Silurian-Devonian age and tectonic setting of the Connecticut Valley-Gaspé trough in Vermont based on U-Pb SHRIMP analyses of detrital zircons

Abstract

U-Pb SHRIMP ages of detrital zircons from metasedimentary rocks of the Connecticut Valley-Gaspé trough in Vermont corroborate a Silurian-Devonian age of deposition for these strata and constrain their provenances. Ages of randomly selected detrital zircons obtained from quartzites within the Waits River and Gile Mountain Formations range from Archean to Devonian with Mesoproterozoic, Neoproterozoic, Ordovician, and Silurian age populations suggesting both eastern and western sources of the sediments. The two youngest single-grain detrital zircon ages from samples collected in the Waits River Formation are 418 ± 7 and 415 ± 2 Ma. The youngest single-grain detrital zircon age from the eastern part of the Gile Mountain Formation is 411 ± 8. The youngest detrital zircons from the western portion of the Gile Mountain Formation comprise an age population with a weighted average of 409 ± 5 Ma. These ∼409 Ma zircons are likely of volcanic origin, perhaps derived from the Piscataquis magmatic belt to the east. The absence of younger volcanic zircons in the coarser-grained eastern facies of the Gile Mountain Formation suggests the eastern sediments are older and were buried during Piscataquis volcanism and deposition in the west.

The shift in protoliths from calcareous silts and muds of the Waits River Formation to quartzo-feldspathic sands of the Gile Mountain Formation implies a change from a continental slope-like depositional environment to a near-shore or terrestrial environment of deposition. This change supports a transition in the nature of the basin from an intercontinental back-arc extensional setting to a foreland basin setting. Maximum depositional ages of sediments above and below this facies boundary constrain the timing of transition in basin style between about 415 and 411 Ma. Given the timing of the approaching Acadian wedge, this shift in basin style likely reflects westward migration of thrust sheets during the Acadian orogeny. The fine-grained nature of the youngest silts, muds and turbidites suggests that sedimentation occurred in increasingly deeper water. The implied basin subsidence was likely caused by lithospheric flexure as the Acadian wedge approached from the east. The timing of this subsidence is constrained to be younger than the youngest zircons at about 409 Ma.