Application of multi-mineral detrital provenance to unravelling sediment recycling, tectonic events, and paleogeography in northern Gondwana

This thesis improves provenance methods for determining the source region of ancient sediments by measuring the isotopic age, geochemistry, and surface morphology of multiple mineral grains in the sediments. This information is used to establish the link between the sedimentary basin in northern margin of Gondwana supercontinent and the source region of its sediments during 600 to 450 million years ago. The data help to reconstructing the ancient geography of this region and the evolution of continents forming this margin. The results indicate that the northern Gondwana was a relatively flat basin and the sediments were sourced from internal Gondwana.