20 The Role of Geochronology in Constraining the Development of Earth’s Lithosphere: Focus on the U.S. South-Central Region, Mexico, and Beyond

Tuesday, 10 March 2020
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Meeting Room 202CD

DETRITAL ZIRCON GEOCHRONOLOGY AND PROVENANCE ANALYSIS OF THE DESMOINESIAN CHEROKEE GROUP SANDSTONES, CHEROKEE PLATFORM, ANADARKO BASIN, OKLAHOMA

Paper number: 20-8
Program: Theme Sessions
Time: 10:00 AM – 10:20 AM

Authors

Abstract

Middle Pennsylvanian, Cherokee Group sandstones on the Oklahoma Cherokee Platform and in the Anadarko basin demonstrate spatial and temporal variability in reservoir quality primarily related to changes in rock composition. While several potential sources of detrital grains existed for these sandstones, provenance is not sufficiently explored to reconstruct sediment dispersal systems and develop accurate models necessary for predicting these compositional changes. This study uses new methods of U-Pb and Hf isotopic detrital zircon geochronology, along with previous petrographic studies, to establish sedimentary provenance and its relationship to changes in rock composition. These data are integrated to reconstruct sediment dispersal patterns for the Cherokee Group Bluejacket/Bartlesville and overlying Taft/Red Fork sandstones. Samples of Bluejacket and Taft sandstone were examined in outcrop on the flanks of the Ozark Uplift and samples of Red Fork sandstone were taken from lateral drill cuttings in the Anadarko basin. The Bluejacket and Red Fork sandstones were both characterized as sublitharenites with lithic fragments consisting predominantly of low grade metamorphics. Detrital zircons from these samples recorded U-Pb ages with major peaks corresponding to Alleghenian-Taconic Synorogenic rocks (270- 490 ma), Gondwanan Accreted Terranes (530-750 ma) and Grenville Province (950-1300 ma) and Hf values of -10.5 to +10.5. In contrast, detrital zircons of the quartz arenite Taft Sandstone, southern flank of the Ozark Uplift, recorded U-Pb ages with major peaks corresponding to the Yavapai-Mazatzal (1600-1800 ma) and Grenville provinces. It is interpreted that two dispersal systems were active during Early Desmoinesian time. A distal, transcontinental fluvial system that transported lithic rich sediment southwestward from the Northern Appalachians and a proximal system that recycled quartz-rich sediment from the Ozark or Nemaha Uplifts.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 52, No. 1

doi: 10.1130/abs/2020SC-343387

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