1. Provenance Analysis

2. Provenance: the lithological (and chemical, isotopic, age) characteristics of the source region for a sedimentary rock Composition of sediments (mostly sandstones) can tell you about the location, tectonic setting, climate, etc. of the source area and the transport mechanism and pathway

3. Mechanical weathering No changes to mineralogical composition of sediment produced from rock Chemical weathering Mineralogical composition of sediment differs from parent rock

4. Chemical weathering dominates in warm, wet climates

5. Mineral stability during weathering follows Bowen’s reaction series

6. Compositional Maturity: degree to which sediment contains only resistant grains (quartz and stable heavy minerals like magnetite, apatite, rutile, zircon)

7. Textural Maturity: based on presence of clay, sorting, and rounding More transport leads to greater textural maturity

8. Rock particles can indicate the tectonic setting of the source QFL diagram plots relative percentages of quartz, feldspar, and lithics If chert or quartzite are abundant, treat them as lithics and plot monocrystalline quartz (Qm)

9. Qp = polycrystalline quartz (chert, quartzite) Lvm = volcanic and metavolcanic lithics Lsm = sedimentary and metased lithics Lm = metamorphic lithics Lv = volcanic lithics Ls = sedimentary lithics Other ternary plots (QpLvmLsm and LmLvLs) subdivide and plot just the lithic components for discrimination of tectonic settings

10. Sm/Nd isotopes Negative ε Nd values found in continental crust (Nd system has been separated from Sm “enriched” mantle for long time) Positive ε Nd values are commonly found in mantle derived melts

11. Strontium isotopes ( 87 Sr/ 86 Sr) Rubidium ( 87 Rb) strongly partitions into continental magmas and decays to 87 Sr Continental crust is enriched in 87 Sr/ 86 Sr Primitive mantle and magma have low 87 Sr/ 86 Sr Ratio tracks continental influence on source rocks

12. Detrital zircon U-Pb Single-crystal age dates give age of rocks in source region