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Sedimentary Provenance Studies Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021 Sedimentary provenance studies P. D. W. HAUGHTON 1, S. P. TODD 2 & A. C. MORTON 3 1 Department of Geology and Applied Geology, University of Glasgow, Glasgow G12 8QQ, UK 2 BP Exploration, Britannic House, Moor Lane, London, EC2Y 9BU, UK SBritish Geological Survey, Keyworth, Nottingham NG12 5GG, UK The study of sedimentary provenance interfaces review by looking briefly at the framework several of the mainstream geological disciplines within which provenance studies are undertaken. (mineralogy, geochemistry, geochronology, sedi- mentology, igneous and metamorphic petro- logy). Its remit includes the location and nature A requisite framework for provenance of sediment source areas, the pathways by which studies sediment is transferred from source to basin of deposition, and the factors that influence the The validity and scope of any provenance study, composition of sedimentary rocks (e.g. relief, and the strategy used, are determined by a climate, tectonic setting). Materials subject to number of attributes of the targeted sediment/ study are as diverse as recent muds in the Missis- sedimentary rock (e.g. grain-size, degree of sipi River basin (Potter et al. 1975), Archaean weathering, availability of dispersal data, extent shales (McLennan et al. 1983), and soils on the of diagenetic overprint etc.). For most appli- Moon (Basu et al. 1988). cations, the location of the source is critical, and A range of increasingly sophisticated tech- ancillary data constraining this are necessary. niques is now available to workers concerned These data should limit both the direction in with sediment provenance. Provenance data can which the source lay with respect to the basin of play a critical role in assessing palaeogeographic deposition, and some estimate of the distance of reconstructions, in constraining lateral displace- transport. In addition, it is important to have ments in orogens, in characterizing crust which some constraint on the degree to which the com- is no longer exposed, in testing tectonic models position of sediment has been biased away from for uplift at fault block or orogen scale, in the original source material(s) by weathering/ mapping depositional systems, in sub-surface erosion, abrasion, hydraulic segregation, dia- correlation and in predicting reservoir quality. genesis and/or sediment recycling. On a global scale, the provenance of fine-grained Palaeoflow direction may be obtained by judi- sediments have been used to monitor crustal cious use of directional structures, where out- evolution. crop is available. In the subsurface, palaeoflow We introduce below some of the novel tech- directions may be determined by reconstruction niques which are currently being used in prove- of regional facies patterns using drill core and nance work, and some of the areas in which seismic configuration, together with dipmeter provenance studies are making, and promise to records. A degree of circumspection is necessary make, an important contribution to our under- when determining palaeoflow as there are in- standing of earth processes. Many of the tech- stances where this may not be straightforward, niques and applications are covered by papers even with outcrop data. Low stage fluvial cross- collected in this volume. These papers represent strata may diverge systematically from palaeo- a selection of those contributed to a joint British slope by up to 90 ~ (Bluck 1976), whilst turbidity Sedimentological Research Group/Petroleum currents are often deflected to flow axially with Group meeting on 'Developments in Sedimen- no hint of from where, or from which, flank of tary Provenance Studies' convened by A. C. the basin margin the sediment was originally Morton and S. P. Todd at the Geological shed. Palaeoflow data collected in areas of struc- Society in June, 1989. In an area as diverse as tural complexity have the additional problem of sediment provenance, it is not surprising that the uncertainties inherent in the structural correc- coverage of papers is incomplete, and we hence tion procedure. This is exacerbated in zones of include some of the developments and appli- steep or overturned dip, and where rotations cations which do not appear in this volume, but about a vertical axis have taken place. As the which also represent frontier areas in the study latter rotations are more commonplace than of sediment provenance. We start this short was previously thought (Kissel & Lau 1989), a From Morton, A. C., Todd, S. P. & Haughton, P. D. W. (eds), 1991, Developments in Sedimentary Provenance Studies. Geological Society Special Publication No. 57, pp. 1-11. Downloaded from http://sp.lyellcollection.org/ by guest on October 1, 2021 2 P.D.W. HAUGHTON ETAL. marriage of palaeomagnetic and palaeoflow data but the sediment composition may still be a may preface future provenance studies in areas useful palaeoclimatic indicator. Velbel & Saad of suspected rotation. (this volume) explore the climatic control on In considering the distance to source, the scale sediment composition by comparing detritus of the dispersal system from which the sediment shed from the same source under different cli- was deposited must be addressed. Some types of matic conditions (an arid Triassic and a humid depositional environment will be more amenable Holocene setting). to this sort of analysis than others. For example, Sediment recycling can (1) bias the compo- it is unlikely that angular fanglomerates contain- sition towards mature grains which are less ing labile clasts could have travelled any great amenable to source discrimination; (2) produce distance (> 10 km), but it is difficult to limit the complex mixtures involving different sources; transport scale of dropstones in a tillite. Theore- and (3) mask the relationship between scale of tically, it should be possible to place some nu- the dispersal system and the ultimate source of merical limits on scale for alluvial systems, using the detritus. Textural and/or petrographic evi- a palaeohydrological approach. However, in dence may identify a source in pre-existing sedi- practice, the plan-form and cross-sectional geo- ment e.g detrital 'cement' grains (Zuffa 1987); metry of alluvial channels are often difficult to broken and re-rounded clasts (Tanner 1976) and define precisely (Bridge 1985), and the validity of textural inversion (Haughton 1989). Zuffa (1987, predictive palaeohydraulic equations for gravels this volume) provides a useful inventory of remains uncertain (Reid & Frostick 1987). High features which can be used to distinguish multi- sinuosity rivers are more conducive to palaeo- from first-cycle sand grains. Geochronological hydraulic estimation of discharge than are those data can be important in limiting the time avail- of low sinuosity, either by an empirical approach able for such recycling. (see Ethridge & Schumm 1978 for a critical Subsurface studies have reinforced the signifi- review) or by employing mathematical models of cance of diagenesis in modifying detrital grain channel bend flow (Bridge 1978; Bridge & assemblages (Morton 1984; Milliken 1988, Diemer 1983). Discharge may be related to Humphreys et al. this volume; Valloni et al. this drainage basin size and stream length (Leopold volume). Many of these modifications are now et al. 1964) thus providing some control on predictable, and mineral assemblages and grain sediment transport distance. surface textures can be used to monitor diagene- Whilst some estimate of transport distance is tic effects, and to ensure that these are minimized included in many types of provenance study, in provenance work. others invert the problem and attempt to use the Lastly, it is worth highlighting an obvious but provenance data to limit the transport distance commonly encountered problem in matching or scale of a dispersal system (e.g. Cliff et al. this detritus to a prospective source block. Measured volume). To use provenance data in this way, an attributes for detrital grains (particularly those upslope source must retain a similar distribution relating to the newer single grain studies) may of lithologies to that present during sedimen- provide no new insight unless a comparable tation. However, as uplift and erosion expose dataset exists for the potential source block. progressively deeper levels of the source, a differ- Modern stream sediment samples can provide a ent suite of lithologies may be brought to the rapid means of characterising the types of sedi- surface, obscuring source correlations. Linking ment grains expected from a particular basement detritus to source in these instances must con- block (Haughton & Farrow 1989). sider the configuration of the 'lost' cover, for it may be that source mismatches simply reflect different structural levels of the same source Development of new techniques block. This point is developed in the paper by Graham et al. (this volume). Over the last decade, classical petrography (of Another potential pitfall is the fact that the clasts and sand grains) has given way to an immediate provenance of most detritus is either increasingly sophisticated range of geochemical a pre-existing sediment or a soil profile, and not and isotopic techniques. Basic petrography has bedrock. Climatic factors can exert an important remained an important tool, particularly in influence on mineralogical and geochemical mixed clastic/carbonate or calcarenitic prove- transformations during soil formation (Singer nance work, and when coupled
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