Evaluation of two multidimensional discrimination diagrams from beach and deep-sea sediments from the Gulf of Mexico and their application to Precambrian clastic sedimentary rocks

Abstract

Two discriminant-function-based multidimensional major-element diagrams for the tectonic discrimination of siliciclastic sediments were recently published from a coherent statistical methodology of log_e-ratio transformation and linear discriminant analysis. These diagrams were constructed based on worldwide examples of Neogene–Quaternary siliciclastic sediments from known tectonic settings. In this work, these two tectonic discrimination diagrams were first successfully tested from Holocene (<0.0117–0 Ma) beach and deep-sea sediments from the Gulf of Mexico. These diagrams were used to decipher tectonic settings of 11 case studies of the Precambrian clastic sedimentary rocks (~512–2800 Ma) from Argentina, USA, Ghana, Spain, Norway, India, China, and Australia. The test and application results obtained from these discrimination diagrams were generally consistent with the geology of the Precambrian source areas. Therefore, the two multidimensional diagrams can be considered as a useful tool for successfully discriminating the tectonic setting of older sedimentary basins, which may consist of one or more tectonic assemblages. Comparison of results of this study with the previously published tectonic discrimination diagrams is illustrated and the probable reasons for some inconsistent inferences were also discussed.

Keywords:

• major element
• tectonic setting
• siliciclastic sediments
• sedimentary rocks

Acknowledgement

I am highly grateful to Dr María Luisa Machain-Castillo and to the crewmembers (Justo Sierra) of the project FACIES 1. I express my sincere thanks to the technicians Norma Liliana Cruz-Ortiz, Susana Santiago-Perez, Eduardo Morales de la Garza, and Ricardo Martinez for their assistance in the laboratory. I thank the staff Rufino Lozano Santa Cruz and Patricia Girón García for analytical help. I am grateful to Lic. Arturo Ferrer Méndez Flores, librarian, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, for providing the geology map of Gulf of Mexico. This contribution has greatly benefited from reviews by two anonymous reviewers. I am thankful to the Editor Robert J. Stern and Guest Editors Vinod Singh and Surendra Pal Verma for numerous helpful comments to improve the quality of this paper.

Additional information

Funding

This research was supported partly by the Project Servicios interdisciplinarios de facies sedimentarias del fondo marino del Golfo de México para calibración de modelos Sísmico – FACIES-PEMEX-PEP-No: 420401851, for sample collection from the deep-sea areas of the Gulf of Mexico. Financial assistance provided by the Instituto de Ciencias del Mar y Limnología, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Institutional (No. 616), and Programa de Apoyo a proyectos de Investigación e Innovación Tecnológica [No. IA101213] Projects for sample collection along the Gulf of Mexico beach areas is highly acknowledged.