NORTH AMERICAN DETRITAL ZIRCON AGE DOMAINS AND SEDIMENT DISPERSAL PATTERNS

Determining sediment source to sink relationships and sediment pathways using provenance geochronology requires constraints on the distribution of age domains that may serve as sediment sources. Current age domain maps are largely based on ages of crystalline basement that underlie geologic provinces, which fails to characterize the observed distribution of zircon components that may be sourced from crystalline basement and recycled into successive sedimentary deposits. To investigate the distribution of zircon age components across the North American continent, U-Pb zircon datasets from publically available repositories (www.geochron.org; Canadian Geochronology Knowledgebase) were compiled to construct age domain contour maps that display the relative distribution of zircon age components across North America.

Relative proportions of user-defined age components display the spatial extent of detrital zircon age components and provide insight into sediment dispersal through time in North America. We present a summary map that delineates single source areas, multicomponent regions, and sediment mixing zones that contain numerous zircon age components to better characterize potential sediment sources for provenance identification.