Sedimentary petrology was used in this provenance study to map regional mineral associations and to indicate the composition and tectonic states of their source areas. Quantitative estimates of tourmaline roundness and varieties of quartz were the primary basis for recognizing two regional mineral associations. The statistical significance of quartz varieties and tourmaline roundness was evaluated with a form of multivariate analysis. Estimation of the other mineralogical constituents supplemented the differentiation of mineral associations and the reconstruction of source-area composition. The two areas of contrasting mineral associations are western Illinois (no metamorphic quartz pebbles, high tourmaline roundness, low metamorphic quartz, insignificant feldspar) and the remainder of the areas studied, including southern Illinois, Indiana, eastern and western Kentucky, Ohio, and Michigan (metamorphic quartz pebbles, low tourmaline roundness, medium to high metamorphic quartz, 1-5 per cent feldspar). The source-area interpretation, based on integration of petrology with cross-bedding, indicates that a source to the north and northwest of western Illinois-in the direction of the Transcontinental Arch-contributed detritus to western Illinois. Sources contributing to the rest of the north-central United States lay to the north and northeast-parts of the Canadian Shield and uplifted parts of the linear mobile belt bordering the craton on the east. The clastic material from all sources was primarily from pre-existing sediments, but that from the Transcontinental Arch had a long abrasion history of many earlier sedimentary cycles, whereas that from the east and northeast was only a few cycles removed from igneous and metamorphic derivation. The craton sloped southwest from the most stable parts of the continent to the more rapidly subsiding portions of the mobile belt. Basal Pennsylvanian sediments overlapped the craton in a northeasterly direction, up the regional slope.
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