Provenance of carboniferous sandstones from U-Pb dating of detrital zircons

The authors present results from U-Pb dating of detrital zircons in Namurian (mid-Carboniferous) fluvial clastics of northern England. These show a consistent and simple pattern with Carboniferous sandstones derived, in part, from active erosion of Archaean crystalline rocks possibly from western Greenland and/or Fennoscandanavia. Detritus recycled through the Caledonian is also represented but the proportion recycled through pre-existing sedimentary rocks, as implied by rounded zircon grains, is far smaller than expected. (author)