Integrated provenance analysis at basin scale or at exploration block scale, comprising:
a) Systematic quantitative petrographic analyses by modal point-counting of the major detrital constituents in representative thin sections prepared from selected core and cuttings samples. Interpretation via discriminant compositional diagrams.
 Variation in major primary composition from quantitative petrography and interpretation of tectonic provenance modes of core and cuttings samples, plotted in Dickinson (1985) diagram.
c) Electron microprobe analyses of detrital garnet grains separated from selected samples. Interpretation via discriminant compositional diagrams.
d) Apatite fission track analyses in detrital apatites separated from selected sandstones samples, and in primary apatites from crystalline basement rocks, in order to recognize the age and amount of source-terrains uplift, inherited and post-depositional thermal histories of the sediments.
Estimation of the maximum likelihood set of age populations from a sandstone based on 32 measurements through apatite fission tracks analysis
e) Geochronologic analyses of detrital zircons and monazites by ionic probe or plasma-mass-spectrometer of selected sandstone samples in order to determine the ages of the source-terrains and the dispersal patterns of the sediments.
f) Statistical and graphic processing of the data generated by these diverse methods and integrated interpretation from the diverse analytical methods, in order to recognize trends, correlations and distribution patterns. |
Home
