Detrital Zircon Geo- and Thermochronologic Constraints on Late Mississippian-Early Pennsylvanian Sediment Transport and Tectonics, Southwestern Kansas and Northwestern Arkansas

The Late Mississippian to Early Pennsylvanian is a critical time interval across the globe, with major changes in tectonics, climate, and eustacy. Transcontinental sediment transport in North America, from the Appalachians to Great Canyon, has been proposed to initiate at this time (Gehrels et al., 2011). In the midcontinent, clastic influx to the Hugoton Embayment and Arkoma Shelf, during widespread carbonate platform deposition, may record evidence for this model, but the limited number of provenance studies has hindered interpretations. To test this model and further constrain sediment dispersal and source-to-sink systems in the midcontinent, we evaluate the provenance of upper Mississippian to middle Pennsylvanian siliciclastic intervals, in two areas, using sandstone component analysis and detrital zircon U-Pb and (U-Th)/He double dating. (1) For the Hugoton Embayment in southwestern Kansas, we focus on sandstones deposited in two valley-filling intervals, the Chester and Morrow. A total of 1100 zircon U-Pb ages have been acquired from samples from 10 boreholes, 6 from Chester and 4 from Morrow. Preliminary analysis suggests that the Chester is characterized by two major zircon U-Pb age clusters of 900-1295 Ma (Grenville) and 390-475 Ma, consistent with sediment delivery from the Appalachian orogen. Morrow strata record a change in provenance, with the presence of two additional age groups, 1300-1500 Ma (24.5%) and 1600-1800 Ma (17.9%), that correspond well with the age of basement rocks in the Granite-Rhyolite and Yavapai-Maztzal provinces, respectively. We ascribe changes in the zircon age spectra and introduction of these grains to the development of local uplifts, like the Nemaha Ridge, in the early Pennsylvanian. Double dating of zircons from these peaks may reveal additional information about these basement sources and the timing of denudation of these uplifts. (2) For the Arkoma shelf, we are analyzing 11 samples, collected from outcrops in northwestern Arkansas, covering 9 clastic intervals that capture the transition from the Late Mississippian stable shelf to the Middle Pennsylvanian foreland basin. The detrital zircon U-Pb age spectra and (U-Th)/He cooling ages will provide new constraints on the age and depositional lag time of these units, and cooling history of sediment source regions