FAR-TRAVELLED PERI-GONDWANAN SEDIMENT IN THE ARKOMA BASIN: MAPPING THE CONNECTION BETWEEN THE NORTHERN APPALACHIANS AND THE SOUTHERN LAURENTIAN MARGIN

Along the southeastern Laurentia margin, the late Paleozoic sedimentary record of the Arkoma Basin (modern-day Arkansas-eastern Oklahoma, U.S.A.) was dominated by Laurentian derived sediment. However, we identify a brief stratigraphic interval in the Middle Pennsylvanian when a relatively concentrated peri-Gondwanan detrital zircon signal abruptly appears and then diminishes. Determining the provenance of this exotically sourced detritus is critical in understanding late Paleozoic sediment transport within and across Laurentia during the assembly of Pangea. To address this question, we use sandstone petrographic data, new, and previously published detrital zircon data to characterize ancient sediment sources via bottom-up source modeling. Results from this approach, in tandem with facies relations and channel sandstone geometries, allow us to construct a series of sediment routing maps that link the distal sedimentary systems that distributed peri-Gondwanan detritus in the Arkoma Basin to more proximal systems north and west (i.e., the Oklahoma and Anadarko shelves, as well as the Forest City Basin). Paleo-drainage reconstructions further link this sediment routing network to the northern Appalachian Mountains. This interpretation is consistent with recent work that suggests a coevally collapsing Acadian altiplano that contains peri-Gondwanan accreted crustal material, and which serves as a viable source of this sediment. In this presentation we explore the implications of the proposed far-travelled peri-Gondwanan detritus in the context of late Paleozoic tectonics, continental-scale drainage dynamics, and super-continent assembly.