Detrital zircon ages and provenance of the Upper Paleozoic successions of Kotel’ny Island (New Siberian Islands archipelago)

A new detrital zircon provenance study of Upper Paleozoic sandstones from Kotel’ny Island, part of the New Siberian Islands archipelago, reveals that these islands, along with Wrangel Island and the Severnaya Zemlya Archipelago, were likely positioned along the northern margin of Laurentia-Baltica during the Late Devonian-Mississippian period. The study identified strong similarities in detrital zircon populations across these regions, suggesting they may have formed a single tectonic block. Additionally, a dramatic shift to a Uralian provenance is observed in Permian clastics, providing critical insights for Paleozoic tectonic reconstructions of the Arctic region prior to the opening of Mesozoic oceanic basins. The research utilized the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test and age distributions of detrital zircons to analyze sedimentary provenance and crustal affinity.

Ershova, V. B., Prokopiev, A. V., Khudoley, A. K., Sobolev, N. N., & Petrov, E. O. (2015). Detrital zircon ages and provenance of the Upper Paleozoic successions of Kotel’ny Island (New Siberian Islands archipelago). Lithosphere, 7(1), 40–45. https://doi.org/10.1130/l387.1