Resentini, A;
Andò, S;
Garzanti, E;
Malusà, MG;
Pastore, G;
Vermeesch, P;
Chanvry, E;
(2020)
Zircon as a provenance tracer: Coupling Raman spectroscopy and Usingle bondPb geochronology in source-to-sink studies.
Chemical Geology
, 555
, Article 119828. 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2020.119828.
Preview |
Text
Metamict zircon revised manuscript_AR.pdf - Accepted Version Download (1MB) | Preview |
Abstract
Usingle bondPb zircon geochronology is one of the most widely used techniques in sedimentary provenance analysis. Unfortunately, the ability of this method to identify sediment sources is often degraded by sediment recycling and mixing of detritus from different source rocks sharing similar age signatures. These processes create non-unique zircon Usingle bondPb age signatures and thereby obscure the provenance signal. We here address this problem by combining detrital zircon Usingle bondPb geochronology with Raman spectroscopy. The position and width of the Raman signal in zircon scales with its degree of metamictization, which in turn is sensitive to temperature. Thus, combined U-Pb + Raman datasets encode information about the crystallization history of detrital zircons as well as their thermal history. Using three borehole samples from Mozambique as part of a source-to-sink study of interest for hydrocarbon exploration, we show that zircon populations with similar Usingle bondPb age distributions can exhibit different Raman signatures. The joint U-Pb + Raman analysis allowed us to identify three different annealing trends, which were linked to specific thermal events. Thus we were able to differentiate a dominant Pan-African Usingle bondPb age peak into several sub-populations and highlight the major effect of Karoo tectono-magmatic events. In our case study, we used Raman also as a means to systematically identify all zircon grains in heavy-mineral mounts, resulting in considerable time savings. Raman spectroscopy is a non-destructive and cost-effective method that is easily integrated in the zircon Usingle bondPb dating workflow to augment the resolution power of detrital zircon Usingle bondPb geochronology.
| Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Title: | Zircon as a provenance tracer: Coupling Raman spectroscopy and Usingle bondPb geochronology in source-to-sink studies |
| Open access status: | An open access version is available from UCL Discovery |
| DOI: | 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2020.119828 |
| Publisher version: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.chemgeo.2020.119828 |
| Language: | English |
| Additional information: | This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions. |
| Keywords: | Provenance analysis, U-Pb zircon geochronology, Raman Spectroscopy, Zircon metamictization, Hydrocarbon exploration, Mozambique |
| UCL classification: | UCL UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Earth Sciences |
| URI: | https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10114133 |
Archive Staff Only
 |
View Item |
