DETERMINING VARIATION OF PALEOZOIC SEDIMENT PROVENANCE IN THE PERMIAN BASIN USING DETRITAL ZIRCON U-PB GEOCHRONOLOGY AND MICROTEXTURES

The Paleozoic clastic sediments in the Permian Basin in western Texas and southeastern New Mexico were likely derived from several transport systems. The Permian Basin has two major sub-basins, the Delaware Basin to the west and the Midland Basin to the east. The late Paleozoic collision of Laurentia and Gondwana caused significant regional deformation to the east and south of the basin, resulting in the formation of the Ouachita-Marathon thrust belt. Simultaneously, the Ancestral Rocky Mountains were exhumed to the north of the basin. These highlands may have governed the sediment transport pathways during the late Paleozoic.

Previous studies of the Permian Basin have suggested that the late Paleozoic clastic grains were transported from a longitudinal fluvial system along the Ouachita-Marathon front with headwaters in the Appalachian orogenic belt, as well as regional fluvial systems flowing northward and northwestward from the peri-Gondwanan terranes incorporated in the Ouachita and Marathon orogen. These transport pathways were assisted by eolian transport. Surprisingly, grains from the Ancestral Rocky Mountains to the north made only a minor contribution. This project will examine the provenance of Pennsylvanian and early Permian clastic rocks in the northeastern Delaware Basin using detrital zircon geochronology and microtexture analysis. The data will be integrated with other published data in the Permian Basin to test the hypothesis that the Paleozoic sediment provenance varies across the basin.