PROVENANCE INVESTIGATION OF MISSISSIPPIAN AND PENNSYLVANIAN FORELAND BASIN SANDSTONES IN NORTHERN ALABAMA, USA

The Ouachita and Alleghanian orogenies occurred simultaneously as the collision of Laurentia and Gondwana progressed from Mississippian to Permian time. Juxtaposition of the two orogenic fronts in Alabama has led to differing interpretations of sediment provenance in the adjacent Black Warrior and Appalachian foreland basins. Sedimentary rocks deposited in the Black Warrior basin have been interpreted to have an Ouachita, Appalachian, and NW interior craton source; while rocks in the adjacent Cumberland Plateau (Appalachian foreland basin) are interpreted to have a NE Appalachian source. Previous provenance interpretations are derived from petrography, facies, and paleocurrent data. The purpose of this study is to characterize the provenance of Mississippian and Pennsylvanian foreland basin sandstones in Alabama using new quantitative detrital zircon geochronology techniques.

In this study, we use the DZmix tool to quantitatively compare the detrital zircon age spectra of samples taken from the Black Warrior and Appalachian foreland basins as well as the Appalachian fold-thrust belt to that of potential source samples. Potential source samples include Pre-Carboniferous rocks taken from the Ouachita and Appalachian Mountains. Our data and potential source data were input into the DZmix tool to model the potential source area detrital zircon age spectra and relative contributions from each source unit. Using the DZmix tool, we were able to characterize sediment source areas for foreland basin sedimentary rocks of Alabama.