Provenance Analysis of Lower Cretaceous Sindong Group Sandstones in the Gyeongsang Basin, Korea, Using Integrated Petrography, Quartz Sem-Cathodoluminescence, and Zircon Zr/Hf Analysis

Abstract

The Sindong Group (Aptian-Albian) in southeastern Korea is a 2-3-km-thick fluvio-lacustrine sedimentary package deposited in an elongated basin (the Nakdong Trough), which was formed by extension in an active-continental-margin setting. The provenance of the Sindong Group was studied to understand spatial and temporal variation in composition in three different parts of the basin by using integrated data on petrography, quartz SEM-cathodoluminescence (CL) analysis, and zircon Zr/Hf analysis. Although Sindong Group sandstones display wide variation in the composition of framework grains, they generally have increasing amounts of feldspar and decreasing amounts of quartz up sequence. Significant amounts of volcanic rock fragments and volcanic quartz are observed in the late-stage sediments. Metamorphic quartz is predominant in all Sindong Group sandstones, indicative of the exposure of metamorphic rocks in the source terrane, mostly from Precambrian basement and Triassic granites. The occurrence of significant amounts of plutonic quartz from early-stage sediments suggests that Jurassic granites were widely exposed in the source terranes. In addition, the episodic increase in volume of plutonic quartz content in the sequence, especially in the northern part of the basin, suggests that episodic tectonic activity occurred in the catchment. The increasing feldspar content up sequence could support the occurrence of tectonic activity in the catchments. The Zr/Hf analysis of detrital zircons revealed that the majority of zircons are of continental-crust origin formed in orogenic settings, but zircons in the lowest strata in the northern part of the basin were derived largely from anorogenic magmatic rocks of mantle origin. Our results demonstrate that source terranes for the Sindong Group have heterogeneous spatial and temporal distribution and were composed mainly of Precambrian basement and Triassic to Jurassic granitic rocks, with minor (meta)sedimentary rocks and syndepositional volcanic rocks. The detritus derived from syndepositional volcanic rocks became significant in the late stage of basin filling, representing the transition from extensional tectonism to continental-arc magmatism. The differences in characteristics of quartz SEM-CL and zircon Zr/Hf ratios in different parts of the basin are best explained by deposition on different alluvial fans and river systems.

Petrotectonic setting of the provenance of Lower Siwalik sandstones of the Himalayan foreland basin, southeastern Kumaun Himalaya, India

“…The abundance of slate, schist, phyllite, and metaquartzite points out low‐grade metamorphic and metasedimentary source rocks. Considerable proportions of quartz–sericite schist, quartz–mica schist, muscovite‐biotite gneiss and biotite rock fragments on the other hand suggest medium‐ to high‐grade metamorphic source rocks (Garzanti & Vezzoli, ; Lee, Yi, & Choi, ). Various argillite rock fragments denote the presence of sedimentary rock strata in the hinterland.…”

Mineralogy and geochemistry of sands along the Manzanillo and El Carrizal beach areas, southern Mexico: implications for palaeoweathering, provenance and tectonic setting

“…1 for more details). The shapes of REE patterns and the range in Eu anomalies are highly useful to discriminate mafic and felsic rocks and to interpret the provenance of clastic sediments (Cullers, 1994;Armstrong-Altrin et al, 2004;Kasper-Zubillaga et al, 2008;Etemad-Saeed et al, 2011Lee et al, 2014Lee et al, , 2015Zhang and Gao, 2015). Chondrite-normalized REE patterns of MN sands display LREE enrichment, little positive Eu anomaly and flat HREE distribution (Fig.…”

SHRIMP U–Pb ages of detrital zircons from the Early Cretaceous Nakdong Formation, South East Korea: Timing of initiation of the Gyeongsang Basin and its provenance

“…The Sindong Group consists of an alluvial fan, a fluvial plain and lacustrine sediments. The Sindong Group is known to contain few volcanic rocks or volcanogenic sediments throughout its whole sedimentary sequence, except for the uppermost Jinju Formation, which contains tuffaceous sandstone that is approximately a few centimeters to tens of centimeters thick (H. Choi, ; Y. Lee, Yi, & Choi, ). The Nakdong Formation is mainly composed of conglomerates, pebbly sandstones, and sandstones.…”