Magmatic flux of batholiths. Recently there has been an increase in interest to reconstruct the magmatic flux of batholiths to try to help understand convergent margin processes and the role of orogenic cycles. In the western United States, magmatic flux studies have traditionally been done by studying igneous rocks in the Sierra Nevada batholith. But a more potent unique record can be created by applying detrital zircon analysis to the nearby forearc and foreland basins.
Metamorphic history recorded by detrital monazite. In 2011 studies were done to try and reconstruct the metamorphic history of the southern Appalachian Mountains, by using detrital monazites from a Paleozoic foreland basin strata. This record is somewhat different than that created by detrital zircons, which suggest that together they might be able to help reconstruct both igneous and metamorphic histories of orogenies.
Characterization of a mystery source terrane. During the mid-Paleozoic, the northern part of Laurentia was covered by a broad clastic wedge that was removed from a source terrane known as Crockerland. Not much is known of Crockerland because it has been covered
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In 2012 studies proved that it is possible to find out the tectonic setting of basin strata by looking at the age distributions of detrital zircons and by looking at the age of deposition of the host rock, with the criteria that the magmatism that is making the zircons, occur mostly in a convergent margin setting. This is done by plotting the ages of distribution against the differences between age of crystallization and age of deposition. If your analysis shows that your samples where dominated by grains that were younger at the time of deposition, this infers that it most likely formed near a convergent margin. On the contrary, if your samples are dominated by grains with a longer lag time, then this shows that they probably formed in a collisional or an extensional