Detrital zircon reference for Cambrian to Triassic miogeoclinal strata of western North America

U-Pb analyses of 656 single zircon grains from Cambrian to Triassic miogeoclinal strata provide a latitudinal and temporal reference for the ages of grains that accumulated along the western margin of North America. Comparisons between this detrital zircon reference and the ages of grains in potentially displaced terranes outboard (west) of the miogeocline should help establish when the terranes first arrived in sedimentary proximity to western North America. North-south variations in the ages of grains in Cambrian and Devonian to Triassic strata, which reflect the north-south changes in the age of cratonal rocks near the margin, should also help place constraints on a terrane's paleolatitude during these time periods. -from Authors