MORE THAN DATES: PROVENANCE OF DETRITAL ZIRCON BY EXCIMER LASER ABLATION ICP-MS
In the central and southern Appalachians, ~80% of detrital zircons from modern river sands and Neoproterozoic through late Paleozoic sandstones yield Grenville ages, recording continuous magmatism from 1250 Ma to 950 Ma with a peak at 1050-1010 Ma. This continuum of ages contrasts with previous geochronological studies of Grenville crystalline rocks that have identified at least 3 discrete events at 1190-1140 Ma, 1080-1020 Ma and 1000-980 Ma. The similarity of detrital zircon age distributions in river sands and sandstones indicate that Grenville-age detritus has dominated the sedimentary mass in eastern North America for the past 600-1000 million years. Detrital zircons of Paleozoic age in these same samples exhibit age peaks at 420-500 Ma and 350-380 Ma corresponding with the Penobscot-Taconic and Acadian orogenies. Interestingly, many of the Acadian-age zircons have Th/U < 0.1, implying a metamorphic rather than an igneous origin. Only 2% of detrital zircons in the Savannah River have Alleghenian ages (250-330 Ma) which is unexpected considering the widespread occurrence of late Paleozoic plutons in the southern Appalachians. Equally surprising is the rarity (1 out of 116) of Archean-age zircons in the Ohio River given the availability of glacially deposited sediment derived from sources to the north that presumably included the Superior Province.