Mesozoic Detrital Zircon Provenance of Central Africa: Implications for Jurassic-Cretaceous Tectonics, Paleogeography and Landscape Evolution

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Mesozoic Detrital Zircon Provenance of Central Africa: Implications for Jurassic-Cretaceous Tectonics, Paleogeography and Landscape Evolution ResearchOnline@JCU This file is part of the following work: Owusu Agyemang, Prince C. (2018) Mesozoic detrital zircon provenance of Central Africa: implications for Jurassic-Cretaceous tectonics, paleogeography and landscape evolution. PhD Thesis, James Cook University. Access to this file is available from: https://doi.org/10.25903/5eb1ed92284d2 Copyright © 2018 Prince C. Owusu Agyemang. The author has certified to JCU that they have made a reasonable effort to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of any third party copyright material included in this document. If you believe that this is not the case, please email [email protected] Mesozoic Detrital Zircon Provenance of Central Africa: Implications for Jurassic-Cretaceous Tectonics, Paleogeography and Landscape Evolution. Thesis Submitted by Prince C. Owusu Agyemang (BSc, MSc, BGeoHons) December 2018 For the degree of: Doctorate of Philosophy In the: Department of Geosciences College of Science and Engineering Statement of Access I, the undersigned author of this thesis, understand that James Cook University will make this thesis available for use within the university library and allow access in other approved libraries after its submission. All users consulting this thesis will have to sign the following statement: In consulting this thesis I agree not to copy or closely paraphrase it in whole or in part without the written consent of the author; and to make proper public written acknowledgement for any assistance which I have obtained from it. Beyond this, I do not wish to place any restriction on access to this thesis. Prince C. Owusu Agyemang December 2018. ii Declaration I declare that this thesis is my own work and has not been submitted in any form for another degree or diploma at any university or other institution or tertiary education. Information derived from the published or unpublished work of others has been acknowledged in the text and a list of references is given. Prince C. Owusu Agyemang December 2018. Every reasonable effort has been made to gain permission and acknowledge the owners of copyright material. I would be pleased to hear from any copyright owner who has been omitted or incorrectly acknowledged. iii Statement on the contribution of others Nature of Assistance Contribution Names & affiliations of co-contributors Intellectual support Supervision Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts, JCU Assoc. Prof. Carl J Spandler, JCU Proposal writing Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts, JCU Data analysis Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts, JCU Dr. Richard Wormald, JCU Assoc. Prof. Carl J Spandler, JCU Dr. Cassian Pirard, JCU Dr. Ioan Sanislov, JCU Editorial assistance Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts, JCU Dr. Ioan Sanislov, JCU Financial support Research funding Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts, JCU De Beers Group Exploration, Bowleven Oil Plc, Adamantine Energy Stipend Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship Bowleven Oil Plc, Adamantine Energy Analytical support Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts, JCU Assoc. Prof. Carl J Spandler, JCU Statement of Contribution Chapter Publication on which chapter is based Nature and extent of intellectual input 2 Owusu Agyemang, P. C., Roberts, E. Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts M., and Jelsma, H. A. (2016). Late contributed to the initial concept Jurassic-Cretaceous fluvial evolution development, preliminary data of central Africa: insights from the analysis and provided editorial Kasai-Congo Basin, Democratic assistance. Republic Congo. Cretaceous Research. Dr. Hielke A. Jelsma contributed to the sample acquisition, primary discussion and provided editorial assistance. 3 Owusu Agyemang, P. C., Roberts, E. Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts M., Joy, S., and Jelsma, H. A. (In contributed to the initial concept prep). Detrital zircon provenance development, provided feedback on analysis of the diamondiferous mid- the discussion and provided editorial Cretaceous Calonda Formation, assistance. northeastern Angola. iv Dr. Hielke A. Jelsma contributed to the sample acquisition, primary discussion, data analysis and provided editorial assistance. Dr. Joy Sojen contributed to sample acquisition, data analysis and provided editorial assistance. 4 Owusu Agyemang, P. C., Roberts, E. Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts M., Downie, B., and Sertich, J. J. W. contributed to the initial concept (2018). Sedimentary provenance and development, provided feedback on maximum depositional age analysis of the discussion and provided editorial the Cretaceous? Lapur and assistance. Muruanachok sandstones (Turkana Grits), Turkana Basin, Kenya. Mr. Bob Downie contributed to the Geological Magazine fieldwork and sampling, primary discussion, data analysis and provided editorial assistance. Dr. Joseph J. W. Sertich contributed to the discussion of the vertebrate fossil record and provided editorial assistance. 5 Owusu Agyemang, P. C., Roberts, E. Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts M., Bussert, R., Evans, D., and contributed to the primary discussion, Müller, J. (accepted; Cretaceous data analysis and provided editorial Research). U-Pb detrital zircon assistance. constraints on the depositional age and provenance of the dinosaur- Dr. Robert Bussert contributed to the bearing mid-Late Cretaceous Wadi fieldwork, sampling and provided Milk Formation of Sudan. editorial assistance. Assoc. Prof. David Evans and Dr. Johannes Müller also contributed to the fieldwork, sampling and discussion of the vertebrate fossil record. 6 Owusu Agyemang, P. C., and Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts Roberts, E. M. (In prep). contributed to some of the data Paleogeographic and drainage analysis and provided editorial evolution of Mesozoic central Africa: assistance. Insights from U-Pb detrital zircon geochronology and Lu-Hf isotope geochemistry. v Acknowledgements To God be the all the glory, great things he has done and greater things will he do. Amen. This thesis would not have been possible without the help and support of many people, especially my primary supervisor Assoc. Prof. Eric M. Roberts. I am most grateful to Eric, who is also the ‘supreme’ leader of the Gravel Monkeys Sedimentology Research Group at James Cook University for the opportunity, steadfast support and guidance throughout this thesis. I am also thankful to him for giving me the opportunity to teach and demonstrate for the undergraduate sedimentology and energy resources classes. I also thank all the gravelmonkeys, past and present for the discussion of ideas and friendship. My co-supervisor Assoc. Prof. Carl J Spandler is also gratefully acknowledged for providing insights into the meaning of the geochemistry data for this thesis. This thesis also benefited from the Australian Government Research Training Program Scholarship, which was administered by the Graduate Research School and it is gratefully acknowledged. This project was also partly funded by industry colloborators, who provided samples and funds for analysis. De Beers Group Services are acknowledged for their collaboration and provision of samples for both the Democratic Republic of Congo and Angola chapters of this thesis. The Head of De Beers is especially thanked for permission to publish the results of these two chapters in peer-review journals. Bowleven Oil and Gas plc, and Adamantine Energy Limited are gratefully acknowledged for providing samples and funding for the Kenya chapter, and for permission to publish the results in peer-review journal. Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG, Mu 1760/6-1) and the Royal Ontario Museum, are gratefully acknowledged for financially supporting fieldwork in Sudan on the Wadi vi Milk Formation. Dr. Brigitte Cech of the Qatar-Sudan Archaeology Project (Mission 037) is gratefully acknowledged for collecting the Shendi (Sudan) Formation samples. I am grateful to Dr. Cassian Pirrard (formally of JCU), for teaching me how to prepare petrographic thin sections for my Angola samples included in this thesis. I am also thankful to Michael S. Hayford and Teirmoor N. Dehkordi, both colleagues at JCU for sacrifing their time to sit with me during many after-hours LA-ICP-MS analysis. A big thank you also to the staff of the Advanced Analytical Centre also at JCU, especially Dr. Yi Hu, Dr. Kevin Blake and Dr. Shane Askew for their assistance with zircon imaging, U-Pb age dating, Lu-Hf isotope and trace elelment geochemistry. Dr. Richard Wormald (formally of JCU) is thanked for showing how to reduce my first U-Pb data files using Glitter software and for technical assistance with minerals separation. I acknowledge Dr. Rob Holm (JCU) for assisting with figure design for DRC manuscript. Dr. Ioan Sanislov is especially thanked for showing how to process the Lu-Hf isotope data. Dr. Isaac Corral Calleja, Jaime Poblete Alvarado and Dr. Yanbo Cheng (JCU) are acknowledged for their assistance in processing the zircon trace elements data used. I am also grateful to all the current and former staff of Geosciences, College of Science and Engineering, and the Graduate Research School, especially Prof. Paul Dirks, Dr. Jan Huizenga, Dr. Huang (Jeffrey) Huiqing, Rebecca Steele, Judy Botting, Jo Scheffler, Alaina Jones, Beth Moore, Melissa Norton and Andrew Norton for the technical, administrative and IT support. I also want to acknowledge a number of collaborators I have worked with and come to admire for their expertise and love for the geosciences during the course of this thesis. Mr. Bob Downie (Bowleven Oil plc and Heritage Oil Ltd), whose critical questions and reviews gave me a deeper understanding of the geology of the Turkana Basin in Kenya.
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