reflects no deposition or a series of aggradation and erosion cycles remains unresolved aggradation dominated between 3300 and 900 years ago punctuated by a short incision event around 1300 years ago gully erosion contemporaneous with this incision phase is also recorded incision has dominated during the last 900 years cutting down to bedrock this incision which is still ongoing has not been a continuous process but involved short periods of aggradation the exposed bedrock and large boulders display numerous scour holes indicating that bedrock has been exposed and abraided for lengthy periods in the past the aggradation and incision cycles in the late holocene gave rise to three groups of terraces today visible along the study reach possible causes for the different periods of erosion and deposition are discussed in the context of late pleistocene and holocene climate change land use impacts and intrinsic factors

a petrographic approach for evaluating trace element mobility in a black shale abstract at the time of deposition black shales record geochemical information related to the provenance and conditions of deposition for that rock these initial geochemical conditions are susceptible to alteration and overprinting by the aggressive processes of black shale diagenesis in this study we evaluate a sequence of ordovician black shales from the southern welsh basin for the presence of such a diagenetic overprint through use of cathodoluminescence backscattered electron imaging reflected light microscopy fission tracks and microprobe elemental mapping we can discern textural relationships with in the welsh black shales the relationships observed constrain a paragenetic sequence and overall diagenetic history including the early diagenetic formation of pyrite apatite rare earth element ree rich and carbonate and later formation of diagenetic monazite ree u rich and late stage carbonate the chemical reactions necessary to produce this mineral sequence require postdepositional redistribution of ree including changing cerium anomalies ce ce and uranium as a result ree u and their associated isotopic systems sm nd and u pb can reflect a diagenetic overprint rather than the source area and depositional conditions the paragenetic sequence described in this study records several postdepositional changes in the whole rock mineralogy among these changes are the formation of ree rich apatite and ree and u rich monazite the formation of these phases requires that ree and u are being redistributed on at least a mineral scale and that the initial depositional and provenance information recorded by the whole rock has been disturbed therefore the approach used in this study to carefully characterize the paragenetic sequence from the llandeilo caradoc black shales should be considered necessary in order to fully evaluate the usefulness of trace element proxies susceptible to diagenetic redistribution

evolution of the western european continental crust implications from nd and pb isotopes in iberian sediments abstract this paper presents smz sbnd nd and geochemical data on fine grained sediments of the iberian massif spain together with new and published uz sbnd pb results of selected sedimentary rocks profiles from two major zones cantabrian and central iberian zone have been investigated both profiles exhibit almost complete stratigraphic successions from uppermost precambrian to lower carboniferous paleozoic shallow depth platform sediments are essentially unmetamorphosed the precambrian syn orogenic succession underwent a metamorphic overprint up to biotite zone 147 sm 144 nd ratios range from 0 0988 to 0 1457 and nd contents from 6 to 112 ppm nd today values vary from 16 5 to 7 6 pb contents from 1 7 to 97 ppm samples with high nt t 3 are found to be low in 2 330ma t dm are 1 92 ga cantabrian zone and 1 96 ga central iberian zone as juvenile cadomian crust is present in the iberian massif the oldest components have to be significantly older than 2 ga within the european variscides comparably old t dm were so far only described from the armorican massif france an active margin of the gondwana continent is the most probable provenance of the uppermost precambrian strata as indicated by their cadomian age syn orogenic facies and juvenile components precambrian as well as samples from the precambrian cambrian boundary gave nt t values 4 8 significantly higher than average paleozoic rocks contributions of juvenile cadomian crust to the syn orogenic sediments must be in the order of 30 50 to fit the nd and pb data there is no evidence for any addition of mafic material according to major or trace elements or to sm nd ratios lower cambrian samples are already below 7 3 in nd t thus compared to the total pre existing crust contribution of juvenile crust was very small nd t values of almost all samples ranging in stratigraphic age from 515 to 410 ma are strikingly negative 12 9 to 10 1 and thus indicate the absence of newly differentiated continental crust in the provenance s only the tremadocian of the southern central iberian zone gave high nt t values 4 0 to 1 0 again there is no evidence for addition of mafic material to the strata as precambrian and tremadocian nt t peaks are separated by the lowermost cambrian of nt t 7 juvenile crust may have been added related to the pre ordovician unconformity sardic phase during the middle paleozoic 410 330 ma nt t values increase from 12 to 7 indicating a continuous contribution of juvenile continental crust of 20 as major terranes of the iberian massif were not amalgamated until late paleozoic it can be assumed that the respective juvenile crust was formed within the regime of one or several small subduction zones nd isotope data of this study compared with published results of brittany france suggest that the medio north armoricancentro iberian domain persisted from uppermost precambrian to the variscan

the geochemistry of archaean shales derived from a mafic volcanic sequence belingwe greenstone belt zimbabwe provenance source area unroofing and submarine versus subaerial weathering shales of the 2 7 ga zeederbergs formation belingwe greenstone belt zimbabwe form thin 0 2 2 m horizons intercalated with submarine lava plain basalts shales of the overlying cheshire formation a foreland basin sedimentary sequence form 1 100 m thick units intercalated with shallow water carbonates and deep water resedimented basalt pebble conglomerates zeederbergs shale is characterized by high contents of mgo and transition metals and low concentrations of k2o and lile as compared to average phanerozoic shale indicative of an ultramafic to mafic source terrain cheshire shales have similar major and trace element contents but mgo and transition metals are less enriched and the lile are less depleted zeederbergs shales have smoothly fractionated ree patterns lan ybn 2 84 4 45 and no significant eu anomaly eu eu 0 93 0 96 ree patterns are identical to those of the surrounding basaltic rocks indicating local derivation from submarine reworking cheshire shales have rather flat ree patterns lan ybn 0 69 2 19 and a small negative eu anomaly average eu eu 0 85 indicative of a mafic provenance with minor contributions of felsic detritus a systematic change in ree patterns and concentrations of transition metals and hfse upwards in the sedimentary succession indicates erosion of progressively more lree depleted basalts and ultramafic volcanic rocks followed by unroofing of granitoid crust weathering indices confirm the submarine nature of zeederbergs shale whereas cheshire shale was derived from a source terrain subjected to intense chemical weathering

paleoproterozoic crustal evolution of the sao luis craton brazil evidence from zircon geochronology and sm nd isotopes abstract the sao luis craton northern brazil is composed of a few granitoid suites and a metavolcano sedimentary succession new single zircon pb evaporation ages and nd isotope data combined with other available information show that the metavolcano sedimentary succession developed from 2240 ma to approximately 2200 2180 ma from juvenile protoliths the subduction related calc alkaline suites of granitoids spatially associated with the metavolcano sedimentary sequence formed in an oceanic island arc setting between 2168 2147 ma most of these granitoids are tonalitic and formed from juvenile mantle or oceanic plate derived protoliths whereas minor true granites are the product of the reworking of the juvenile island arc material these arc related successions represent an accretionary event around 2 20 0 05 ga which is coincident with one of the main periods of crustal growth in the south american platform this accretionary orogen has subsequently been involved in a collision episode at ca 2100 2080 ma which is mainly recorded in the nearby gurupi belt the rock associations inferred geological settings and the crustal evolution detected in the sao luis craton are similar to what is described in paleoproterozoic domains of major geotectonic units of the south american platform such as part of the sao francisco craton southeastern guyana shield and of the west african craton

redistribution of rare earth elements during diagenesis of turbidite hemipelagite mudrock sequences of llandovery age from central wales

trace element and nd isotopes in shales as indexes of provenance and crustal growth the early paleozoic from the brabant massif belgium abstract the cambrian ordovician shales from the brabant massif show an increase in th 6 7 17 7 ppm and la 16 6 71 2 ppm contents in lree hree ratio la n yb n 3 8 13 9 and in tnd values 3 3 to 8 9 with younger age of the sedimentary rocks this evolution is related to a change in the dominant source rock from basic metavolcanics in the early cambrian to granite gneiss schist rocks in the early ordovician the ta content appears to be controlled by the provenance area as well the modification in the origin of detritus is not reflected in the abundance of sc cr and v but it is slightly recorded in the co and ni concentrations tnd responds more sensitively to source changes than sm nd ratios and crustal residence ages and it is confirmed to be a more powerful parameter to detect new addition of mantle material to the crust the evolution of tnd with stratigraphic age tnd vs t for the brabant shales parallels the trends for coeval clastic rocks from brittany france and southern britain michard et al 1985 davies et al 1985 and is considered to be a characteristic of the armorica plate the tnd vs t path of sediments deriving from crystalline rocks first cycle sediments turns out to be a convenient function to delineate the boundaries of fossil lithospheric plates on the contrary such first cycle sediments are not very useful to investigate the long term continental growth because their tnd vs t path represents a second order pattern episodic evolution that disturbs the first order trend of the sedimentary nd isotope record secular evolution

the geology of the western part of the fintona block northern ireland evolution of carboniferous basins the western part of the fintona block is divided into four fault bounded segments that contain red bed sediments formerly assigned to the lower old red sandstone dating by miospores indicates the presence of deposits of early devonian age in the irvinestown segment late visean early silesian age in the tempo lisbellaw segment and late visean early silesian and late silesian ages in the milltown segment northward migration of the early carboniferous marine transgression in the northern part of ireland coincided with the sequential propagation of back stepping faults and resulted in the development of diachronous facies belts between late courceyan and arundian times tectonic uplift of a possible southwesterly extension of the tyrone igneous complex gave rise to the deposition of asbian to pendleian red beds to the south of a massif an interface between these red beds and contemporaneous marine sediments farther to the south is recognized and dated a new non marine basin containing brigantian and pendleian red beds also developed to the north of the massif a waterlogged floodplain that developed during westphalian a times may be coeval with more widespread coal bearing sequences elsewhere in ireland alluvial fans prograded southwards over this plain during westphalian b times when faults bordering a northern landmass were reactivated

depositional events and their records an introduction abstract event deposits of some lateral extent as defined here occur almost in all types of sedimentary basins the reflect either local intra basinal processes or they are associated with regional or global mechanisms some types of event beds such as sediment gravity flows sandy and muddy turbidites are common and usually well preserved they make up large proportions of basin fills whereas others e g tsunami deposits and in situ earthquake structures appear to be less frequent or rare in the geological record volume frequency and facies of event deposits are controlled by several processes pre event sediment accumulation triggering and transport mechanisms and mode of final deposition

geochemistry and mineralogy of the 2 45 ga pronto paleosols ontario canada abstract the ontario canada pronto paleosols which formed around 2 45 ga on archean granite were studied through field observation mineralogical study by microscope and microprobe and chemical analyses of major and 45 trace elements including rare earth elements rees since the first full description of its mineralogy and chemistry of major elements by gay and grandstaff gay a l grandstaff d e 1980 chemistry and mineralogy of precambrian paleosols at elliot lake ontario canada precambrian res 12 349 373 the pronto paleosols are among the most cited paleosols of the archean early proterozoic era though several questions have been raised as to whether they are true in place ancient soils results of this study show that the studied section meets the criteria for being in place paleosols furthermore the profile has no explicit traces of being strongly affected by hydrothermal alteration the ree containing accessory minerals were destroyed through weathering and secondary phosphate minerals with rees formed all of these observations support the weathering origin of the pronto paleosols however the profile should be identified as a saprolith rather than paleosol as even the uppermost samples exhibit the granitic texture of the parent rock the samples in this study were collected mainly from two sites site i and site ii saprolith samples from site i show the retention of fe and increases of the fe iii fe ii ratios and the chemical index of alteration cia values toward the unconformity as for the site ii samples the fe ti ratios show slight decreases with increasing cia values in the upper part of section whereas these samples also show the same trend of increasing fe iii fe ii ratios as the samples from site i microprobe analyses show that fe from the parent rock distributes mainly in mafic minerals as hornblende biotite or chlorite which were completely destroyed during the early stages of weathering in the saprolith section fe is present in sericite aggregates in the form of obscure patches of iron oxide tens of micrometers in size all these characteristics indicate that i the fe was not lost during soil formation at site i and slight amount of fe was lost at site ii and ii ferrous fe was quantitatively transformed to ferric fe i e oxidation during soil formation in the samples from both sites the ratios of al ti and si ti decrease toward the top of the profile together with the destruction of minerals toward the unconformity such as apatite biotite and chlorite the depletion of al and si suggests that the parental granite was weathered by an acidic weathering solution during the archean early proterozoic era the high atmospheric partial pressure of co 2 p co 2 is the most probable candidate for producing the acidic weathering solution

provenance analysis and tectonic setting of the ordovician clastic deposits in the southern puna basin nw argentina provenance studies on early to middle ordovician clastic formations of the southern puna basin in north western argentina indicate that the sedimentary detritus is generally composed of reworked crustal material tremadocquartzrich turbidites tolar chico formation mean composition q t 89 f7 l4 are followed by volcaniclastic rocks and greywackes tolillar formation mean q t 33 f42 l25 these are in turn overlain by volcaniclastic deposits mean qt24 f30 l46 of the diablo formation late arenig early llanvirn that are intercalated by lava flows all units were deformed in the ocloyic orogeny during the middle and late ordovician sandstones of the tolar chico formation are characterized by th sc ratios 1 la sc ratios 10 whereas associated fine grained wackes show slightly lower values for both ratios lree light rare earth elements enrichment of the arenites is 50 chondrite eu eu values are between 0 72 and 0 92 and flat hree heavy rare earth elements patterns indicate a derivation from mostly felsic rocks of typical upper crustal composition the e n d t s e d values scatter around 11 to 9 the calculated nd t d m residence ages vary between 1 8 and 2 0 ga indicating contribution by a palaeoproterozoic crustal component the th sc and la sc ratios of the tolillar formation are lower than those of the tolar chico formation normalized ree rare earth elements patterns display a similar shape to paas post archaean average australian shale but with higher abundances of hrees eu eu values range between 0 44 and 1 17 where the higher values reflect the abundance of plagioclase and feldspar bearing volcanic lithoclasts average e n d t s e d values are less negative at 5 1 and nd t d m are lower at 1 6 ga this is consistent with characteristics of regional rocks of upper continental crust composition which most probably represent the sources of the studied detritus the rocks of the diablo formation have the lowest th sc and la sc ratios lower lree abundances than the average continental crust and are slightly enriched in hrees eu eu values are between 0 63 and 1 17 the nd isotopes e n d t s e d 3 to 1 t d m 1 2 ga indicate that one source component was less fractionated than both the underlying early ordovician and the overlying middle ordovician units synsedimentary vulcanites in the diablo formation show the same isotopic composition our data indicate that the sedimentary detritus is generally composed of reworked crustal material but that the diablo formation appears to contain 80 of a less fractionated component derived from a contemporaneous continental volcanic arc there are no data indicating an exotic detrital source or the accretion of an exotic block at this part of the gondwana margin during the ordovician

trace element and nd isotopic evidence for sediment sources in the mid proterozoic vindhyan basin central india abstract ancient sediments reflect the compositions of old eroded continental crustal material and preserve geochemical signatures of paleo tectonic and volcanic events geochemical study of such sediments provides insight into tectonic events that shaped the face of the earth nd isotopes are best suited for such studies because rare earth elements ree specifically sm and nd are not fractionated during post depositional processes such as erosion transportation and diagenesis of organic poor sediments and hence reflect the source composition of these sediments sedimentation in the proterozoic vindhyan basin of central india with a 4 km thick succession of unmetamorphosed and mostly undeformed sediments lasted over 1000 ma from 1630 ma up to the precambrian cambrian boundary these sediments provide an ideal opportunity to study the evolution of ancient continental crust as well as the tectonic evolution of peninsular india the occurrence of porcellanites in the lower part of the basin indicates active volcanism during deposition of the vindhyan sediments these tuffs show large ion lithophile element lile enrichment as well as depletions in nb and ta in primitive mantle normalized plots characteristic of an arc volcanic source in combined trace element ratio plots these volcanic rocks indicate mixing between mantle derived melts and the continental crust and overlap with the composition of global arcs their initial nd at 1630 ma ranging from 5 7 to 0 9 is similar to those observed in andean type continental margin arcs trace element concentration patterns as well as nd isotopic compositions of the clastic and non clastic sediments of the vindhyan basin from one of the type localities of the vindhyan stratigraphy in the son valley are vastly different from those of the bundelkhand granite which is the basement for these sediments indicating that these granitic rocks were not a major source of sediments for the vindhyan basin our nd isotopic study clearly indicates that sedimentation in the vindhyan basin which lasted over 1 ga was not continuous the boundaries between the semri and kaimur groups as well as the rewa and bhander groups are characterized by abrupt changes in the nd isotopic compositions indicating changes in provenance with sediments in the kaimur and bhander groups being derived from more juvenile sources compared to the semri and rewa groups respectively this inference is also supported by changes in t dm and f sm nd for the sediments across these boundaries the strikingly different trace element patterns of the rewa group sediments compared to the underlying kaimur sediments indicates that sediment sources also changed across the kaimur rewa boundary multiple changes in provenance in the vindhyan sediments indicate that this basin was tectonically active during the entire span of sedimentation while there is some uncertainty in determining the exact sources of sediments for the vindhyan basin we argue on the basis of our geochemical in particular nd isotopic ratios data and available paleocurrent data that majority of the sediments were derived from a now extinct andean type arc source in the south that resulted from a southerly dipping subduction prior to the collision of the bhandara and bundelkhand cratons according to this reconstruction the vindhyan basin was initiated as a foreland basin after the collision of these two cratons

geochemistry of shales of the upper cretaceous hayang group se korea implications for provenance and source weathering at an active continental margin abstract shales of the upper cretaceous hayang group in the yeongyang subbasin southeastern korea were deposited in fluvio lacustrine environments as the paleo pacific izanagi plate obliquely subducted beneath the asian continent major and trace element compositions derived from shales analyzed from the hayang group reveal geochemical signatures that are different from post archean average australian shale paas but are typical of igneous rocks found in the continental margin island arc settings for example most major element concentrations are depleted relative to paas among them mgo and mno depletions are most pronounced in all shales cao enrichment is notable in some formations due to the presence of secondary calcite as dispersed micro calcite nodules sc y and th concentrations are also slightly depleted relative to paas while chondrite normalized ree data for shales from the hayang group show moderate to large uniform lree enrichment but variable hree depletions in addition they are more fractionated than paas and have significant negative eu anomalies moreover the chemical index of alteration and a cn k relations comply that the source area was dominated by non steady state weathering regimes indicative of active uplift along an active continental margin these regions were punctuated by two periods of steady state weathering or alternatively by enhanced recycling of sediments the latter interpretation is in accord with the timing of exposure of a cherty sequence in the source area mixing calculations based on ree data suggest that the average shale in the hayang group was derived from sources composed of precambrian granitic gneiss arc basaltic rocks triassic yeongdeok granite in the subbasin and the mino accretionary complex of sw japan with ratios around 43 7 31 8 73 2 26 4 15 8 36 7 15 4 2 8 33 9 14 5 0 0 33 8 however these proportions change up sequence

a second major fluvial sourceland for the silesian pennine basin of northern england new nd and sr data indicate that two isotopically distinct terrains supplied sediment to the silesian pennine basin the sources consisted of a northerly derived fluvial system which was responsible for much of the detritus during namurian times and a second major system which entered at the west and south sides of the basin this second source which provided material derived from the former avalonian armorican and gondwanan terranes became more influential through the silesian so that by westphalian b c times the central parts of the basin were being fed by systems derived from the west and south of the basin although the inferred source rocks are petrographically diverse their nd sr signatures are remarkably similar perhaps due to multicyclic sediment homogenization the change in provenance may reflect early variscan tectonic activity to the west of the pennine basin

correlation of the rhenohercynian variscides recent structural and stratigraphical data from the rhenohercynian variscides of belgium germany and south cornwall indicate tectonic continuity within this zone prior to disruption along a late carboniferous dextral transcurrent fault this extends from the bristol channel to the vosges parallel to similar lineaments of variscan age in europe and north america consequently a tectonic model for south cornwall is extrapolated to europe and a plate tectonic setting for the evolution of the north european variscides by the closure of an oceanic basin is discussed

the controls on the major and trace element variation of shales siltstones and sandstones of pennsylvanian permian age from uplifted continental blocks in colorado to platform sediment in kansas usa shales siltstones and sandstones of pennsylvanian permian age from near the source in colorado to those in the platform in eastern colorado and kansas have been analyzed for major elements and a number of trace elements including the rees the near source sandstones are significantly more enriched student t test at better than the 99 confidence level in sio2 and na2o concentrations and more depleted in al2o3 fe2o3 total tio2 th hf sc cr cs rees y and ni concentrations and laco and lani ratios than the near source shales and siltstones most likely due to more plagioclase and quartz and less clay minerals in the sandstones than in the shales and siltstones there are no significant differences in k2o and sr concentrations and eueu lalu lase thsc thco and crth ratios between the near source sandstones and the near source shales and siltstones samples of the molas hermosa and cutler formations near the source that were formed in different environments in the same area contain no significant difference in eueu lalu lasc thsc thco and crth ratios so a generally silicic source and not the environment of deposition was most important in producing these elemental ratios for example crth ratios of near source shales siltstones and sandstones range from 2 5 to 17 5 and eueu range from 0 48 to 0 78 which are in the range of sources of sediments derived from mainly silicic and not basic sources near source shales and siltstones contain significantly higher student t test and more varied concentrations of most elements al2o3 fe2o3 mno tio2 ba th hf ta co sc rees nb y but significantly lower concentrations of na2o and eueu than platform shales and siltstones in kansas e g la 65 7 40 and eueu 0 55 0 07 in near source shales and siltstones and la 23 7 8 7 and eueu 0 64 0 08 in platform shales and siltstones the sio2 and cao concentrations are not significantly different in platform shales and siltstones compared to the near source shales and siltstones so dilution of other minerals by quartz and calcite is not the main reason for the lower concentration of most elements in the platform relative to the near source shales and siltstones rather the lesser concentrations of most elements in clay minerals of the platform shales and siltstones can account for the lower concentration of most elements compared to corresponding near source shales and siltstones the lower concentrations of many elements in clay minerals in the platform shales and siltstones may be a result of having been derived from recycling of clay minerals from older rocks the greater homogeneity of elemental concentrations of the platform shales and siltstones compared to those in the source is also consistent with homogeneous mixing of such recycled material also there is no significant difference in thsc laco thco lani and crth ratios of the near source sedimentary rocks in colorado to the platform shales and siltstones in kansas and the latter are also consistent with derivation from mostly silicic source rocks

geochemistry of archean metasedimentary rocks from west greenland abstract archean metasedimentary rocks occur as components of the isua supracrustals akilia association and malene supracrustals of southern west greenland primary structures in these rocks have been destroyed by metamorphism and deformation their chemistry and mineralogy is consistent with a sedimentary origin but other possible parents e g acid volcanics altered pyroclastic rocks cannot be excluded for some of them there is little difference in the composition of metasedimentary rocks from the early archean isua supracrustals and probable correlative akilia association both have a wide range in rare earth element ree patterns with la n yb n ranging from 0 61 5 8 the ree pattern of one akilia sample with low la n yb n compares favourably with that of associated tholeiites and it is likely that such samples were derived almost exclusively from basaltic sources other samples with very steep ree patterns are similar to felsic volcanic boulders found in a conglomeratic unit in the isua supracrustals samples with intermediate ree patterns are best explained by mixing of basaltic and felsic end members metasedimentary rocks from the malene supracrustals can be divided into low silica 55 sio2 and high silica 77 sio2 varieties these rocks also show much variation in la n yb n 0 46 14 0 and their origin is explained by derivation from a mixture of mafic volcanics and felsic igneous rocks the wide range in trace element characteristics of these metasedimentary rocks argues for inefficient mixing of the various source lithologies during sedimentation accordingly these data do not rigorously test models of early archean crustal composition and evolution the systematic variability in trace element geochemistry provides evidence for the bimodal nature of the early archean crust

petrology and isotopic composition of a grenvillian basement fragment in the northern appalachian orogen blair river inlier nova scotia canada mesoproterozoic metaplutonic rocks in northern cape breton island introduction nova scotia occur in a tectonic inlier within the appalachian in eastern north america mesoproterozoic laurentian orogen although they have been multiply metamorphosed and basement rocks and their neoproterozoic to mid paleovariably deformed the petrology and geochemistry of these rocks zoic volcanic and sedimentary cover preserve a record provide insight into the tectonomagmatic evolution of easternmost of the proterozoic to mid paleozoic geologic history of laurentia anorthosite syenite and granitoid plutons eastern laurentia the record includes mesoproterozoic 1100 980 ma intruded the sailor brook and polletts cove river orogeny on the ancient north american craton breakgneisses new nd isotopic data are presented from a biotite rich up of a neoproterozoic supercontinent development of part of the sailor brook gneiss ndi 0 7 two anorthosite a passive continental margin and mid paleozoic orogeny samples ndi 2 1 and 2 8 and a charnockite unit exposures of mesoproterozoic laurentian basement in ndi 0 4 new u pb zircon data from the anorthosite yield easternmost canada and the usa occur in a dispb pb ages between 975 and 1095 ma disrupted u pb continuous band of inliers in the appalachian orogen systematics preclude a unique age interpretation but the 1095 ma from newfoundland to alabama fig 1 they consist single grain date is a minimum age for the anorthosite field relations mostly of rocks formed or deformed during major and trace element geochemistry and isotopic characteristics 1190 980 ma grenvillian tectonic and magmatic indicate that the anorthosite and charnockite were probably coexisting events and are distinct from neoproterozoic and melts but not differentiates of a single parent magma the lithological paleozoic units of accreted appalachian terranes in that and chemical characteristics of the lowland brook syenite are they include granulite facies metamorphic rocks and similar to those of a contemporaneous belt of ultrapotassic plutons in many cases anorthosite charnockite mangerite suites in the southern grenville province and both have the chemical bartholomew 1984 and papers therein pettingill et al characteristics of certain modern continental margin arc magmas 1984 rankin et al 1989 1993 owen erdmer 1990 these data indicate that the mesoproterozoic units in the blair hughes et al 1997 river inlier were juvenile crustal additions to eastern laurentia the sinuous trend of the band of basement inliers during grenville related orogenic events broadly reflects promontories and re entrants that formed

precambrian superplumes and supercontinents a record in black shales carbon isotopes and paleoclimates prominent maxima in black shale abundance and in black shale total shale ratio occur at 2 0 1 7 ga with less prominent peaks in the late neoproterozoic 800 600 ma and in the late archean 2 7 2 5 ga peaks in chemical index of alteration cia of shales at the same times suggest corresponding warm paleoclimates the peaks in cia and black shale abundance are correlated in time at a 94 confidence level the black shale and cia peaks may reflect the combined effects of mantle superplume events and supercontinent formation at 2 7 and 1 9 ga mantle superplume events may have introduced large amounts of co2 into the atmosphere ocean system increasing depositional rates of carbon and increasing global warming increased black shale deposition may reflect some combination of 1 increased oceanic hydrothermal fluxes introducing nutrients 2 anoxia on continental shelves and 3 disrupted ocean currents the apparent absence of carbon isotope anomalies at these times reflects an increase in the deposition and burial rate of both reduced and oxidized carbon peaks in black shale abundance at 2 1 ga and 800 600 ma correlate with peaks in 13 c in marine carbonates increases in atmospheric oxygen and with high cia values in shales these are all consistent with higher rates of organic carbon burial in black shales at these times these peaks may record the breakup of supercontinents at 2 2 2 0 ga and again at 800 600 ma which resulted in increased numbers of partially closed marine basins disruption of ocean currents and increased hydrothermal vents at ocean ridges all of which led to widespread anoxia 2001 elsevier science b v all rights reserved

recognising different sediment provenances within a passive margin setting towards characterising a sediment source to the west of the british late carboniferous sedimentary basins to investigate whether sediments with subtly different provenances could be recognised within a passive margin setting samples were taken from westphalian sedimentary rocks of the pennine basin south wales coalfield culm basin of britain and from northern ireland although previous work has shown that 3 major source areas were responsible for the infill of the pennine basin this study is restricted to sediments believed to have been derived from the west their nominally similar western provenance was confirmed using sm nd isotope techniques and their deposition in a passive margin setting was established using elemental discrimination diagrams while the overall sediment provenance may have been from the west the trace element geochemistry indicates that at least two major sediment pathways can be distinguished plots of eu eu gdn ybn along with ternary plots of cr v ti zr gdn ybn or sc cr suggest different source areas for the culm basin and the south wales coalfield in the culm basin the cr v ratio generally exceeds 1 25 with a small eu anomaly and a low gdn ybn ratio the cr v ratio is less than 1 25 in the south wales with a larger eu ratio and a higher gdn ybn than the culm basin significant separation of the culm basin and the south wales coalfield during the early westphalian by the bristol channel bray fault may have been a factor contributing to the provenance differences late carboniferous dextral displacement along this fault brought these basins into close juxtaposition and it is unlikely that the bristol channel landmass formed a common source area for these two basins

samarium neodymium elemental and isotopic systematics in sedimentary rocks abstract trace element sm nd th sc and nd isotopic data for sedimentary rocks are examined in order to evaluate 1 1 possible secular trends in the composition of the sedimentary mass and upper continental crust 2 2 the role of tectonic setting in controlling the chemical and nd isotopic composition of the sedimentary mass when plotted against either sedimentation age or average provenance age determined mainly from nd model ages sm nd in sedimentary rocks decreases abruptly from about 0 21 to 0 19 at the archean proterozoic transition consistent with a change towards a more felsic upper crustal composition the change is only somewhat less pronounced for turbidite sediments than for those of continental affinity a trend toward increasing sm nd approaching or exceeding archean values is observed for phanerozoic turbidites this latter change is interpreted as indicating undifferentiated young crust as a component in the sediment which has been lost from the older post archean record due to sedimentary and igneous intracrustal recycling processes when plotted against sedimentation age th sc ratios exhibit a trend directly comparable to that of sm nd in this case th sc increases abruptly at the archean proterozoic boundary from about 0 5 to 1 0 and then decreases to about 0 7 during the phanerozoic nd isotopic composition of modern sediments is affected by tectonic association with those deposited at active margin settings tending to have higher nd reflecting younger provenance and higher and more scattered sm nd reflecting less homogenized and differentiated provenance it is likely that these distinctions can be traced back for about 1 2 ga but with the current data base are not readily resolved in older sedimentary rocks the degree to which the preserved sedimentary mass is open to new additions from the mantle either through replacement during sedimentary recycling or sediment mass growth is highly variable but averages about 15 25 during the phanerozoic

geochemistry of precambrian and paleozoic siliciclastic rocks from the iberian range ne spain implications for source area weathering sorting provenance and tectonic setting abstract the major and trace element chemical composition of precambrian and paleozoic shales and sandstones from the iberian range spain has been investigated to determine the provenance and tectonic setting of these rocks as well as to appraise the influence of the weathering hydraulic sorting and recycling processes upon source rock signature the samples studied belong to a prograde sequence from diagenesis to anchizonal grade and are mainly composed of quartz illite mica phases and or kaolinite with chlorite feldspars and carbonates as minor components the major element distribution chemical index of alteration cia indices reflects that recycling processes have been important in homogenizing the composition of shales and sandstones the higher cia indices observed in the silurian and devonian shales 80 and 85 respectively compared with those of precambrian to ordovician and the carboniferous age about 70 indicate that their source area underwent more intense chemical weathering processes possibly due to climatic and or tectonic variations alternatively the source area of the silurian and devonian shales may have been composed of recycled sedimentary materials mineral fractionation is mainly observed in coarser rocks through zircon apatite and xenotime accumulation although the shales are not free of these phases the zircon content of the fine grained rocks is not high enough to affect rare earth element ree contents but phosphate minerals apatite and xenotime at least partially control the ree distribution the influence of apatite and xenotime are slightly higher in the precambrian shales as the phosphate concentration produces a decrease in the la sm ratios chondrite normalized ree patterns and negative eu anomaly size of the studied rocks are similar to that of post archean australian shales paas indicating that they originally come from a differentiated silicic source the higher ree contents in the studied shales in relation to paas indicate that recycling processes in the iberian range sources were probably more intense than that of paas the slight differences among the ree patterns of the different groups of shales probably do not reflect changes in source area composition but instead suggest variations in mineral sorting chemical weathering and or sediment recycling the th sc co th cr th cr v v ni ratios support a primitive silicic source for these rocks with the higher th sc and lower co th in cambrian and ordovician shales indicating a higher proportion of felsic material in their primitive source area the compositional maturity of analyzed sandstones is typical of cratonic environments and their la sc th and zr contents reflect their passive continental margin setting

rare earth element geochemistry of australian paleozoic graywackes and mudrocks provenance and tectonic control abstract in the paleozoic graywackes of eastern australia there is an increase in the total abundance of rare earth elements ree a light to heavy ree ratio and a decrease in the chondrite normalized eu anomaly with the increase in sio2 al2o3 and k2o na2o ratios this is due to the change in the dominant source rocks from andesite to dacite to granite gneiss and sedimentary rocks similarly an increase in total ree and a decrease in eu anomaly is also seen in the associated mudrocks with the increase in total clay content this correlation in paleozoic sedimentary rocks suggests that the ree characteristics of terrigenous sedimentary rocks reflect the depositional tectonic setting of the basin the oceanic island arc type graywackes are characterised by their lower total ree abundance only slight enrichment of lree over hree and the absence of a negative eu anomaly on chondrite normalised plots the continental island arc type graywackes are discriminated by their higher ree abundance and la yb ratio the presence of a small negative eu anomaly on the chondrite normalised plots and the significant enrichment of eu compared to paas post archean average australian shale the sedimentary rocks deposited on andean type active continental margins passive margins platform and cratonic basins are all characterised by the high enrichment of lree over hree and the presence of a pronounced negative eu anomaly on chondrite normalised plots and can not be discriminated from each other by ree patterns alone

pre mesozoic basement rocks offshore nova scotia canada new constraints on the accretion history of the meguma terrane basement samples from offshore wells and geophysical data show that the meguma terrane forms the basement of mesozoic cenozoic sedimentary basins as far as 200 km offshore nova scotia the data provide constraints on avalon meguma terrane interaction during middle to late paleozoic events in the appalachian orogen the basement consists of metasedimentary rocks intruded by late paleozoic granitoid plutons principally magnetite bearing granodiorites which contrast with more peraluminous ilmenite bearing devonian granodiorite and granite onshore offshore tonalites have a subduction related trace element signature that is similar to the signature in minor devonian gabbro and tonalite intrusions on land nd sr and pb isotopes suggest three sources for meguma terrane plutons 1 2 ga basement possibly saharan shield and sediments derived therefrom this basement may be present beneath the southwestern scotian shelf 2 late proterozoic underthrust avalonian basement and basement autochthonous to the meguma terrane and 3 melts from mantle last remobilized in the late proterozoic pan african orogeny seismic reflection profiles show meguma terrane thrust northward over a wedge of avalon basement extending 30 km south of the surface suture there is no evidence that the devonian tonalites are directly related to subduction the lack of either ophiolites or paleozoic pelagic sediment suggests that convergence of the avalon and meguma terranes was achieved principally by strike slip motion resulting from low angle continent continent convergence with only a minor thrust component the widespread devonian carboniferous igneous activity of the amalgamated meguma and avalon terranes was a consequence of regional extension which resulted in decompression melting of upper mantle and production of mafic magmas variably mixed with crustal material

provenance of late carboniferous sandstones in the pennine basin uk from combined heavy mineral garnet geochemistry and palaeocurrent studies abstract analyses of heavy mineral assemblages garnet geochemistry and palaeocurrent directions may each independently provide useful information on the provenance of sandstones but when such datasets are combined the number of options on the location of possible source areas can be greatly reduced also variations in heavy mineral signatures through a stratigraphical section can be explained in terms of switching between source areas rather than due to unroofing events in a single source area if palaeocurrent directions change at the appropriate levels likewise seemingly random changes in transport direction indicated by palaeocurrent variations through a short stratigraphical section can be shown by the heavy mineral data to be systematic and related to shifts between source areas illustrations of the mutual constraints provided by such combined datasets are drawn from late carboniferous successions of the pennine basin northern england where the contributions of detritus from several distinct source terrains and sediment pathways are well documented hallsworth c r morton a c claoue long j fanning c m 2000 carboniferous sand provenance in the pennine basin uk constraints from heavy mineral and detrital zircon age data sedimentary geology 137 147 185 chisholm j i hallsworth c r 2005 provenance of upper carboniferous sandstones in east derbyshire role of the wales brabant high proceedings of the yorkshire geological society 55 209 233 examples are given of how mineralogically distinct and geographically separated provenances can be identified how variations in heavy mineral suites can be used to identify whether variations in palaeoflow represent variations in provenance and how localised mixing recycling in incised channels can be inferred the final example defines the regional extent of the widespread northerly derived fluvial yeadonian sandstones and provides evidence for the mixing of more local sediment supplies at the basin margins

a nd isotope investigation of sediments related to crustal development in the british isles the times of original fractionation of the sm and nd component of clastic sediments from a mantle source crustal residence age have been estimated from sm nd model ages calculated relative to a depleted mantle evolution in this way the provenance and evolution of selected precambrian and phanerozoic sediments and metasediments from the british isles have been examined whereas some archaean and early proterozoic sediments have sm nd model ages that are close to their stratigraphic age the phanerozoic sediments analysed have model ages as much as 2 0 ga in excess of their stratigraphic age a more detailed study of lower palaeozoic sediments deposited on the northern margin of the iapetus ocean provides evidence for a marked change of provenance in the ordovician after the deposition of the dalradian supergroup a component with comparatively high143nd 144nd and sm nd ratio presumably basaltic is present in the sediments throughout the accretionary prism crustal residence age estimates average about 1 5 ga for both these lower palaeozoic sediments and modern pelagic clays and collectively fail to provide any evidence for significant continental growth during the phanerozoic