Abstract
Pockets of Ediacaran–Cambrian clastic sedimentary rocks are preserved across Fennoscandia but the provenance, depositional setting, and age of many such deposits remain uncertain. We report the first detrital zircon provenance study of lowermost sediments deposited on sub-Cambrian bedrock in southern Sweden. We performed 285 ion-microprobe U–Pb analyses on zircons from the Mickwitzia Sandstone (File Haidar Formation, Cambrian Series 2). Age peaks at approximately 2100 Ma, 2000 Ma, 1800 Ma, 1550 Ma, 1500 Ma, 1225 Ma, 1150 Ma, and 950 Ma are consistent with Sveconorwegian- and Fennoscandian-source rocks, whereas a major peak at ca. 550 Ma is attributed to the Timanian orogen to the northeast. Furthermore, the youngest dates in the dataset, including multiple consistent dates from single grains, indicate a maximum depositional age of ca. 550 Ma. This first documentation of Timanian-aged grains in southern Sweden connects reports of Timanian detritus as far afield as northern Norway, Estonia, and likely even Poland. The Timanian detrital signature across 1000s km 2 suggests that much of Baltica likely comprised an extremely low-relief plain over which Timanian-sourced detritus could spread extensively during the late Ediacaran and early Cambrian.
Published Version
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