Document type
Journal articles
Document subtype
Full paper
Title
Detrital zircon provenance of Triassic sandstone of the Algarve Basin (SW Iberia): evidence of Gondwanan- and Laurussian-type sources of sediment
Participants in the publication
Cristina Gama (Author)
M Francisco Pereira (Author)
Quentin G Crowley (Author)
Ícaro Dias da Silva (Author)
Dep. Geologia
IDL
IDL
J Brandão Silva (Author)
Dep. Geologia
Summary
Detrital zircon populations from six samples of upper Triassic sandstone (Algarve Basin) were analysed, yielding mostly Precambrian ages. zircon age populations of the Triassic sandstone sampled from the western and central sectors of the basin are distinct, suggesting local recycling and/or lateral changes in their sources. Our findings and the available detrital zircon ages from the Palaeozoic terranes of SW Iberia, Nova Scotia and NW Morocco were jointly examined using the Kolmogorov–Smirnov test and multidimensional scaling diagrams. The obtained results enable direct discrimination of competing Laurussian-type and Gondwanan-type sediment sources, involving recycling and mixing relationships. The detrital zircon populations of the Algarve Triassic sandstone are very different from those of the lower–upper Carboniferous Mértola and Mira formations (South Portuguese Zone), upper Devonian – lower Carboniferous Horta da Torre, Represa and Santa Iria formations (Pulo do Lobo Zone), and the late Carboniferous Santa Susana and early Permian Viar basins, which are ruled out as potential sources. The detrital zircon populations of Triassic sandstone from the central sector and those from the Ossa–Morena Zone Ediacaran–Cambrian siliciclastic rocks, upper Devonian – Carboniferous Ronquillo, Tercenas, Phyllite-Quartzite and Brejeira formations (South Portuguese Zone), and Frasnian siliciclastic rocks of the Pulo do Lobo Zone are not statistically distinguishable. Thus, sedimentation in the central sector was influenced by Gondwanan- and Laurussian-type putative sources exposed in SW Iberia, in contrast to the western sector, where Meguma Terrane and Sehoul Block Cambrian siliciclastic rocks allegedly constituted the main (Laurussian-type) sources. These findings provide insights into the denudation of distinctive source terranes distributed along the late Palaeozoic suture zone that juxtaposed the Laurussian and Gondwanan margins.
Date of Publication
2020-05-19
Where published
Geological Magazine
Publication Identifiers
ISSN - 0016-7568
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Number of pages
18
Starting page
311
Last page
329
Document Identifiers
DOI -
https://doi.org/10.1017/s0016756820000370
URL -
http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/s0016756820000370
Rankings
Web Of Science Q2 (2019) - 2.365 - GEOSCIENCES, MULTIDISCIPLINARY - SCIE
SCOPUS Q1 (2019) - 4.6 - Geology
SCIMAGO Q1 (2019) - 1.28 - Geology
Keywords
U–Pb geochronology
detrital zircon
Triassic sandstone
Algarve Basin
Palaeozoic terrane
sediment source
Pangaea
palaeogeographic reconstruction