Detrital zircon geochronology of Palaeozoic Novaya Zemlya – a key to understanding the basement of the Barents Shelf |
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| Authors: | Henning Lorenz David G Gee Evgeny Korago Galina Kovaleva William C McClelland Jane A Gilotti Dirk Frei |
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| Institution: | 1. Department of Earth Sciences, Uppsala University, , Uppsala, 752 36 Sweden;2. VNIIOkeangeologia, , St. Petersburg, 190121 Russia;3. 121 Trowbridge Hall, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Iowa, , Iowa City, IA, 52242 USA;4. Central Analytical Facility, Stellenbosch University, , Stellenbosch, 7602 South Africa |
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| Abstract: | The Novaya Zemlya fold‐and‐thrust‐belt is the northern continuation of the late Palaeozoic Uralide Orogen. Little is known about its deeper structure and the basement history of the adjacent Barents and Kara shelves. Based on geological evidence and detrital zircon analysis of 28 samples from the northeastern and stratigraphically deepest part of the archipelago, we demonstrate that Cambro‐Ordovician turbidite‐dominated deposition was almost exclusively sourced from rocks consolidated during the Timanian orogeny (Timanian basement). A profound change in provenance occurred near the end of the Ordovician. Over 90% of the zircons from Silurian and about 80% from Devonian strata have ages characteristic of the Sveconorwegian Orogen, implying uplift of these rocks in the vicinity of Novaya Zemlya. The presence of Sveconorwegian and Grenvillian rocks in the high Arctic suggests revision of recent reconstructions of the Rodinia supercontinent, its break‐up and subsequent Caledonian orogeny. |
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