U-Pb Ages and Sedimentary Provenance of Detrital Zircons from Eastern Hayfork Meta-argillites, Sawyers Bar Area, Northwestern California

Abstract

In the central Klamath Mountains, the Eastern Hayfork terrane (EHF) accreted directly seaward of the North Fork ophiolitic arc. The EHF trench mélange consists of very fine-grained, quartzose meta-argillite + boudinaged metachert layers as well as scattered blocks derived from both oceanic and inboard arc-margin sources. Among the exotic blocks are coarse-grained feldspathic metasandstones. Detrital zircon SHRIMP U-Pb ages ranging from the latest Archean to the early Proterozoic were reported by Scherer and colleagues in 2010 for five metasandstone blocks from the central and southern Klamaths; Phanerozoic zircons were totally lacking. It was concluded that the blocks were olistostromal and that erosion of a nearby thrust sheet outlier of the Proterozoic Antelope Mountain Quartzite of the Eastern Klamath belt, Yreka subterrane, was a likely source. To determine the provenance and time of deposition of the EHF muddy matrix host of the metasandstone blocks, we separated zircons from three very fine-grained, intimately interstratified, feldspar-poor meta-argillites from the Sawyers Bar map area. New laser ablation multicollector inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry zircon U-Pb data indicate maximum sedimentary ages for the meta-argillites as ∼272, ∼211, and ∼201 Ma. Thus, the muddy strata were deposited near the end of Triassic time. The meta-argillites contain scattered Proterozoic and Paleozoic–early Mesozoic detrital zircons, indicating local inboard Klamath sources, including the Antelope Mountain Quartzite thrust sheet. St. Clair Creek distal turbidites in the landward North Fork terrane contain Paleozoic and Triassic–Early Jurassic (∼188 Ma) zircons as well as scattered Precambrian grains similar to those in the EHF. The EHF surficially docked against the North Fork terrane by ∼174–173 Ma because the amalgamated but unmetamorphosed terrane contact was invaded by the English Peak plutonic complex beginning at ∼172 Ma. Regional metamorphism and deformation took place throughout the central Klamath Mountains during the Siskiyou transpressive accretionary event at ∼170–168 Ma.