Detrital Apatite Fission-track Ages Research Articles

Cenozoic exhumation in the Qilian Shan, northeastern Tibetan Plateau: Evidence from detrital fission track thermochronology in the Jiuquan Basin

AbstractThe India‐Asia collision resulted in the Cenozoic framework of faults, ranges, and tectonic basins and the high topography of the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, but how and when these features formed remains poorly understood, leading to conflicting tectonic models. However, information on the tectonic evolution of these active orogenic belts is well preserved in synorogenic basin sediments. In this study, we carefully analyze the detrital apatite fission track ages of Cenozoic synorogenic sediments from the Jiuquan Basin to decipher the entire exhumation process of the adjacent Qilian Shan throughout the Cenozoic. Our data indicate that initially rapid Cenozoic exhumation occurred in the Qilian Shan during the late Paleocene‐early Eocene (~60–50 Ma), almost synchronous with the India‐Asia collision. The Qilian Shan subsequently experienced long‐lived exhumation that continued until at least the middle Miocene (~45–10 Ma). During this period of exhumation in the Qilian Shan, tectonic deformation occurred throughout the northeastern Tibetan Plateau. The early Cenozoic deformation in the northeastern Tibetan Plateau may have been caused by the transfer of tectonic stress from the distant India‐Asia collision boundary through the complex lithospheric environment of the Tibetan Plateau. The present tectonic configuration and topography of the Qilian Shan and the northeastern Tibetan Plateau likely became established since the middle Miocene and after the long‐lived deformation began in the early Cenozoic.

The detrital record of late‐Miocene to Pliocene surface uplift and exhumation of the Venezuelan Andes in the Maracaibo and Barinas foreland basins

AbstractA multidisciplinary approach, combining sediment petrographic, palynological and thermochronological techniques, has been used to study the Miocene‐Pliocene sedimentary record of the evolution of the Venezuelan Andes. Samples from the Maracaibo (pro‐wedge) and Barinas (retro‐wedge) foreland basins, proximal to this doubly vergent mountain belt, indicate that fluvial and alluvial‐fan sediments of similar composition were shed to both sides of the Venezuelan Andes. Granitic and gneissic detritus was derived from the core of the mountain belt, whereas sedimentary cover rocks and uplifted foreland basin sediments were recycled from its flanks. Palynological evidence from the Maracaibo and Barinas basins constrains depositional ages of the studied sections from late Miocene to Pliocene. The pollen assemblages from the Maracaibo Basin are indicative of mountain vegetation, implying surface elevations of up to 3500–4000 m in the Venezuelan Andes at this time. Detrital apatite fission‐track (AFT) data were obtained from both stratigraphic sections. In samples from the Maracaibo basin, the youngest AFT grain‐age population has relatively static minimum ages of 5 ± 2 Ma, whereas for the Barinas basin samples AFT minimum ages are 7 ± 2 Ma. With exception of two samples collected from the Eocene Pagüey Formation and from the very base of the Miocene Parángula Formation, no evidence for resetting and track annealing in apatite due to burial heating in the basins was found. This is supported by rock‐eval analyses on organic matter and thermal modelling results. Therefore, for all other samples the detrital AFT ages reflect source area cooling and impose minimum age constraints on sediment deposition. The main phase of surface uplift, topography and relief generation, and erosional exhumation in the Venezuelan Andes occurred during the late Miocene to Pliocene. The Neogene evolution of the Venezuelan Andes bears certain similarities with the evolution of the Eastern Cordillera in Colombia, although they are not driven by exactly the same underlying geodynamic processes. The progressive development of the two mountain belts is seen in the context of collision of the Panama arc with northwestern South America and the closure of the Panama seaway in Miocene times, as well as contemporaneous movement of the Caribbean plate to the east and clock‐wise rotation of the Maracaibo block.

Evaluation of detrital thermochronology for quantification of glacial catchment denudation and sediment mixing

Thermochronometric methods have been applied successfully on bedrock samples as well as detrital material to study exhumation processes in mountain belts. The access to exposed bedrock can be a limiting factor in remote and rugged mountainous regions, or areas covered by ice. The analysis of detrital material provides an integrated signal of rock cooling from sediment source areas in a catchment. One advantage of detrital thermochronology is that the source areas can include regions that are inaccessible for bedrock dating, such as beneath glaciers. In this study we investigate the suitability of various detrital thermochronometer sampling approaches at the glacier terminus including sediments from the pro-glacial fluvial outwash, the ice-cored terminal moraine, and older moraines. Specifically we analyzed the detrital apatite fission track ages of sand-size material collected from the Tiedemann and Scimitar Glaciers that drain the eastern and northern flanks of Mt. Waddington British Columbia, Canada, respectively. We present 935 new apatite fission-track ages and compare the grain-age distributions of the various detrital sites among each other and with published bedrock ages from the Tiedemann Glacier catchment. We show that detrital apatite fission-track thermochronometry is a viable and powerful tool to obtain a robust cooling age distribution of a catchment or region that can elucidate age populations originating from those parts of the catchment that are covered by ice and therefore remain undetected by bedrock studies. We also show that sampling the ice-cored terminal moraine is an alternative sampling approach to the pro-glacial river sediments that provides cooling age distributions representative of the sediments sourced by the entire catchment including sub-glacially eroded material. Finally, samples collected from the modern glacial systems and terminal moraines of different ages are compared to assess temporal variations in the distribution of glacial erosion over the Late Holocene.

Mesozoic – Cenozoic tectonic evolution of southwestern Tian Shan: Evidence from detrital zircon U/Pb and apatite fission track ages of the Ulugqat area, Northwest China

The Late Tertiary tectonic and topographic evolution of the Tian Shan Range has been widely studied as it represents a key example of active intra-continental mountain belts. Recent studies have shown that both the general tectonic framework of Tian Shan and some of its actual topographic features were inherited from the still poorly constrained Late Paleozoic–Mesozoic evolution of the range. In addition, better understanding of the tectonic and topographic evolution of the area before the last phases of late Cenozoic deformation is required to constrain the unresolved climatic and paleogeographic reconstructions. We present here U/Pb (LA-ICP-MS) dating of detrital zircons and apatite fission track analysis on detrital apatites from the exceptionally well-exposed Jurassic to Cenozoic sediment series of the still poorly constrained southwestern Tian Shan piedmont to investigate changes in sediment provenance through time. The U/Pb detrital zircon ages range widely from 222 to 3179Ma and can be statistically separated in four main groups: 240–320Ma, 400–540Ma, 550–1600Ma and 1640–2800Ma. These zircons were derived from the Tian Shan area to the north and from recycling of the Paleozoic North Tarim margin. The detrital apatite fission track ages encompass sources with preserved Mesozoic ages as well as much younger sources exhumed during middle Miocene times. Combined together those data show a general planation of the range from Middle Jurassic to Late Cretaceous associated to a wide drainage system. The progressive decrease in the variety of sources through the Mesozoic is consistent with burying of the basement exposures by sediments. Detrital zircon U/Pb data indicate an initial Tertiary uplift of the southern Tian Shan piedmont around Eocene times and a possible activation of the Talas Fergana Fault between 18 and 16Ma.

Strong tectonic and weak climatic control on exhumation rates in the Venezuelan Andes

We studied the relationships among present-day relief, precipitation, stream power, seismic energy, seismic strain rate, and long-term exhumation rates for the Venezuelan Andes. Average long-term exhumation rates were determined for seven large catchments in the Venezuelan Andes from fission-track analysis of detrital apatite. A quantitative comparison between eight new detrital apatite fission-track (AFT) age distributions presented here and previously published bedrock AFT age patterns shows that detrital AFT ages can be used for predicting exhumation patterns across the mountain belt. Catchment-averaged exhumation rates estimated from the raw data range from 0.48 ± 0.02 km m.y.−1 to 0.80 ± 0.26 km m.y.−1 Accounting for variable sediment yield and assuming that short-term sediment production rates scale with long-term exhumation rates, these rates vary from 0.33 ± 0.07 km m.y.−1 to 0.48 ± 0.08 km m.y.−1 No variation in rates is observed between the northwestern and southeastern flanks of the mountain belt, despite a threefold increase in precipitation from the northwest to the southeast. Long-term exhumation rates are strongly correlated with relief in the different catchments, weak or negative correlations exist with precipitation data or present-day erosion indexes, while the correlation with seismic energy released by earthquakes is weak to moderate. This lack of correlation may be caused by the insufficient temporal range of the available precipitation and seismicity data, and the different time scales involved in the comparison. Long-term exhumation rates are, however, strongly correlated with seismic strain rates (which take the temporal earthquake magnitude-frequency scaling into account), suggesting that the moderate correlation with seismic energy is indeed related to the different time scales and that tectonic control on exhumation is significant. In contrast, given that precipitation patterns in the Venezuelan Andes should have been installed during Miocene times, we suggest that decoupling of relief and exhumation from present-day climate explains the lack of correlation between exhumation and precipitation.

500 m.y. of thermal history elucidated by multi-method detrital thermochronology of North Gondwana Cambrian sandstone (Eilat area, Israel)

Research Article| July 01, 2009 500 m.y. of thermal history elucidated by multi-method detrital thermochronology of North Gondwana Cambrian sandstone (Eilat area, Israel) Pieter Vermeesch; Pieter Vermeesch † 1School of Earth Sciences, Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London, WC1E 7HX, UK †E-mail: p.vermeesch@ucl.ac.uk Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Dov Avigad; Dov Avigad 2Institute of Earth Sciences, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Jerusalem 91904, Israel Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar Michael O. McWilliams Michael O. McWilliams 3Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization, Exploration and Mining, Kensington, WA 6151, Australia Search for other works by this author on: GSW Google Scholar GSA Bulletin (2009) 121 (7-8): 1204–1216. https://doi.org/10.1130/B26473.1 Article history received: 30 May 2008 rev-recd: 01 Oct 2008 accepted: 06 Oct 2008 first online: 02 Mar 2017 Cite View This Citation Add to Citation Manager Share Icon Share Facebook Twitter LinkedIn MailTo Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Search Site Citation Pieter Vermeesch, Dov Avigad, Michael O. McWilliams; 500 m.y. of thermal history elucidated by multi-method detrital thermochronology of North Gondwana Cambrian sandstone (Eilat area, Israel). GSA Bulletin 2009;; 121 (7-8): 1204–1216. doi: https://doi.org/10.1130/B26473.1 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Refmanager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu toolbar search search input Search input auto suggest filter your search All ContentBy SocietyGSA Bulletin Search Advanced Search Abstract Following the Neoproterozoic Pan-African orogeny, the Arabian-Nubian Shield of North Africa and Arabia was eroded and then covered by Cambrian sandstones that record the onset of platform sedimentation. We applied K-feldspar 40Ar/39Ar, zircon and apatite fission-track, and apatite (U-Th)/He thermochronology to detritus from Cambrian sandstones of southern Israel deposited at ca. 500 Ma. U-Pb detrital zircon ages from these sandstones predate deposition and record the earlier Neoproterozoic crustal evolution of the Pan-African orogens. 40Ar/39Ar ages from 50 single grains of K-feldspar yield a Cambrian mean of ca. 535 Ma. The 40Ar/39Ar age spectrum of a multi-grain K-feldspar aliquot displays diffusion behavior compatible with >560 Ma cooling later affected by a heating event. Assuming that the high-temperature domains of the K-feldspars have not been affected by subsequent (hydro)thermal events, and taking previously published K-Ar and Rb-Sr ages from other parts of the East African Orogen at face value, these ages apparently record Pan-African thermal resetting below a thick volcano-sedimentary pile similar to the Saramuj conglomerate in Jordan and/or the Hammamat in Egypt. Detrital zircon fission-track (ZFT) ages cluster around 380 Ma, consistent with previous ZFT results from Neoproterozoic basement and sediments of the region, revealing that the Cambrian platform sequence experienced a middle Devonian thermal event and low-grade metamorphism. Regional correlation indicates that during Devonian time the sedimentary cover atop the Cambrian in Israel was never in excess of 2.5 km, requiring an abnormally steep geothermal gradient to explain the complete ZFT annealing. A basal Carboniferous unconformity can be traced from Syria to southern Saudi Arabia, suggesting that the observed Devonian ZFT ages represent a regional tectonothermal event. Similar Devonian ZFT ages were reported from Arabian-Nubian Shield basement outcrops in the Eastern Desert, 500 km south of Eilat. The detrital apatites we studied all have extremely rounded cores suggestive of a distant provenance, but some grains also feature distinct euhedral, U-rich apatite overgrowth rims. Authigenic apatite may have grown during the late Devonian thermal event we dated by ZFT, coinciding with existing Rb-Sr ages from authigenic clays in the same deposits and leading to the conclusion that the Devonian event was probably hydrothermal. Like the ZFT ages, the detrital apatite fission-track (AFT) ages were also completely reset after deposition. Sixty single-grain detrital AFT ages group at ca. 270 Ma with significant dispersion. Inverse modeling of the AFT data indicate extended and/or repeated residence in the AFT partial annealing zone, in turn suggesting an episodic burial-erosion history during the Mesozoic caused by low-amplitude vertical motions. Seven detrital apatite (U-Th)/He ages scatter between 33 and 77 Ma, possibly resulting from extreme compositional zonation associated with the authigenic U-rich overgrowths. The ca. 70 Ma (U-Th)/He ages are more likely to be accurate, setting 1–2 km as an upper limit (depending on the geothermal gradient) on the post-Cretaceous exhumation of the Cambrian sandstone and showing no evidence for substantial denudation related to Tertiary rifting of the Red Sea. 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Improving constraints on apatite provenance: Nd measurement on fission-track-dated grains

Abstract Detrital thermochronology is commonly used to locate source and improve the understanding of a region's long-term development. Provenance detrital age data typically comprise a number of distinct age modes representing contributions from a number of different sources. For methods such as apatite fission track (FT) this can present a challenge in that direct assignment of age modes to particular lithological or tectono-stratigraphic units is rarely possible, particularly when ancient orogenic sediments are examined. A new approach described here is based on measuring Nd isotopic data on single apatites by laser ablation ICPMS where the 143 Nd/ 144 Nd ratios are diagnostic of grain source. By combining Nd isotopic measurement with apatite FT analysis it is possible to link detrital apatite FT ages to specific rock unit sources. The methodology and wider benefits of this new approach are discussed using examples from the Himalaya and Andaman Islands.

Crustal‐scale structural architecture, shortening, and exhumation of an active, eroding orogenic wedge (Chugach/St Elias Range, southern Alaska)

Active mountain building associated with the accretion of the Yakutat microplate (YT) in southern Alaska is characterized through the combination of a new balanced cross section and new low‐temperature cooling ages. This analysis constrains the amount and timing of shortening, the spatial and temporal trends of exhumation, and the interplay between structural development and exhumation. A fold‐and‐thrust belt comprising three principal thrust sheets (the Hope Creek, Sullivan, and an offshore thrust sheet from north to south) characterizes the YT internal structure, which has absorbed a minimum of ∼82 km shortening. Assuming shortening and foreland basin development occurred contemporaneously, the shortening rate across the YT is ∼13–14 mm/a after 5.6 Ma. Detrital apatite fission track ages, from south to north, are unreset along the southern edge of the Sullivan thrust sheet at the coast, are reset and have ages younger than 6.3 Ma within the thrust belt, and have reset cooling ages of ∼13 Ma in the North American upper plate. Only the zircon samples from the northern, internal YT are potentially reset. Exhumation rates within the thrust belt vary from 0.3 ± 0.1 mm/a to 4 ± 1.8 mm/a. Combining the thermochronometric and structural data indicate that wedge exhumation since ∼6 Ma is 500 km2 and that particle trajectories have larger horizontal than vertical components. Whereas exhumation and shortening have been focused on the windward side of the Chugach/St. Elias Range since ∼6 Ma, the cooling ages do not uniquely distinguish between orographically versus tectonically controlled erosion.

Eocene exhumation and basin development in the Puna of northwestern Argentina

The Puna is part of the larger Puna‐Altiplano Plateau (also known as the Central Andean Plateau), characterized by high elevation, low relief, and aridity, located in the central Andes of Bolivia and Argentina. Tertiary sedimentary rocks preserved within the Puna contain a unique archive of information regarding the paleogeography, depositional environments, and timing of sediment source exhumation during the early stages of Andean mountain building. The Eocene Geste Formation in the Salar de Pastos Grandes area (within the central Puna of northwestern Argentina) consists of deposits that are the result of confined to unconfined flows in a sandy to gravelly, braided fluvial system and alluvial fans proximal to the source terrane. Paleocurrent data document an overall eastward flow direction. Up‐section coarsening of the Geste Formation suggests that topographic relief in the source area increased through time, possibly owing to enhanced tectonic activity and source terrane unroofing. Sandstone petrography and conglomerate clast‐count data document quartzose and phyllitic compositions typical of Ordovician rocks preserved just west of the Salar de Pastos Grandes area. Paleocene‐Eocene detrital apatite fission track age populations (P1: ∼35–52 Ma; P2: ∼52–65 Ma) of the Geste Formation and their consistent trends up‐section suggest moderate to rapid (∼0.4 mm/a to >1 mm/a) exhumation of western sediment sources during the early to mid‐Tertiary stages of Andean mountain building. Sedimentation rates increase up‐section from ∼0.1 mm/a to 1 mm/a. Our data, when combined with other structural, stratigraphic and seismic evidence from surrounding regions, suggest that the Geste Formation was deposited in response to crustal shortening and resulting erosion and sedimentation, which started as early as Cretaceous in the Chilean Cordillera de Domeyko and in the Salar de Pastos Grandes area by Eocene time. The Geste Formation could be interpreted either as a local wedge‐top accumulation on the eastward propagating central Andean orogenic wedge, or as a local intermontane basin. The similarities between wedge‐top deposits preserved in Bolivia and Eocene deposits in northwestern Argentina, south of ∼25°S, lead us to favor the wedge‐top scenario for the Geste Formation. If correct, this implies that the deformation front of the Andean orogenic wedge incorporated both thin‐ and thick‐skinned structures as it migrated, possibly unsteadily, from the Cordillera de Domeyko during the Cretaceous‐Paleocene to areas within the Puna and Eastern Cordillera by mid‐late Eocene time. Contemporaneously, a regional‐scale foreland basin system developed over an along‐strike distance of at least 650 km.

Quantitative geomorphology of the White Mountains (California) using detrital apatite fission track thermochronology

Detrital thermochronology has been proposed as a method for measuring average basin‐wide erosion rates. This paper illustrates how to use detrital apatite fission track (AFT) thermochronology to map out where in a basin erosion takes place. Five samples of detrital AFT ages were collected on an alluvial fan that is fed by the Marble Creek drainage basin in the northern White Mountains (California). Using a digital elevation model (DEM) to characterize the basin hypsometry and a few published basement samples to constrain the age‐elevation curve of the catchment, the detrital AFT distribution was predicted. Comparing the observed with the predicted age distributions reveals that localized rockfall events provide the sediment source of the currently active Marble Creek, but a composite sample from the entire alluvial fan indicates that, over longer time scales, the entire catchment contributes material to the debris‐flow dominated fan, with more material being derived from lower elevations than from higher up the Marble Creek Canyon. The observed AFT age distribution is compared with the hypsometric predictions using the “Cumulative Age Distribution” (CAD) which is the cumulative distribution of the measured ages. In contrast with probability density estimators and their cumulative equivalents, the CAD requires no numerical smoothing while properly accounting for (unequal) measurement uncertainties.

Detrital apatite fission-track ages in Middle Jurassic strata at the rifted margin of W Madagascar—indicator for a protracted resedimentation history

The combination of litho- and biostratigraphic data, detrital apatite fission-track (FT) ages, and palaeocurrent data from Jurassic sedimentary successions in the southern Morondava Basin (SW Madagascar) suggests a resedimentation of the detrital material. Detrital apatite FT ages of Middle Jurassic sedimentary rocks range between 428 ± 31 Ma to 233 ± 18 Ma. All apatite FT ages are older than their stratigraphic ages and become younger from top to the bottom of a Middle Jurassic profile. Such an apatite FT age distribution can be produced by a double inversion of the stratigraphic succession. Since the Late Carboniferous crustal extension between East Africa and Madagascar occurred. The sampled material was initially deposited prior to the Middle Jurassic, most probably during the Karoo Rifting (Latest Carboniferous–Late Triassic). Subsequently, resedimentation occurred during a second sedimentation cycle, which was probably connected to rift jump during the Jurassic Gondwana breakup and passive margin development between East Africa and Madagascar. This study demonstrates that under certain temperature constraints detrital apatite FT age distributions combined with litho- and biostratigraphic data can be used to verify sedimentation–resedimentation events.

Thermal history of the early Miocene Waitemata Basin and adjacent Waipapa Group, North Island, New Zealand

Apatite fission track (AFT) and vitrinite reflectance (VR) data for early Miocene outcrops from the Waitemata Basin reveal that the basin sequence was subjected to shallow burial before denudation. AFT results suggest that the total sediment thickness within the basin was ≤1 km and maximum paleotemperatures during burial never exceeded c. 60°C. Statistical analyses of the detrital AFT ages distinguish four dominant sources of sediment supply: contemporaneous volcanism; metagreywacke rocks of the Waipapa Group; the Northland Allochthon; and an unidentified source south of the basin. The apatite and zircon fission track results from the Waipapa Group rocks (Gondwana Terrane) adjacent to the basin suggest two discrete phases of accelerated cooling: the first during the early Cretaceous (c. 117 Ma) and the second during the mid Cretaceous (c. 84 Ma). These events probably reflect key stages in the tectonic development of the New Zealand microcontinent during the Cretaceous period, the earlier event being related to the climax of compressional deformation (Rangitata Orogeny) and the latter to extensional tectonism associated with the opening of the Tasman Sea. Waipapa Group rocks now exposed at the surface cooled from maximum paleotemperatures of c. 250°C at an estimated rate of c. 180–36°C/m.y., involving substantial denudation.

Thermal history of the early Miocene Waitemata Basin and adjacent Waipapa Group, North Island, New Zealand

Apatite fission track (AFT) and vitrinite reflectance (VR) data for early Miocene outcrops from the Waitemata Basin reveal that the basin sequence was subjected to shallow burial before denudation. AFT results suggest that the total sediment thickness within the basin was ≤1 km and maximum paleotemperatures during burial never exceeded c. 60°C. Statistical analyses of the detrital AFT ages distinguish four dominant sources of sediment supply: contemporaneous volcanism; metagreywacke rocks of the Waipapa Group; the Northland Allochthon; and an unidentified source south of the basin. The apatite and zircon fission track results from the Waipapa Group rocks (Gondwana Terrane) adjacent to the basin suggest two discrete phases of accelerated cooling: the first during the early Cretaceous (c. 117 Ma) and the second during the mid Cretaceous (c. 84 Ma). These events probably reflect key stages in the tectonic development of the New Zealand microcontinent during the Cretaceous period, the earlier event being related to the climax of compressional deformation (Rangitata Orogeny) and the latter to extensional tectonism associated with the opening of the Tasman Sea. Waipapa Group rocks now exposed at the surface cooled from maximum paleotemperatures of c. 250°C at an estimated rate of c. 180–36°C/m.y., involving substantial denudation.