SMSPS Stephan Mueller Special Publication Series SMSPS Stephan Mueller Spec. Publ. Ser. 1868-4564 Copernicus Publications Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/smsps-4-111-2009 Detrital zircon geochronologic tests of the SE Siberia-SW Laurentia paleocontinental connection MacLean J. S. 1 Sears J. W. 1 Chamberlain K. R. 2 Khudoley A. K. 3 Prokopiev A. V. 4 Kropachev A. P. 5 Serkina G. G. 3 University of Montana, Missoula, Montana 59812, USA University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming 82070, USA St. Petersburg State University, Geological Department, University nab. 7/9, St. Petersburg, 199034, Russia Diamond and Precious Metal Geology Institute SB RAS, Lenin Avenue 39, Yakutsk, 677980, Republic Sakha (Yakutia), Russia All Russian Geological Research Institute (VSEGEI), Sredniy Prospect 74, St. Petersburg, 199106, Russia 17 09 2009 4 111 116 Copyright: © 2009 J. S. MacLean et al. 2009 © European Geosciences Union 2009 This article is available from https://smsps.copernicus.org/articles/4/111/2009/smsps-4-111-2009.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://smsps.copernicus.org/articles/4/111/2009/smsps-4-111-2009.pdf

Strikingly similar Late Mesoproterozoic stratigraphic sequences and correlative U-Pb detrital-zircon ages may indicate that the Sette Daban region of southeastern Siberia and the Death Valley region of southwestern North America were formerly contiguous parts of a Grenville foreland basin. The Siberian section contains large numbers of detrital zircons that correlate with Grenville, Granite-Rhyolite, and Yavapai basement provinces of North America. The sections in both Siberia and Death Valley exhibit west-directed thrust faults that may represent remnants of a Grenville foreland thrust belt. North American detrital-zircon components do not occur in Siberian samples above a ~600 Ma breakup unconformity, suggesting that rifting and continental separation blocked transfer of clastic sediment between the cratons by 600 Ma. Faunal similarities suggest, however, that the two cratons remained within the breeding ranges of Early Cambrian trilobites and archeocyathans.

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