Provenance and paleodrainage patterns of Upper Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous synrift sandstones in the Flemish Pass Basin, offshore Newfoundland, east coast of Canada

Upper Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous synrift sandstones from two industry exploratory wells in the Flemish Pass Basin were studied for provenance using heavy mineral proxies. These sandstones were deposited during the North Atlantic rifting stage, at which time rifting intensified between Iberia and the Grand Banks. Several heavy mineral methods were used, including in-situ U-Pb geochronology and morphological and chemical analysis of detrital zircons, chemical discrimination of detrital tourmalines, and heavy mineral ratios. Clastic bed-load material entering the northern Flemish Pass Basin during the Tithonian to Berriasian was connected to transport systems reaching west, as far as 400 to 500 km (249-311 mi). Source areas to the west included igneous rocks and associated cover sequences of the Avalon zone, as well as the magmatic rocks, metasedimentary rocks, and associated cover sequences present in the Central mobile belt. The eastwarddirected input of bed-load material into the basin is considered to have resulted in the concentration of sandstone units along its western margin, with deteriorating reservoir grade toward the east. Given the regional extent of drainage systems, it is likely that similar constraints apply to equivalent sandstones in the adjacent East Orphan Basin.