Carboniferous Paleogeography of North-eastern Siberia

The study area is located on the northeastern margin of the Siberian Craton. The Carboniferous time was marked by extensive transgressions with widespread distribution of marine deposits throughout the study area. The Carboniferous deposits show transition from deep see basin environment through distal prodelta environments to prograding deltaic (delta front and delta plain) environment. One of the main questions for this region is a source area for Carboniferous deposits of North-East Siberia. We are presenting here a provenance pioneer study based on detrital zircon dating. All samples contain zircons with similar age populations, although relative abundance of each population varies. Zircons of Palaeoproterozic-Archean, Neoproterozoic and Devonian-Early Carboniferous ages are most widespread, whilst zircons of Cambro-Ordovician ages constitute an insignificant portion. Similarly, the Siberian Craton provenance must be rejected as a possible source area for Palaeozoic zircons in the studied samples, as felsic Palaeozoic magmatic rocks are also absent in the Siberian Craton basement. The only known potential provenance area with magmatic rocks comparable in age with the studied Palaeozoic zircon populations are the Altay-Sayan and/or Taimyr - Severnaya Zemlya fold and thrust belts