| 2. |
- Pointon, Michael A., et al.
(author)
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A Multi-proxy Provenance Study of Late Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic Sandstones in the Eastern Sverdrup Basin and Its Bearing on Arctic Palaeogeographic Reconstructions
- 2022
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In: Geosciences. - : MDPI AG. - 2076-3263. ; 13:1, s. 10-10
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- A multi-proxy provenance study of Late Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic sandstones from the eastern Sverdrup Basin was undertaken employing optical petrography and heavy mineral analysis, chemical analysis of apatite, garnet and rutile grains, as well as detrital zircon U–Pb geochronology and Hf isotope analysis. Late Carboniferous to Middle Jurassic strata on the southern basin margin are inferred as being predominantly reworked from Silurian to Devonian strata within the adjacent Franklinian Basin succession. Higher-grade metamorphic detritus appeared during Middle to Late Triassic times and indicates exhumation and erosion of lower (Neoproterozoic to Cambrian) levels within the Franklinian Basin succession and/or a direct detrital input from the Canadian-Greenland Shield. The provenance of northern-derived sediments is more enigmatic owing to the subsequent opening of the Arctic Ocean. Northern-derived Middle Permian to Early Triassic sediments were likely derived from proximal areas of the Chukotkan part of the Arctic Alaska-Chukotka microplate. Late Triassic northern-derived sediments have different detrital zircon U–Pb age spectra from Middle Permian to Early Triassic ones and were likely derived from the Uralian orogenic belt and/or the Arctic Uralides. The loss of this sand input during latest Triassic times is interpreted to reflect drainage reorganisation farther upstream on the Barents Shelf. Middle Jurassic sands in the northern and axial parts of the basin were largely reworked from local northern-derived Late Triassic strata. This may have been facilitated by rift flank uplift of the northern basin margin in response to rifting in the adjacent proto-Amerasia Basin.
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| 3. |
- Pointon, Michael A, et al.
(author)
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Mixed local and ultra-distal volcanic ash deposition within the Upper Cretaceous Kanguk Formation, Sverdrup Basin, Canadian Arctic Islands
- 2019
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In: Geological Magazine. - : Cambridge University Press. - 0016-7568 .- 1469-5081. ; 156:12
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Journal article (peer-reviewed)abstract
- The Upper Cretaceous Kanguk Formation of the Sverdrup Basin, Canadian Arctic Islands, contains numerous diagenetically altered volcanic ash layers (bentonites). Eleven bentonites were sampled from an outcrop section on Ellesmere Island for U–Pb zircon secondary ion mass spectrometry dating and whole-rock geochemical analysis. Two distinct types of bentonite are identified from the geochemical data. Relatively thick (0.1 to 5 m) peralkaline rhyolitic to trachytic bentonites erupted in an intraplate tectonic setting. These occur throughout the upper Turonian to lower Campanian (c. 92–83 Ma) outcrop section and are likely associated with the alkaline phase of the High Arctic Large Igneous Province. Two thinner (<5 cm) subalkaline dacitic to rhyolitic bentonites of late Turonian to early Coniacian age (c. 90–88 Ma) are also identified. The geochemistry of these bentonites is consistent with derivation from volcanoes within an active continental margin tectonic setting. The lack of nearby potential sources of subalkaline magmatism, together with the thinner bed thickness of the subalkaline bentonites and the small size of zircon phenocrysts therein (typically 50–80 μm in length) are consistent with a more distal source area. The zircon U–Pb age and whole-rock geochemistry of these two subalkaline bentonites correlate with an interval of intense volcanism in the Okhotsk–Chukotka Volcanic Belt, Russia. It is proposed that during late Turonian to early Coniacian times intense volcanism within the Okhotsk–Chukotka Volcanic Belt resulted in widespread volcanic ash dispersal across Arctic Alaska and Canada, reaching as far east as the Sverdrup Basin, more than 3000 km away.
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