Résumés
Abstract
The idea of a great pre-glacial river that drained much of North America into the Arctic waters of modern Canada was first suggested in 1895 by Robert A. Bell. In the 1970s, petroleum exploration in Hudson Strait and the Labrador Sea located the massive, submerged delta of what is now known as the Bell River. Reconstructions suggest that three main branches of the Bell River joined up near modern Hudson Bay. The eastern branch largely drained the Canadian Shield, but the central and western branches had headwaters in the Cordilleran orogenic belt and its foreland in the present-day U.S. and northwestern Canada, respectively.
We present new detrital zircon U–Pb data from Lower Oligocene and Lower Miocene sand from an exploration well in the Saglek delta of the northern Labrador Sea. In conjunction with other detrital zircon results from the Labrador Sea (and elsewhere) these data record the configuration and history of this continental-scale drainage basin in more detail. Mesozoic and younger detrital zircon grains (< 250 Ma) are subordinate to Precambrian age groupings, but Cenozoic populations become more abundant during the Oligocene, suggesting that the basin had expanded into areas now occupied by the Colorado Plateau and the Basin-and-Range Province. Proterozoic and Phanerozoic detrital zircon grain populations in Saglek delta sediments are similar to those of the Pliocene Colorado River. The results support an earlier idea that initial incision of the Grand Canyon and denudation of the Colorado Plateau were associated with a north-flowing paleo-river that fed into the Bell River basin. This contribution continued until the Pliocene capture of this ancestral river by the Gulf of California basin, after which the excavation of the modern Grand Canyon was completed. The Bell River drainage basin was later blocked by the expansion of Pleistocene ice sheets.
Keywords:
- Bell River,
- Cenozoic,
- Colorado Plateau,
- Detrital zircon,
- Grand Canyon,
- Labrador Sea,
- Paleogeography
Résumé
L'idée d'un grand fleuve préglaciaire qui drainait une grande partie de l'Amérique du Nord vers les eaux arctiques du Canada moderne a été suggérée pour la première fois en 1895 par Robert A. Bell. Dans les années 1970, l'exploration pétrolière dans le détroit d'Hudson et la mer du Labrador a localisé l'immense delta submergé de ce qui est maintenant connu sous le nom de rivière Bell. Les reconstructions suggèrent que trois bras principaux de la rivière Bell se rejoignent près de la baie d'Hudson moderne. Le bras oriental drainait en grande partie le Bouclier canadien, tandis que le bras central et le bras occidental avaient des sources dans la ceinture orogénique de la Cordillère et son avant-pays dans les États-Unis et le nord-ouest du Canada actuels, respectivement.
Nous présentons de nouvelles données U–Pb sur zircons détritiques issus de sable de l'Oligocène inférieur et du Miocène inférieur provenant d'un puits d'exploration dans le delta de Saglek, dans le nord de la mer du Labrador. En conjonction avec d'autres résultats de zircons détritiques de la mer du Labrador (et d'ailleurs), ces données enregistrent la configuration et l'histoire de ce bassin versant à l'échelle continentale avec plus de détail. Les grains de zircons détritiques mésozoïques et plus jeunes (< 250 Ma) sont subordonnés aux groupes d'âge précambriens, mais les populations cénozoïques deviennent plus abondantes au cours de l'Oligocène, ce qui suggère que le bassin s'est étendu dans des zones maintenant occupées par le plateau du Colorado et la province de Basin-and Range. Les populations de grains de zircons détritiques du Protérozoïque et du Phanérozoïque dans les sédiments du delta de Saglek sont similaires à celles du fleuve Colorado du Pliocène. Les résultats corroborent une idée antérieure selon laquelle l'incision initiale du Grand Canyon et la dénudation du plateau du Colorado étaient associées à une paléo-rivière coulant vers le nord qui alimentait le bassin de la rivière Bell. Cette contribution s'est poursuivie jusqu'à la capture de cette rivière ancestrale par le bassin du golfe de Californie au Pliocène, après quoi l'excavation du Grand Canyon moderne a été achevée. Le bassin versant de la rivière Bell a ensuite été bloqué par l'expansion des calottes glaciaires du Pléistocène.
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