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The Belt Basin (Rocky Mountains): Composition of Sedimentary Complexes and Some Features of Its Sedimentary Filling

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Abstract

The article overviews concepts of the formation of sedimentary sequences of the Belt-Purcell Supergroup, a classical Upper Precambrian section of the Rocky Mountains (North America). Analysis of data on the bulk chemical composition of mudstones of the Belt-Purcell Supergroup (González-Álvarez, 2005; González-Álvarez and Kerrich, 2010) suggests that the overwhelming part of the fine-grained aluminosiliciclastic filling in the Belt Basin was delivered from complexes with non-Archean geochemical characteristics. During almost the entire period of sedimentary filling in the Belt Basin, the fine-grained aluminosiliciclastic material was delivered by large river arteries similar to modern rivers of category 1, i.e., major rivers draining large (>100 000 km2) continental areas (Bayon et al., 2015), and category 2 (rivers draining the “mixed/sedimentary” rocks). This fact confirms the concept of the formation of sedimentary sequences of the Belt-Purcell Supergroup inferred from both traditional geological methods and analysis of data on the U–Pb isotopic ages of detrital zircons and monazites from sandstones of various lithostratigraphic units.

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Notes

  1. In (Lonn et al., 2021; Winston and Link, 19930), the Lower Belt section begins with the Eltin Formation.

  2. The Purcell Lava occurs among rocks of this level.

  3. The Wallace Formation is assigned to the Middle Belt in (Lonn et al., 2021; Winston and Link, 1993).

  4. Nevertheless, it is believed that this basin was sometimes connected with an open ocean (Anderson and Davis, 1995; Lyons et al., 2000; Winston and Link, 1993; and others).

  5. Here, the Van Creek is not divided into parts belonging to the Middle Belt and Missoula Group.

  6. According to (Guello et al., 2016), the U–Pb isotope age of detrital zircons extracted from rocks of the LaHud Formation varies from 3.89 to 1.73 Ga with maximums on the probability density curve at ~3.20 (major) and ~1.80 (additional) Ga. Such distribution implies, at least, different sources of the clastic material. Zircons with ancient ages were delivered to the sediment, probably, due to the erosion of rock complexes in the northern Wyoming Craton, whereas younger zircons were sourced likely from the Great Folds tectonic zone.

  7. The real geological situation here is much more intricate, but we shall not dwell on details because of the lack of space.

  8. Fe2O3*—total iron as Fe2O3.

  9. Hereinafter, chondrite-normalized (Taylor and McLennan, 1985).

  10. Category 1—“large rivers” (world’s major rivers), i.e., rivers characterized by intricate catchment areas >100 thou km2; category 2—rivers draining “mixed/sedimentary” formations; category 3—rivers draining “igneous/metamorphic” terranes. According to (Bayon et al., 2015), catchment area of such rivers varies from 100 to 95 000 km2; and category 4—rivers draining “volcanic” rocks. Catchment area of modern rivers of this category varies from <100 to 56 000 km2 (Kamchatka River is the sole example of such large catchment area) (Bayon et al., 2015).

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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The author is sincerely grateful to N.S. Glushkova for the preparation of illustrations; L.V. Badida, O.Yu. Melnichuk, and A.K. Khudoley, for the help in selecting the necessary literature.

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This work was carried out under the State Task of the Geological Institute, Russian Academy of Sciences.

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Maslov, A.V. The Belt Basin (Rocky Mountains): Composition of Sedimentary Complexes and Some Features of Its Sedimentary Filling. Lithol Miner Resour 57, 315–335 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0024490222040058

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