Categories of Rivers that Formed Vendian and Lower Cambrian Sedimentary Sequences, Western Part of the East European Platform: Evidence from Lithogeochemistry

Abstract

Based on lithogeochemical data related to the fine-grained clastic rocks of the Volyn, Valdai, and Baltic groups in the western part of the East European Platform (Belarus and Volyn, partly Lithuania), categories of rivers that transported the fine-grained aluminosiliciclastics to the sinks were reconstructed. It is concluded that the formation of Vendian and Lower Cambrian sedimentary sequences in this area was controlled mainly by river systems similar to modern large rivers (catchment area >100 000 km²) and rivers draining sedimentary rocks (catchment area <100 000 km²). The fine-grained aluminosiliciclastics transported by them was delivered mainly from areas composed of rocks of the platform crystalline basement and, in part, sedimentary rocks. The distribution of data points of Vendian–Lower Cambrian mudstones on the (La/Yb)_N–Eu/Eu* and (La/Yb)_N–Th diagrams with fields of the pelitic and silty–pelitic sediments at the mouths of modern different-category rivers shows that mafic rocks of the Volyn–Brest large igneous province, apparently, were not suppliers of the fine-grained aluminosiliciclastics in the indicated time intervals.