Home ResearchCurrent Projects

Sediment provenance of the Franklinian basin, Arctic Canada
Luke Beranek

The Franklinian basin in the Canadian high Arctic is important for plate tectonic models that attempt to explain the opening of the Amerasian Basin of the Arctic Ocean, including the rotational opening scenario that requires pre-Mesozoic stratigraphic links between the Arctic Alaska-Chukotka microplate and the Canadian Arctic Islands.  This study uses detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology to decipher the Neoproterozoic-early Paleozoic provenance record of the Franklinian basin and investigate its significance to circum-Arctic paleogeography and tectonics. The goal of this investigation is to confirm or disprove the rotational opening hypothesis and develop new models for the tectonic development of the circum-Arctic.