Exploring the influence of Late Mississippian to Middle Pennsylvanian tectonics on sediment transport through detrital zircon geochronology, southwestern Kansas and northwestern Arkansas

Abstract

This study explores the influence of the Alleghanian-Ouachita-Marathon Orogeny and Ancestral Rocky Mountains (ARM) uplifts on sediment dispersal in the Carboniferous through sandstone compositions and detrital zircon provenance analysis. We focus on Upper Mississippian to Middle Pennsylvanian siliciclastic intervals in two areas: (1) the Hugoton Embayment in southwestern Kansas, where six samples of Upper Mississippian and Lower Pennsylvanian sandstone were collected from two boreholes and (2) the Arkoma Shelf and foreland basin in northwestern Arkansas, where nine samples were collected from Lower through Middle Pennsylvanian outcrops. We report 1544 new concordant ages, 582 ages from Kansas core and 962 ages from Arkansas outcrop samples. UPb age spectra are characterized by major Grenville (900–1300 Ma) and Taconic-Acadian (350–500 Ma) age clusters and minor components of older age groups, suggesting a persistent source in the Appalachians tied to the Alleghanian orogeny. However, by Early Pennsylvanian, the Hugoton Embayment samples see the Appalachian source partially replaced by Yavapai-Mazatzal (1800–1600 Ma) and Granite-Rhyolite (1550–1300 Ma) grains, major components of the local basement, that suggest contributions from nearby ARM uplifts. In contrast, contributions from midcontinent basement sources are limited in the Arkoma Shelf and foreland basin samples. Sandstone composition data are also consistent across all Arkoma Shelf and Upper Mississippian Hugoton Embayment samples; whereas, Lower Pennsylvanian Hugoton samples show increases in feldspar and volcanic lithic grains, consistent with input from local midcontinent age provinces. Comparison with published data suggests a similar change in provenance, from extraregional to local sediment sources, is observed across western Laurentia where ARM deformation was active. Together, new and published data support development of a major transcontinental sediment dispersal system in the Late Mississippian, controlled by Alleghanian orogenesis on the eastern Laurentian margin; however, by the Early Pennsylvanian this system was disrupted by development of the ARM.