Basin Research - Volume 12, Issue 1, 2000

Upper Triassic, Lower–Middle Jurassic and Upper Jurassic strata in the western Ordos Basin of North China are interpreted as three unconformity‐bounded basin phases, BP‐4, BP‐5 and BP‐6, respectively. The three basin phases were deposited in three kinds of predominantly continental basin: (1) a Late Triassic composite basin with a south‐western foreland subbasin and a north‐western rift subbasin, (2) an Early–Middle Jurassic sag basin and (3) a Late Jurassic foreland molasse wedge. Within the Late Triassic composite basin BP‐4 includes three sequences, S4‐1, S4‐2 and S4‐3. In the south‐western foreland subbasin, the three sequences are the depositional response to three episodes of thrust load subsidence, and are mainly composed of alluvial fan, steep‐sloped lacustrine delta and fluvial systems in front of a thrust fault‐bounded basin flank. In the north‐western rift subbasin, the three sequences are the depositional response to three episodes of rift subsidence, and consist of alluvial fan – braid plain and fan delta systems basinward of a normal fault‐bounded basin margin. In the sag basin BP‐5 includes four sequences, S5‐1, S5‐2, S5‐3 and S5‐4, which reflect four episodes of intracratonic sagging events and mainly consist of fluvial, gentle‐gradient lacustrine delta and lacustrine systems sourced from peripheral uplifted flanks. BP‐6, deposited in the foreland‐type basin, includes one sequence, S6‐1, which is the depositional response to thrust load subsidence and is composed of alluvial fan systems. The formation and development of these three kinds of basins was controlled by Late Triassic and Jurassic multi‐episode tectonism of basin‐bounding orogenic belts, which were mainly driven by collision of the North China and South China blocks and subduction of the western Pacific plate.

The Nova Basin contains an upper Miocene to Pliocene supradetachment sedimentary succession that records the unroofing of the Panamint metamorphic core complex, west of Death Valley, California. Basin stratigraphy reflects the evolution of sedimentation processes from landslide emplacement during basin initiation to the development of alluvial fans composed of reworked, uplifted sections of the basin fill. ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar geochronology of volcanic units in middle and lower parts of the sequence provide age control on the tectonic and depositional evolution of the basin and, more generally, insights regarding the rate of change of depositional environments in supradetachment basins. Our work, along with earlier research, indicate basin deposition from 11.38 Ma to 3.35 Ma. The data imply sedimentation rates, uncorrected for compaction, of ~100 m Myr⁻¹ in the lower, high‐energy part to ~1000 m Myr⁻¹ in the middle part characterized by debris‐flow fan deposition. The observed variation in sediment flux rate during basin evolution suggests that supradetachment basins have complex depositional histories involving rapid transitions in both the style and rate of sedimentation.

Data from apatite fission track analysis are presented for 20 outcrop samples collected in the southern Adelaide Fold Belt, South Australia. Interpretation of these data, with the aid of numerical models which allow inference of multiphase cooling histories, indicate three discrete cooling events that are likely to correlate with sedimentation events in surrounding depositional settings. An event beginning some time after 85 Ma (Late Cretaceous) was characterized by cooling throughout the study area from temperatures of roughly 50 to 70 °C. An event beginning at 300–270 Ma (Late Palaeozoic) was characterized by cooling from temperatures >120 °C in all areas except for the Mount Lofty Ranges and Murray Bridge region, where peak temperatures were only 95–115 °C prior to Palaeozoic cooling. Some samples from these subregions of relatively cool Late Palaeozoic temperatures also retain evidence for even earlier cooling from temperatures >120 °C, beginning prior to 350 Ma. We interpret the post 85‐Ma event as the consequence of regional exhumation from a depth of 1.0–1.6 km. The Late Palaeozoic event (300–270 Ma) is interpreted as cooling associated with the termination of the Alice Springs Orogeny, while cooling prior to 350 Ma probably represents the final stages of Early Middle Palaeozoic unroofing of the southern Adelaide Fold Belt.

The results highlight the importance of regional, episodic postorogenic exhumation of Palaeozoic fold belts, where – in some cases – conventional methods have erroneously suggested relatively long‐term stability.

ABSTRACT Zircon is the most widely used mineral in detrital dating studies because it is common to multiple rock types, is chemically and physically resistant, and can endure successive cycles of burial, metamorphism and erosion. Zircon also has the advantage that single grains may be dated by either the fission‐track (FT) or U–Pb method, which, because of their contrasting thermal sensitivities (total resetting occurs at temperatures > 320 °C for FT and > 700–900 °C for U–Pb), can provide unique information about both the age structure and the thermal evolution of a sediment source. However, single method‐based bias and difficulties associated with interpreting measured ages can influence both the quality and the level of useful provenance information. For example, the zircon FT system is sensitive to metamorphic overprinting and hence measured ages alone cannot be interpreted as unambiguously dating formation age of the source rock. In contrast, U–Pb zircon data have high resistance (700–900 °C) to thermal overprinting and therefore recorded formation ages may not relate to an immediate source but may instead reflect a polycyclical history. The focus of this paper is to examine, from a practical standpoint, the provenance potential of detrital zircon fission track data and to investigate the method’s complementary role as an aide to the interpretation of high‐temperature detrital U–Pb zircon data by combining U–Pb and FT methods in a single study.

ABSTRACT Current basin models for the Western Irish Namurian Basin (WINB) envisage an elongate trough along the line of the present‐day Shannon Estuary that was infilled with clastic sediments derived from a hinterland that lay to the W or NW. This paper argues for an alternative basin configuration with source areas to the SW supplying sediment to a basin where deepest water conditions were in northern County Clare. Rapid subsidence along the present‐day Shannon Estuary ponded sediment in this area throughout the early Namurian and, only with the rapid increase of sedimentation rates within the mid‐Namurian (Kinderscoutian Stage), were substantial amounts of sediment able to prograde to the NE of the basin. This alternative model better explains the overwhelming predominance of NE‐directed palaeocurrents in the Namurian infill, but requires fundamental revisions to most aspects of current depositional models.

Deep‐water black shales (Clare Shale Formation) initially accumulated throughout the region and were progressively downlapped by an unconfined turbidite system (Ross Formation) prograding to the NE. This in turn was succeeded by an unstable, siltstone‐dominated slope system (Gull Island Formation) characterized by large‐scale soft‐sediment deformation, which also prograded to the NE. In the northern‐most basin outcrops, in northern County Clare, this early phase of basin infill was developed as a condensed succession of radiolarian‐rich black shales, minor turbiditic sandstones and undisturbed siltstones. The new basin model envisages the northern exposures of County Clare to be a distal, basin floor succession whereas the traditional model considers it a relatively shallow, winnowed, basin margin succession. Later stages of basin infill consist of a series of deltaic cycles that culminate in major, erosive‐based sandstone bodies (e.g. Tullig Sandstone) interpreted either as axial, deltaic feeder channels or incised valley fills genetically unrelated to the underlying deltaic facies. Within the context of the new basin model the former alternative is most likely and estimated channel depths within the Tullig Sandstone indicate that the basal erosive surface could have been generated by intrinsic fluvial scour without recourse to base‐level fall. The northerly flowing Tullig channels pass down‐dip into isolated channel sandbodies interbedded with wave‐dominated strata that suggest the deltas of the WINB were considerably more wave‐influenced than hitherto proposed. The retreat of the Tullig delta during sea‐level rise saw the rapid southerly retrogradation of parasequences, as may be expected if the basin margin lay to the SW of the present‐day outcrops.