U–Pb geochronology of detrital zircon from the Ediacaran and Cambrian sedimentary successions of NE Estonia and Volyn region of Ukraine: Implications for the provenance and comparison with other areas within Baltica

Abstract

Trends in detrital zircon age distribution patterns are used to constrain the paleotectonic and paleogeographic conditions during deposition of the late Ediacaran - Early Cambrian sedimentary successions in northwestern, western, and southwestern Baltica. Detrital zircons from three sandstone samples collected from a drill-core drilled in northeastern Estonia and four sandstone samples collected from three drill-cores located in the Volyn region of Ukraine were dated using the U-Pb LA-ICP-MS isotope technique. The resulting age patterns are compared with the published data for southwestern Ukraine and Moldova, eastern Poland, Belarus, and northwestern Russia to constrain the late Ediacaran - Early Cambrian evolution of the sedimentary basins developed on Baltica. All sedimentary basins from these areas of Baltica show a transition during that interval from a passive continental margin to collisional settings, which has been triggered by the pre-Schythides and Santacrusades orogenies along the south-southwestern and, to a lesser extent, by the Timanian Orogeny along the north-northeastern and eastern (in modern coordinates) margins of Baltica.