konstantinou et al., 2014

Provenance of Quartz Arenites of the Early Paleozoic Midcontinent Region, USA
Author(s): Alexandros Konstantinou, Karl R. Wirth, Jeffrey D. Vervoort, David H. Malone,
Cameron Davidson and John P. Craddock
Source: The Journal of Geology, (-Not available-), p. 000
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/675327 .
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Provenance of Quartz Arenites of the Early Paleozoic
Midcontinent Region, USA
Alexandros Konstantinou,1,* Karl R. Wirth,2 Jeffrey D. Vervoort,3 David H. Malone,4
Cameron Davidson,5 and John P. Craddock2
1. Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Stanford University, Stanford, California 94305, USA;
2. Geology Department, Macalester College, St. Paul, Minnesota 55105, USA; 3. Department of Geology,
Washington State University, Pullman, Washington 99164, USA; 4. Department of Geography-Geology,
Illinois State University, Campus Box 4400, Normal, Illinois 61790, USA; 5. Geology Department,
Carleton College, Northfield, Minnesota 55057, USA
ABSTRACT
Quartz arenites characterize much of the early Paleozoic sedimentary history of the midcontinent region. Despite
numerous studies, the century-long debate on how these arenites formed is still unresolved, primarily because of the
compositional and textural purity of the deposits. In this study, we present an extensive data set of detrital zircon
geochronology from the early Paleozoic supermature arenites of the midcontinent region, and we offer newconstraints
about their origin. Our results coupled with compiled provenance information from older basins and orogens may
indicate that the Cambrian and Ordovician arenites represent sediment reworking primarily of two different older
basins. The Cambro-Ordovician sediment was transported to the midcontinent region by two early Paleozoic river
systems that sourced from the paleo-east (Huron basin) and paleo-northeast (midcontinent rift region).
Online enhancement: supplementary table.
[The Journal of Geology, 2014, volume 122, p. 000–000] 2014 by The University of Chicago.
All rights reserved. 0022-1376/2014/12202-0005$15.00. DOI: 10.1086/675327
1
Introduction
The provenance of quartz arenites has puzzled ge-ologists
for more than a century, largely because
the textural maturity and compositional purity of
such deposits leave few clues about the source of
detritus (e.g., Sardeson 1896; Dott et al. 1986; Dott
2003). The early Paleozoic (Cambrian-Ordovician)
quartz arenites of the midcontinent region (fig. 1),
such as the Cambrian Jordan and Ordovician St.
Peter Sandstones (Runkel et al. 2007), are excep-tional
examples of thin sheets of widespread are-nites
deposited in low-relief cratonal settings over
periods of tens of millions of years. Chemical
weathering has been proposed to play an important
role in the development of the compositional and
textural maturity of these rocks (Runkel et al. 1998,
2012; Driese et al. 2007). Evidence to support this
idea comes from interbedded finer-grained feld-
Manuscript received August 25, 2013; accepted December
10, 2013; electronically published March 19, 2014.
* Author for correspondence; e-mail: akonstan@alumni
.stanford.edu.
spathic sandstone layers that are rich in potassium
feldspar but contain only trace amount of plagio-clase
feldspar (Odom 1975; Odom and Ostrom
1978). Because potassium feldspar is more chemi-cally
resistant than plagioclase feldspar, and be-cause
both minerals have similar resistance to
physical weathering, Runkel and Tipping (1998)
suggested that chemical weathering in the cratonal
interior, which now exposes large areas of saprolite,
may have resulted in a source area dominated min-eralogically
by quartz grains.
Although chemical weathering appears to pro-vide
a viable mechanism to explain the composi-tional
purity of the early Paleozoic quartz arenites,
the mechanism producing the textural maturity of
these deposits is less certain, since chemicalweath-ering
has been inferred to play a minor role in de-veloping
the roundness and sphericity of the quartz
grains and the well-sorted nature of the strata (e.g.,
Runkel et al. 2012 and references therein), thus re-quiring
an alternative explanation for the round-

000 A . KON S TANTI NOU E T A L .
Figure 1. Map of the Lake Superior region showing the major orogenic and province boundaries, the extent of the
early Paleozoic sedimentary rocks, the regional domes and basins in the area, and paleocurrent indicators in Early
Paleozoic strata. Also shown are sample locations with pie charts of the detrital zircon populations of each sample.
Map compiled from Ostrom (1970), Odom and Ostrom (1978), Mossler (1987), Dott et al. (1986), Smith et al. (1993),
and Runkel (1994).
ness and sphericity of the quartz grains in the early
Paleozoic strata. Experimental studies by Kuenen
(1959) showed that very prolonged and extremely
long-distance fluvial sediment transport from crys-talline
sources may explain the textural maturity
of the early Paleozoic quartz arenites. As the cra-tonal
interior of the midcontinent region today ex-poses
primarily crystalline rocks, Odom (1975;
Odom and Ostrom 1978) proposed that the textural
maturity of the quartz arenites resulted from a pro-

Journal of Geology P R O V E N A N C E O F QUART Z A RE NI T E S 000
longed history of erosion in the swash zones of mar-ginal
marine (beach) environments. Transportation
and abrasion of the quartz grains also may have
been achieved by wind, which is a more effective
process to enhance rounding, as evidenced by eo-lian
deposits within some of the early Paleozoic
arenites (Dott et al. 1986). In fact, eolian transport
and wind abrasion has been proposed to be more
effective in producing the textural maturity of the
sandstone deposits, especially in the unvegetated
landscape of the early Paleozoic (Dott et al. 1986,
2003).
In addition to special conditions of weathering,
transportation, and abrasion conditions proposed to
explain the textural maturity of the early Paleozoic
quartz arenites in the midcontinent region, other
workers have proposed that the textural (and com-positional)
maturity can be achieved more effec-tively
by recycling older, already texturally mature
strata (e.g., Amaral and Pryor 1977; Runkel 1994;
Johnson and Winter 1999). Nevertheless, while
each of the processes described above may have
been important in the formation of the early Pa-leozoic
quartz arenites, there is still no consensus
that can fully account for the textural maturity and
compositional purity of these rocks (see Runkel et
al. 2012 and references therein).
The purpose of this study is to better understand
the origin of compositionally and texturallymature
early Paleozoic quartz arenites of themidcontinent
region, by adding geochronologic data to the exist-ing
heavy mineral studies in the region (e.g., Tyler
et al. 1940). To address this question we dated de-trital
zircon populations (np1578; U-Pb with laser
ablation [LA] ICP-MS) of 15 samples from Cam-brian
and Ordovician quartz arenites. We coupled
our results with an extensive detrital zircon geo-chronologic
database (n p 2729) from older sedi-mentary
deposits such as the Archean Huron Basin
(2400–2200 Ma), the Proterozoic Animikie Group
(2200–1800 Ma), the deposits in the Paleoprotero-zoic
Baraboo Interval (∼1730–1630 Ma), and the
Mesoproterozoic midcontinent rift deposits (1110–
1030 Ma). Based on the detrital zircon populations
of the early Paleozoic quartz arenites and the older
source basins, we have identified two possible
source regions that most probably were eroded and
recycled during early Paleozoic sedimentation. We
performed simplified mixing models between the
Huron Basin and midcontinent rift detrital zircon
populations, and we are able to demonstrate that
the detrital zircon populations of the early Paleo-zoic
quartz arenites may represent mixtures be-tween
these two older sources.
Regional Geology and Stratigraphy
Early Paleozoic marine and fluvial strata exposed
in the midcontinent region are composed mostly
of interbedded feldspathic sandstone, thin sheets of
quartz sandstone, and lesser mudstone and carbon-ate
rocks (fig. 2). These strata rest unconformably
on Archean (Superior Province) and Proterozoic
basement rocks (Penokean, Yavapai, and Mazatzal
orogens and midcontinent rift; fig. 1; Dott et al.
1986; Van Schmus et al. 1996). The early Paleozoic
strata were deposited during a northward sea trans-gression
that flooded the broad lowland of the Hol-landale
Embayment, which is bounded by the Wis-consin
dome to the northeast and the Wisconsin
arch to the east (fig. 1; Galarowich 1997). The sed-iment
was deposited on a nearly flat, unvegetated
cratonic landscape that was weathered and eroded
for hundreds of millions of years (e.g., Dott 2003).
Wind and rivers transported sediment toward the
southwest (fig. 1) and distributed clastic sediments
in thin, flat widespread sheets, covering large areas
from Minnesota (northwest) to Missouri (south-east).
Late Cambrian strata like the Eau Claire For-mation,
Mount Simon, Wonewoc, Tunnel City
Group, and Jordan Sandstones are predominantly
composed of feldspathic and quartz arenites with
minor thinly bedded dolostone (fig. 2). These strata
were deposited during the Sauk transgressive cycle
on a shallow marine shelf sloping south and south-east,
and their ages are well constrained by fossils
(e.g., Feniak 1948; Berg 1952; Nelson 1956; Sloss
1963; Mossler 1987; Byers and Dott 1995). Lower
and Middle Ordovician strata are composed of do-lostones
(e.g., Oneota Dolomite and Shakopee For-mation)
and quartz arenites such as the St. Peter
Sandstone. Large extents of Ordovician strata were
deposited during sea level rise of the Tippecanoe
transgression (base of Middle Ordovician; Sloss
1963; Meyers and Peters 2011). Regional evidence
such as facies relationships and paleoshoreline
trends support placing the source and direction of
sediment transport in the northeast relative to the
present-day arrangement of the midcontinent re-gion
(e.g., Dott et al. 1986; Runkel 1992, 1994; Run-kel
et al. 2007).
Detrital zircon geochronology was performed on
15 samples collected over a large geographic area
(1400 # 500 km; fig. 1; table S1, available online)
and from eight different units of the composite
early Paleozoic stratigraphy (fig. 2). Our samples
were collected from units inferred to have been de-posited
on fairly discrete, well-developed shoreface

Figure 2. Generalized early Paleozoic stratigraphy of the midcontinent region (modified from Mossler 2008), showing
the location of the samples discussed in this study and the age of the Cambrian-Ordovician boundary. The detrital
zircon relative probability curves for each sample are also shown; the fill pattern of the probability curve is the same
for samples from the same formation. Note that the Y-axis of each of the relative probability plot is not the same
scale. The shaded gray bands indicate the ages of important nearby basement terranes: (1) Grenville orogen and
midcontinent rift, (2) anorogenic granite-rhyolite suite, (3) Penokean-Yavapai-Mazatzal orogens, (4) Superior Province,
and (5) Minnesota River Valley and Wyoming Province.

environment affected by longshore drift and tidal
currents (e.g., Runkel et al. 2007). This area was
fed by a mixed eolian and fluvial system that eroded
and transported material from rocks exposed
within the midcontinent region (e.g., Dott 2003).
Description of Possible Sediment Sources
The paleogeography of the midcontinent region al-lows
for multiple sources of sediment contributing
material in the early Paleozoic seas. The crystalline
basement in the midcontinent region is composed
of the Archean Superior Province, Paleo-Mesopro-terozoic
orogenic provinces (Penokean-Yavapai-
Mazatzal) and the Middle Proterozoic midconti-nent
rift (fig. 1), all of which have been proposed
as first-cycle sources of sediment for the early Pa-leozoic
quartz arenites (e.g., Runkel and Tipping
1998). More distal sediment sources may also in-clude
the crystalline rocks of the Grenville orogen.
The textural maturity of the early Paleozoic
quartz arenites led early workers to propose that
first-cycle weathering of this crystalline basement
cannot fully explain the formation of the super-mature
arenites (e.g., Thiel 1935; Ostrom 1970; Os-trom
and Odom 1978). Following the work of oth-ers,
(e.g., Amaral and Pryor 1977; Runkel 1994;
Johnson and Winter 1999) we have also identified
some older basins or sedimentary packages that
may have been reworked and acted as possible sed-iment
sources for the early Paleozoic quartz are-nites.
The deposits in the Huron basin in the north
shore of Lake Huron in Ontario, exposes low-meta-morphic-
grade interbedded sequences of texturally
mature aluminous pebble orthoquartzite, argillite,
and mudstones and volumetrically less significant
diamictite, collectively interpreted as syn-rift and
glaciogenic sequences (Young 1973; Young et al.
2001). The upper part of the Huron basin exposes
more mature and more widespread quartzarenitic
sandstones that are thought to reflect the transition
from syn-rift to passive margin deposition (Young
et al. 2001). The Paleoproterozoic Baraboo Interval
exposes coarse-grained metasedimentary clastic
rocks in Wisconsin (e.g., Van Schmus et al. 1996).
The Animikie Group in Minnesota,Wisconsin, and
Michigan expose a thick (∼8 km) sequence of meta-sedimentary
rocks composed of schist, conglom-erate,
banded iron formations, and compositionally
mature quartzite such as the Pokegama quartzite.
The pre-to-syn-rift basin deposits of the Basal
Group of the midcontinent Rift system (Kewee-nawn)
is made up of small exposures of well-sorted
sandstones with felsic lithic fragments (e.g., Bes-semer
Sandstone) and is exposed in northern Min-nesota
and Wisconsin. The postrift basin exposing
the Oronto Group is made up of conglomerate,
shale, and a thick sequence of coarse red sandstone
(Freda Sandstone), and the postrift deposits of the
Bayfield Group are composed of siliciclastic strata
that generally become more mature and quartz-rich
upsection, such as the Orienta, Fond du Lac, and
Hinckley Sandstones (e.g., Craddock et al. 2013a
and references therein).
Methods for Detrital Zircon Geochronology
Approximately 25 kg of rock for each of the 15
samples was collected, crushed and pulverized to
1400-mm powder, using a chipmunk crusher and a
disk mill. Mineral separation was carried out using
a Wilfley table, heavy liquids, and a vertical and a
sloped Frantz magnetic barrier separator on the
fraction sieved to !250 mm. Large populations
(500) of zircon from each sample were poured and
mounted on epoxy pucks with the Peixe (Dickinson
and Gehrels 2003) and FC-1 (Paces and Miller 1993)
standards, to avoid bias during handpicking (e.g.,
Sla´ma and Kosˇler 2012). The mounts were imaged
using cathodoluminescence (CL) imaging, and
these images were used during the analysis to help
identify zircon from other heavy mineral grains and
to help place the analytical spot in an ideal location
by avoiding inclusions and potential metamict
zones. Approximately 120 randomly selected zir-cons
were analyzed from each sample for U-Pb iso-tope
ratios, exceeding the recommended number of
analyses suggested by Vermeesch (2004) for statis-tically
characterizing a sample.
In situ analysis of the zircons was accomplished
using LA-ICP-MS in the geochronological lab at
Washington State University WSU), using the rou-tine
described by Chang et al. (2006), and at the
University of Arizona (UA) LaserChron facility, us-ing
the methods and analytical procedures of Geh-rels
et al. (2006 and 2008). The analytical data are
reported in table S1 with uncertainties reported at
the 1j level (only analytical error). The difference
in analytical error between the samples analyzed
at the geochronology lab at WSU and at the UA
LaserChron facility is due to the fact that a typical
analytical run at WSU counts U-Pb isotopes for
about twice as long as during a run at UA. Also, at
the WSU facility, the user pays closer attention to
the analytical run, identifying burn-through anal-yses
and changes in the U-Pb ratios through the
analysis, both for the samples and standards. On
the other hand, the UA facility performs more rapid
analyses with a higher throughput in terms of data.
Analyses that are 110% discordant or 15% re-

versely discordant were excluded from further con-sideration.
The 207Pb/206Pb isotope ratios were used
to calculate the zircon crystallization age and con-struct
the pie charts (fig. 1) and the relative prob-ability
density plots (fig. 2) using Isoplot (Ludwig
2003). The same data set was used to calculate the
relative proportions of different age ranges for the
ternary diagram of figure 4 to construct the cu-mulative
probability density function using the Ex-cel
macro of Gehrels et al. (2008).
Results
Detrital Zircon Geochronology of Paleozoic
Samples. Our collective detrital zircon data show
only a limited number of discrete age populations
that are consistent with known Laurentian crys-talline
sources (Whitmeyer and Karlstrom 2007;
figs. 2, 3). All samples have two dominant zircon
age populations with modes at 2550–2800 and 900–
1350 Ma. Zircon ranging from 2550–2800 Ma are
inferred to be sourced from the Archean Superior
Province (Bickford et al. 2006; Whitmeyer and
Karlstrom 2007; figs. 2, 3), and zircon from 900–
1350 Ma are inferred to be ultimately sourced from
crystalline rocks of the Grenville orogen (Moores
1991; Dalziel 1992; Whitmeyer and Karlstrom
2007; figs. 2, 3) or the 1085–1109 Ma midcontinent
rift (e.g., Vervoort et al. 2007). Smaller populations
of zircon have ages from 3100–3500, 1600–1950,
and 1350–1500 Ma. Finally, a trace amount of zir-con
was dated between 1950 and 2600 Ma (figs. 2,
3). All of these detrital zircon populations have po-tential
crystalline sources in Laurentia such as the
Minnesota River Valley subprovince and Wyoming
Province (3100–3600 Ma; Bickford et al. 2006;
Schmitz et al. 2006); the Paleo-Mesoproterozoic
orogens of the Penokean, Yavapai, and Mazatzal
Provinces (1600–1950 Ma; e.g., Karlstrom and
Bowring 1988; Holm 1999; Karlstrom et al. 2003);
and the anorogenic granite-rhyolite suite (1350–
1500 Ma; Bickford and Van Schmus 1985).
The early Paleozoic quartz arenites contain only
rare zircons of Neoproterozoic age. The three youn-gest
detrital zircons (955, 971, and 976 Ma) from
all 15 early Paleozoic samples (n p 1578) are ∼500
Ma older than the depositional age of the early Pa-leozoic
quartz arenites. North American sources of
zircon that are younger than ∼950 Ma but that are
not represented in the early Palezoic quartz arenites
include the 770–735 Ma (Devlin et al. 1988; Col-pron
et al. 2002) and 570–550 Ma (Colpron et al.
2002) rift-related provinces of the western North
American margin, the 600–550 Ma rift provinces of
the eastern margin of North America (Whitmeyer
and Karlstrom 2007), and rocks formed during the
500–430 Ma Taconic orogeny (Drake et al. 1989;
Wise and Ganis 2009). Even though the Grenville
Province has been repeatedly reported to be over-fertile
in zircon production and thus overrepre-sented
in detrital zircon studies (e.g., Hietpas et al.
2011), our large detrital zircon data set limits the
Figure 3. Detrital zircon cumulative probability density functions (PDFs) for the compiled detrital zircon data for
five older basins that are possible sources for early Paleozoic sediments. See text for references of the compiled data.
Vertical and numbered shaded age ranges are the same as in figure 2.

Figure 4. Ternary diagram showing the compositions of individual Cambrian and Ordovician samples in terms of
three simplified zircon components (Archean, Proterozoic, and Grenville). Also shown are the estimated detrital
zircon populations of the five possible source basins and mixing lines connecting the Huron basin and midcontinent
rift (All and Upper) detrital zircon populations.
chance (!1%) of missing a population with a frac-tion
of ∼0.003 (0.3%) from a natural sample (Ver-meesch
2004). Therefore, if the early Paleozoic mid-continent
region drained an area with rocks
younger than ca. 950 Ma, zircons with this age
range should have been observed in our detrital zir-con
data.
The early Paleozoic arenites dated in this study
have relatively few zircons with ages between 1600
and 1900 Ma. The relative lack of 1600–1900 Ma
zircons in Cambrian and Ordovician sediments has
also been observed by Johnson and Winter (1999)
and is surprising since this period was an important
time of orogenesis in the midcontinent region (e.g.,
Whitmeyer and Karlstrom 2007). In addition, sev-eral
of our samples were collected from localities
where the strata have been inferred to be deposited
directly above or proximal to the locations of Pa-leoproterozoic
and Mesoproterozoic crystalline
basement (fig. 1; e.g., Karlstrom and Bowring 1988;
Holm 1999; Karlstrom et al. 2003). It is worth not-ing
that 1600–1900 Ma zircons are abundant in
older basins, such as the Animikie basin and the
Basal and Oronto Groups of the midcontinent rift
sequence (Wirth et al. 2006a, 2006b; Craddock et
al. 2013a, 2013b; fig. 3).
The detrital zircon populations of each sample
are shown in figures 1, 2, and 4. Although many
samples appear to have similar zircon age popula-tions
with large proportions of 2550–2800 (Superior
Province) and 900–1350 Ma (Grenville) zircons,
with lesser contributions from the other sources
mentioned above, there are substantial differences
in the proportions of detrital zircon ages between
the Cambrian and the Ordovician samples (figs. 2,
4). Specifically, the Cambrian samples are domi-nated
(160%) by 2550–2800 Ma (Superior Province)
zircon, some have significant (up to 15%) propor-tions
of 1350–1500 Ma (anorogenic granite-rhyolite
suite) zircon, and all of them are depleted (!15%)

in 900–1350 Ma (Grenville) zircon compared to the
Ordovician arenites. In contrast, most of the Or-dovician
samples are dominated (160%) by 900–
1350 Ma (Grenville) zircon have small (110%) pro-portions
of 1350–1500 Ma (anorogenic granite-rhy-olite
suite) zircon and most are depleted (!50%) in
2550–2800 Ma (Superior Province) zircon relative
to the Cambrian samples (figs. 2, 4).
Detrital Zircon Signatures of Possible Sediment
Sources. For the purpose of this study,we compiled
and summarized the detrital zircon populations of
the sedimentary packages and basins described in
“Description of Possible Sediment Sources” as pos-sible
sediment sources: Huronian Basin (Rainbird
and Davis 2006); Animikie Group (Craddock et al.
2013b); the Paleoproterozoic Baraboo Interval
(Holm et al. 1998; Van Wyck and Norman 2004;
Medaris et al. 2007; Wartman et al. 2007); midcon-tinent
rift basins (Wirth et al. 2006a, 2006b; Kon-stantinou
et al. 2008; Craddock et al. 2013a). The
detrital zircon populations of these sources are
shown on figure 3 and were used to compare with
our results for the early Paleozoic quartz arenites.
Most of the samples used in detrital zircon geo-chronology
from these older sources were arenites
and sandstones/quartzites.
Our detrital zircon compilation (fig. 3) from the
Huron Basin (n p 269) is entirely composed of Ar-chean
zircons (mostly 2500–2700 Ma; Rainbird and
Davis 2006). The Animikie basin (n p 984), ex-posed
in Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan, has
a zircon population of mostly Archean zircons
(∼65%), with ∼15% ranging from 2000 to 2500 Ma
and ∼20% ranging from 1750 to 1900 Ma. The de-posits
in the Paleoproterozoic Baraboo Interval
(Wisconsin) contain ∼35% Archean zircon, with
∼10% ranging from 2000 to 2500 Ma and ∼55%
ranging from 1700 to 1950 Ma (np288; fig. 3). The
midcontinent rift basin (Basal, Oronto, and Bayfield
Groups in northern Minnesota; fig. 3) is more com-plex
than the older basins and is composed of ∼18%
Archean zircon, with ∼22% at 1700–1950 Ma,
∼10% at 1350–1500 Ma, and ∼50% at 900–1350 Ma
(n p 1188; fig. 3). Finally, the detrital zircon sig-nature
of the upper midcontinent rift basin (Bay-field
Group), contains ∼5% Archean zircon, with
∼10% at 1600–1900 Ma, ∼10% at 1350–1500 Ma,
and ∼75% at 900–1350 Ma (n p 514; fig. 3). The
inferred crystalline sources for these zircon popu-lations
are the same as those described in “Detrital
Zircon Geochronology of Paleozoic Samples.”
Detrital Zircon Mixing Models. In order to better
constrain which (if any) of the deposits of older
basins may have been reworked into the early Pa-leozoic
quartz arenites, we simplified the detrital
zircon signatures of the samples reported in this
study (fig. 2) and the five possible source regions
(older basins) into three end-member zircon age
groups: (1) ∼900–1350 Ma of the Grenville orogen
and the midcontinent rift, (2) ∼1400–1900 Ma of
the Paleo-Mesoproterozoic orogenies, and (3)
∼2450–3700 Ma of the Archean basement. Discrim-inating
the detrital zircon analyses into percentages
from these three age groups allows us to use a ter-nary
diagram (fig. 4) to plot the detrital zircon com-position
of the five possible source regions and the
Cambrian and Ordovician samples reported in this
study (figs. 2, 3, 4). This ternary diagram is used to
assess which sources better reflect mixtures of the
compositions of the Cambrian and Ordovician de-trital
zircon signatures as shown by the gray lines
in figure 4. Based on this simplified analysis, the
Cambrian samples appear to reflect mixtures be-tween
the midcontinent rift basin and the Huron
basin or the Archean basement (fig. 4), and the Or-dovician
samples appear to be mixtures between
the Bayfield Group of the midcontinent rift (upper
section of midcontinent rift in fig. 4) and the Huron
basin or the Archean basement.
Based on the insights from this simplified three-component
mixing model, we calculated the cu-mulative
detrital zircon age probability density
functions (PDFs) of the three potential source
regions (fig. 3) and calculated simple mixing PDFs
between the Huron basin, the average midconti-nent
rift, and the upper section of themidcontinent
rift at 10% intervals (figs. 5, 6). As an example, the
table in figure 5 shows a portion of the PDF of the
Huron basin (column 2) and the average midcon-tinent
rift basin (column 3). Columns 4–7 show
examples of mixing of the two components at 20%
intervals. For instance, column 4 is the calculated
detrital zircon PDF of a mixture of 20% Huron ba-sin
and 80% average midcontinent rift basin. The
values in column 4 were calculated by multiplying
the values of column 2 (Huron basin) by 0.2 and
adding them to the product of column 3 (midcon-tinent
rift) and 0.8. The cumulative PDF diagram
in figure 5 shows the results of the mixing model
between these two sources at 20% intervals. All
the results from the mixing models, at 10% inter-vals
are shown in figure 6, together with the cu-mulative
PDFs of the Cambrian (fig. 6A) and Or-dovician
samples from this study (fig. 6B).
We acknowledge that this type of source analysis
is susceptible to artificial bias based on the zircon
fertility of the source and the natural grain-size
sorting associated with depositional environments.
However, most of our samples represent the same
depositional environment (mature sandstones de-

Figure 5. Table outlining an example of how the cumulative probability density functions (PDFs) mixing models
were calculated. This example is a portion of the mixing model between the Huron basin and the midcontinent rift,
at 20% mixing intervals. The resulting model was used to construct the PDF diagram on the right. See text for details.

Figure 6. Probability density function plots of the Cambrian (A) and Ordovician (B) samples of early Paleozoic quartz
arenites. For comparison, the results of mixing models between the Huron and the midcontinent rift basins (A) and
the Huron and upper midcontinent rift basins (B) are also shown at 10% intervals. A color version of this figure is
available online.
posited in a shore-face environment) and the po-tential
detrital zircon sources are mostly siliciclas-tic
strata (arenites) with possibly similar zircon
abundance.
The modeling results indicate that the detrital
zircon populations of the five Cambrian samples
can be explained by mixing of the detrital zircon
signature of the Paleoproterozoic Huron basin and
the Mesoproterozoic midcontinent rift basin. Three
samples (KP-72, KP-73, and KP-74; fig. 6A) are in-ferred
to represent mixtures of ∼20% Huron basin
zircon population and ∼80% midcontinent rift ba-sin
zircon population. Two samples (KP-51 and KP-
52) are inferred to represent mixtures of ∼45% Hu-ron
basin and ∼55% midcontinent rift basin zircon
populations. The Ordovician samples indicate a
much larger spread in mixing between the Paleo-proterozoic
Huron basin and the Mesoproterozoic
upper midcontinent rift basin (Bayfield Group) in
terms of their zircon populations (fig. 6B). However,
most samples (9 out of 10) represent mixtures of
155% upper midcontinent rift basin zircon popu-lation
and !45% Huron basin zircon population.
Only one sample (KP-70) appears to be dominated
by the Huron basin detrital zircon signature (fig.
6B). Note that these mixing models may not di-rectly
reflect the relative volume of sediment de-rived
from the two sources, since the relative frac-tion
of zircon crystals within the strata of these
two basins is unconstrained.
Discussion
Early Paleozoic Isolation of the Midcontinent
Region. The detrital zircon data from the early Pa-leozoic
quartz arenites of the midcontinent region
reported here provide new insights into the prov-enance
of these strata. The absence of zircon from
magmatic sources !950 Ma exposed at the margins
of the continent during the early Paleozoic probably
reflects little to no sediment transport from the
distal margins of Laurentia. This can be attributed
to the intracratonic setting of the Hollandale Em-bayment
and deposition of the early Paleozoic
quartz arenites in a restricted drainage basin iso-lated
from the margins of the continent during this
time (fig. 7). Transport of sediment from the paleo-northern
edge of Laurentia may have been re-stricted
due to the northwesterly slope of the con-tinent
during the early Paleozoic, which forced
sediment transport from the paleo-southeast to the
paleo-northwest (fig. 7). Transport of sediment from
the southeastern margin of Laurentia may have
been restricted by the partitioning of the craton

Figure 7. Simplified early Paleozoic map of Laurentia (gray shaded region) showing the locations of older basins
inferred to be the major detritus sources for early Paleozoic strata (modified from Runkel et al. 2012; Craddock et
al. 2013a, 2013b; Jin et al. 2013). Also shown are major paleogeographic features (domes and basins) and the possible
sediment routes from the two inferred source regions to the early Paleozoic depositional center. Paleoequator from
Jin et al. (2013).

into distinct structural basins and domes that re-sulted
in the sedimentologic isolation of the mid-continent
region (fig. 7). The absence of zircon from
Paleozoic basement sources from the paleo-south-eastern
margin (e.g., present-day Appalachians),
also implies indirectly that the 900–1350 Ma zircon
found in the early Paleozoic arenites in the mid-continent
region, do not represent first-cycle
weathering from the crystalline rocks of the Gren-ville
orogen, which also would have been exposed
in the paleo-southeastern margin (fig. 7). If the ad-jacent
Grenville and Phanerozoic basement rocks,
exposed at the paleo-southeastern margin of Lau-rentia,
were major sources for the early Paleozoic
arenites in the midcontinent region, we would ex-pect
both Mesoproterozoic (Grenville age) and 430–
600 Ma (rift provinces of the eastern margin of
North America) detrital zircon populations. In-stead,
we only observe only Grenville-age zircon in
our detrital zircon data set from the early Paleozoic
quartz arenites. This supports the interpretation
that the 900–1350 Ma zircon found in the early
Paleozoic arenites does not represent first-cycle
weathering from the crystalline rocks of the Gren-ville
orogen.
Arguments against First-Cycle Origin of Early Paleo-zoic
Arenites. The observed low abundance of
1600–1900 Ma zircons can be used as an argument
against the derivation of the early Paleozoic quartz
arenites from first-cycle weathering of the nearby
1600–1900 Ma crystalline basement terranes (cf.
Johnson and Winter 1999). This is especially ap-plicable
to the crystalline rocks of the Penokean
orogen (1800–1900 Ma), which would have been
exposed during the deposition of the oldest units
(e.g., Mount Simon and Eau Claire Sandstones).
Furthermore, the low abundance of 1600–1900 Ma
zircons and the absence of 2000–2500 Ma zircon in
the early Paleozoic quartz arenites, precludes sed-iment
contributions from the synorogenic Paleo-
Mesoproterozoic strata and the deposits in the An-imikie
basin, both of which have large (40%–60%)
fractions of zircon with ages 1600–2500 Ma (figs.
3, 4). The Archean detrital zircon populations
(∼2500–2800 Ma) of the early Paleozoic quartz ar-enites
are very similar regardless of stratigraphic
position. All the Cambrian and Ordovician samples
have a strong peak at 2700 Ma, very similar to the
signature of the Huron basin. The Archean base-ment
in the North American plate cover a large
region north of the present-day midcontinent re-gion,
and even though it spans a large range in age,
it is dominated by crystalline rocks that range from
2500 to 2800 Ma. If Archean zircons from the early
Paleozoic quartz arenites were derived from the
vast areas of heterogeneous Archean basement
(3600–2500 Ma; e.g., Bickford et al. 2006; Schmitz
et al. 2006; Whitmeyer and Karlstrom 2007), one
might expect more variability between samples in
the population modes of the detrital zircon signa-tures
than is actually observed (fig. 2). Instead, the
homogeneous Archean zircon population in our
Early Paleozoic samples resembles the detrital zir-con
signature of the Huron Basin. Thus, our inter-pretation
is that first-cycle erosion of the Archean
basement is probably not the dominant mechanism
by which this uniform Archean population is gen-erated,
leading us to interpret the Huron basin as
a more plausible source of the relatively homoge-neous
age population of Archean zircon.
Models for the Provenance of Early Paleozoic Super-mature
Arenites. The observations outlined above
regarding the detrital zircon populations of the
early Paleozoic quartz arenites (figs. 2, 6) indicate
that early Paleozoic strata in the midcontinent re-gion
are probably recycled sediments from two
older basinal deposits: the midcontinent rift located
to the paleo-northeast (fig. 7) and the large Prote-rozoic
Huron basin to the paleo-east (fig. 7), which
are consistent with paleocurrent data and the pos-sible
transport direction parallel to the direction of
trade winds (fig. 1; Jin et al. 2013). Our interpre-tation
that the early Paleozoic quartz arenites are
derived from recycled sediments from two major
Proterozoic basins suggests that sediment was de-livered
to the midcontinent region by two major
long-lived (∼50 Ma) river systems that drained and
were sourced from the paleo-northeast (midconti-nent
rift region; e.g., Runkel 1994) and paleo-east
(Huron basin region; e.g., Amaral and Pryor 1977;
fig. 7). Sediment transport from other sources de-scribed
above (e.g., the Baraboo Interval deposits)
to the midcontinent region, was restricted by local
paleotopography such as the Wisconsin dome, and
sediment from these sources may have been de-posited
in the Michigan basin.
Based on known paleogeographic features of the
midcontinent region, there are two possible models
for westward sediment transport from the Huron
basin to the early Paleozoic shoreline. One model
calls for transport of Huron basin sediment to the
west between the Michigan basin and the Wiscon-sin
dome (fig. 7) and then to the north (approximate
area of Minnesota) via longshore drift and eolian
processes. This scenario is problematic since it re-quires
a large volume of sediment to bypass the
rapidly subsiding Michigan basin (e.g., Smith et al.
1993) and subsequently transport and deposit this

sand in the much more slowly subsiding Hollan-dale
Embayment in Minnesota and Wisconsin.
A second model calls for fluvial and eolian trans-port
of sediment along a paleo-northwesterly route
to the areas of the midcontinent rift. This sediment
would be mixed and transported with sediment
from the midcontinent rift basin, before final trans-port
to the paleo-west with deposition in the Cam-bro-
Ordovician seas (fig. 7). This scenario requires
further transport (∼2500 km assuming a sinuosity
of the fluvial channel system of 2; the present-day
distance is ∼1250 km) of sediment via fluvial and
eolian processes and deposition in wave-dominated
deltas that are later reworked along the shore by
longshore drift and winds. These processes may
have acted along the shore the Cambrian and Or-dovician
and may help explain the textural matur-ity
of the early Paleozoic quartz arenites. Based on
the present-day exposures of the lower part of the
Huron basin, much of strata are less texturally ma-ture
than the early Paleozoic quartz arenites. The
upper section of the Huron basin is generally more
compositionally and texturally mature than the
lower part (Young et al. 2001). Quartz arenites in
the midcontinent rift basin are generally compo-sitionally
and texturally mature (e.g., Ojakangas
and Morey 1982), and thus, recycling similar rocks
(e.g., Runkel 1994) may require less transport dis-tance
to produce the textural maturity of the early
Paleozoic arenites. Our interpretation of the tex-tural
maturity observed in the early Paleozoic
quartz arenites of the midcontinent region, is that
it was achieved by recycling older basin sediments
and transporting them over large distances (∼2500
km) in vigorous eolian and fluvial currents that
shifted laterally in flat, unvegetated areas (Dott
2003).
Conclusions
Detrital zircon U-Pb data from the early Paleozoic
supermature arenites (198% quartz) of the midcon-tinent
region (figs. 2, 6) indicate that the Cambrian
and Ordovician quartz arenites were ultimately
sourced from a limited number of crystalline
sources. Most zircon was originally derived from
the Grenville orogen (950–1350 Ma) and the Ar-chean
Superior Province (2550–2800 Ma), with
lesser zircon contributions from the 1350–1500Ma
anorogenic granite-rhyolite suite and the 1600–
1950 Ma Paleo-Mesoproterozoic orogens (figs. 2, 6).
These detrital zircon signatures, together with de-trital
information compiled from older basins (figs.
3, 4, 6), indicate that the Cambrian and Ordovician
arenites possibly represent recycled sediment from
two older basins, the Huron basin and midconti-nent
rift, where the sediment previously underwent
at least one cycle of erosion, transportation, and
deposition.We present a model for the origin of the
early Paleozoic quartz arenites where sediment was
brought to the midcontinent region by river and
eolian systems that were sourced from the paleo-east
(Huron basin; fig. 7) and paleo-northeast (mid-continent
rift region; fig. 7), and the final textural
maturity of the arenites was achieved by vigorous
eolian (e.g., Dott 2003) and fluvial abrasion during
this long transport.
ACKNOWL E DGME N T S
This project was carried out as part of a Keck project
started in 2005–2006 and funded by the Keck Ge-ology
Consortium. We also acknowledge the Cy-prus
Fulbright Commission, which funded A. Kon-stantinou
in his undergraduate studies at
Macalester College. We would like to thank K.
Surpless, T. Runkel, S. Whitmeyer, B. Dott, and G.
Medaris for helping improve this manuscript.
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