EGU22-3670
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3670
EGU General Assembly 2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Neon isotopic signature applied to detrital provenance assignment in foreland basins

Yan Ma1, Dewen Zheng2, Huiping Zhang1, and Jianzhang Pang1
Yan Ma et al.
  • 1State Key Laboratory of Earthquake Dynamics, Institute of Geology, China Earthquake Administration, Beijing, 100029
  • 2State Key Laboratory of Isotope Geochemistry, Guangzhou Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Guangzhou, 510640, China

Cosmogenic noble gas isotope 21Ne in terrestrial rocks has been used primarily to determine timing and rates of the Earth’s surface evolution. Here we explore the ability of detrital 21Ne as a provenance tracer, considering that Ne isotopes produced in source rocks could be preserved in minerals over geological time and might be predominant in total Ne inventory of sediments sunk in basins. This ability is predicated on potential source terranes of a given stratigraphic section with distinct neon isotopic signatures. Here we analyze neon isotopes of a well-dated Miocene–Pleistocene sedimentary archives in Kuqa foreland basin of southern Tianshan. The data suggest that the neon isotopic signature, which is expressed as εNe and defined in this work as the excess 21Ne/20Ne-ratio relative to atmospheric ratio, is stratigraphically sensitive to changes in local source terranes. This result is compatible with U/Pb provenance analysis and also supported by evidences from sandstone petrography and heavy mineral analysis. Influence of other non-source related 21Ne components in sedimentary archives on sensitivity of εNe has proven to be negligible. Furthermore, the integrated stratigraphic signatures of neon isotope and U/Pb age permit the detection of differential erosion in drainage basin, by which the tectonic or climatic effects on geomorphic evolution could be deciphered.

How to cite: Ma, Y., Zheng, D., Zhang, H., and Pang, J.: Neon isotopic signature applied to detrital provenance assignment in foreland basins, EGU General Assembly 2022, Vienna, Austria, 23–27 May 2022, EGU22-3670, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu22-3670, 2022.