Trans-Siberian Permian rivers: A key to understanding Arctic sedimentary provenance

Permian strata of northern Siberia contain a rich record of the late Paleozoic history of Siberia and surrounding fold and thrust belts (FTB). More than 850 uranium-lead (U-Pb) detrital zircon ages collected from the Permian strata provide vital information about sediment source areas and history of the sedimentary basins. The detrital zircon populations obtained from the Permian clastics of northern Siberia are characterized by large percentages of late Paleozoic and early Paleozoic zircons, whose ages can be correlated with magmatic events known from the Ural-Mongolian Orogen. Our data suggest that Permian clastics of northern Siberia were mainly sourced from orogens developed along the western and southwestern margins of the Siberian Craton (in present-day coordinates), with an additional sediment contribution from the reworked sedimentary cover and basement of Siberia. The contribution from Siberian sources is distinguished in the Precambrian part of the detrital zircon populations by wide distribution of ca. 1700-2000 Ma and 2500-2750 Ma zircons with an almost total lack of zircons ranging in age from 800 to 1700 Ma. We propose that a major fluvial system, which we here term the “Paleo-Khatanga”, was the main sediment transport pathway along the western and northern margins of Siberia during the Permian. From a regional overview of detrital zircon populations in Permian deposits across the Arctic realm, we propose that the New Siberian Islands, Alexander and Farewell terranes were sourced from the western framework of the Ural-Mongolian Orogen and were located along the northern margin of Baltica during the late Paleozoic. The Arctic-Alaska-Chukotka Terrane on the other hand does not have Uralian signatures in the detrital zircon populations of the Permian sediments, and can be reconstructed adjacent to the northern margin of Laurentia. Our new data presented here help to better define the enigma of Arctic paleogeography during the Paleozoic.