Provenance of late Paleozoic and Mesozoic clastic sediments of Taimyr and their significance for understanding Arctic tectonics

Abstract: The Taimyr Peninsula is a key element in the circum-Arctic region and represents the northern margin of the Siberian Craton. The Taimyr Peninsula preserves late Paleozoic through Mesozoic clasitic sedimentary successions in its Mesozoic fold belt, providing an ideal location to investigate the Mesozoic tectonic evolution associated with the opening of Amerasia Basin within a circum-Arctic framework. This thesis aims to establish the tectonic setting in which the late Paleozoic through Mesozoic sediments of Taimyr were deposited, in order to correlate Taimyr with other Arctic terranes utilizing provenance investigations. Multiple methods are adopted, including petrography, heavy mineral analysis and detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology. The preliminary results of this work indicate that the late Paleozoic sediments of southern Taimyr were deposited in a foreland basin of the Uralian orogen during Uralian orogeny. The final collision between Baltica and Siberia in the last stage of Uralian orogenesis occurred between Early and Late Permian. Early Cretaceous sediments in northern Taimyr were mainly derived from Siberian Trap-related magmatism in Taimyr. Cretaceous sediment deposition is unrelated to Jurassic to Cretaceous rifting associated with the Verkhoyansk fold belt and instead relates to a rifting or post-rifting passive margin setting.