Establishing provenance from highly impoverished heavy mineral suites: detrital apatite and zircon geochronology of central North Sea Triassic sandstones

A study of Triassic sandstones in the central North Sea, UK, has shown that combined detrital zircon and apatite geochronology and apatite trace element analysis is a powerful tool for reconstructing provenance for sandstones with diagenetically impoverished heavy mineral suites. Sandstones in the earlier part of the succession (Bunter Sandstone Member and Judy Sandstone Member) have characteristics that indicate derivation from Moinian-Dalradian metasediments affected by Caledonian tectonothermal events, in conjunction with a Palaeoproterozoic-Archaean source unaffected by Caledonian metamorphism. Palaeogeographic reconstructions indicate that the sediment cannot have been input directly from either of these cratonic areas. This, in conjunction with the presence of common rounded apatite, indicates that recycling is the most likely possibility. The zircon-apatite association in the younger Joanne Sandstone Member sandstones indicates derivation from lithologies with mid-Proterozoic zircons (either crystalline basement or metasediments in the Caledonian Nappes), subjected to Caledonian metamorphism to generate early Palaeozoic apatites. This combination is compatible with a source region in southern and western Norway. The low degree of textural maturity associated with the detrital apatite, together with the unimodal Caledonian age grouping, indicates the Joanne sandstones have a strong first-cycle component.