Cambrian detrital zircon signatures of the northern Cordilleran passive margin, Liard area, Canada: evidence of sediment recycling, non-Laurentian ultimate sources, and basement denudation

Abstract

Detrital zircon U–Pb age probability distributions for the Cambrian Vizer formation (informal) and Mount Roosevelt Formation (middle member) of the northern Canadian Cordilleran passive margin indicate extensive recycling from ∼1.7 to 1.6 Ga Paleoproterozoic sandstones and Proterozoic and Lower Cambrian strata, respectively. The units have minor or no first cycle input from Laurentian basement. The lower part of the Vizer formation contains North American magmatic gap (1610–1490 Ma) detrital zircons and lacks ultimate Grenvillian sourced grains, indicating that the grains were likely sourced from a nearby Mesoproterozoic basin and have an ultimate non-Laurentian source. Detrital zircon U–Pb ages of 670–640 Ma from the middle member of the Mount Roosevelt Formation indicate associated volcanic clasts were locally sourced, and are not of syn-sedimentary Middle Cambrian age. Provenance of these units was indirectly impacted by the Liard Line basement feature. Detrital zircon U–Pb age probability distributions from the northern Canadian Cordilleran passive margin indicate sediments were sourced from the east in the Early Cambrian (Terreneuvian; Vizer formation and correlatives) and the northeast during Early Cambrian (Series 2) deposition of Sekwi Formation and correlative strata. In the early Middle Cambrian, the middle member of the Mount Roosevelt Formation was primarily locally sourced, whereas the upper member was derived from Laurentian basement to the east and southeast. The change from reworked Paleoproterozoic cover in the Terrenuvian to primary basement sources in the Middle Cambrian suggests significant denudation of the basement occurred southeast of the Liard Line.