Precambrian basement character of Yemen and correlations with Saudi Arabia and Somalia

Whitehouse, Martin J.; Windley, Brian F.; Stoeser, Douglas B.; Al-Khirbash, Salah; Ba-Bttat, Mahfood A. O.; Haider, Abdullah

doi:10.1016/s0301-9268(00)00120-0

Cited by 103 publications

(46 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…Latest Mesoproterozoic-early Neoproterozoic (Kibaran-age) crust is exposed in the Bayuda Desert and suggested in Sinai by the recent discovery of metasediments containing ~1.0 Ga zircons [58]. Paleoproterozoic crust crops out in the Khida terrane in the eastern part of the Arabian Shield [59], and in the Saharan Metacraton [24], and Neoarchean rocks are found in Yemen and Sudan [60][61][62]. The oldest peak of xenocrystic zircons (>3.2 Ga) has no known counterpart around the ANS.…”

Section: Inheritancementioning

confidence: 99%

“…1, 2), may represent a continuation of the ANS east of Azania, and are possibly equivalent to to the Al Mukalla terrane in Yemen (Fig. 2) [61]. This is the reason why Azania is modeled as a narrow strip of Archean crust [26] even though it has a strike length of more than 3000 km.…”

Section: Eastern Margin Of Ansmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The crystalline basement of the island represents three Cryogenian events over a ~80 million year period comprising: (1) In Yemen, an ANS-Azania boundary in probably defined by arc-continent sutures along the Abas and Al Mahfid terranes (Fig. 2) [61]. These terranes consist of orthogneisses, migmatite, and metamorphosed supracrustal rocks, separated by shear zones from supracrustal rocks of the Al Bayda and Al Mukalla terranes.…”

Section: Eastern Margin Of Ansmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The Al Bayda and Al Mukalla terranes contain greenschist-grade felsic and mafic volcanic rock and granodiorite and granite intrusions and are interpreted as juvenile Neoproterozoic island arcs sutured to older crust of the Abas and Al Mahfid terranes. The gneissic terranes have present-day ε Nd values of -10.6 to -39.8 and Archean-Paleoproterozoic Nd model ages (3.03-1.7 Ga), and the Al Mahfid terrane yields 2.94-2.55 Ga U-Pb SIMS (SHRIMP) zircon ages, indicating the presence of Archean continental crust, albeit with extensive Neoproterozoic reworking [60,61,116]. The region is interpreted as an alternation of pre-Neoproterozoic gneissic domains and Neoproterozoic island-arc domains that coalesced to form an arc-gneiss collage contemporaneous with accretionary events in the main part of the ANS [61,116].…”

Section: Eastern Margin Of Ansmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The gneissic terranes have present-day ε Nd values of -10.6 to -39.8 and Archean-Paleoproterozoic Nd model ages (3.03-1.7 Ga), and the Al Mahfid terrane yields 2.94-2.55 Ga U-Pb SIMS (SHRIMP) zircon ages, indicating the presence of Archean continental crust, albeit with extensive Neoproterozoic reworking [60,61,116]. The region is interpreted as an alternation of pre-Neoproterozoic gneissic domains and Neoproterozoic island-arc domains that coalesced to form an arc-gneiss collage contemporaneous with accretionary events in the main part of the ANS [61,116]. As in Somalia, Neoproterozoic arc rocks (Mukalla terrane) continue east of the Azania gneisses, indicating that Azania, both in Somalia and Arabia, has a limited east-west width and possibly forms a ribbon-like continental block within ANS juvenile crust.…”

Section: Eastern Margin Of Ansmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Expanding Arabian-Nubian Shield Geochronologic and Isotopic Dataset: Defining Limits and Confirming the Tectonic Setting of a Neoproterozoic Accretionary Orogen

Johnson¹

2014

TOGEOJ

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Geologic investigations of the Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) are supported by a valuable, expanding dataset of geochronologic ages and isotopic analyses. U-Pb zircon SIMS, TIMS, and evaporation data provide robust temporal control on depositional, volcanic, and intrusive events. Nd, Sr, O and, increasingly, Hf isotopic studies provide insights into magma sources and constraints on crustal recycling. Apart from well-established exceptions where Paleoproterozoic and Archean rocks intercalated in the ANS underwent Neoproterozoic reworking, the data elegantly confirm the Neoproterozoic age and juvenile character of the bulk of the ANS. The geochronologic and isotopic data reveal that some ANS sedimentary, volcanic, and igneous rocks contain pre-Neoproterozoic material as xenocrysts and possible glaciogenic clasts, but give no evidence that the ANS is otherwise underlain by any extensive tracts of older crust. Together with structural mapping, the expanding dataset confirms ANS boundaries where long-inferred in the west and suggests the placement of hitherto uncertain boundaries elsewhere. The suggested boundaries imply that the ANS is of a somewhat smaller size than considered in published discussions, which in turn impacts assessment of Neoproterozoic crustal growth rate. The Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) is an accretionary orogen at the northern end (present-day coordinates) of the East African Orogen. It is one of the largest expanses of mantle-derived, juvenile Neoproterozoic crust on Earth, underlying an area of ~2.7 x 10 6 km 2 . Its western boundary is a contact with pre-Neoproterozoic crust belonging to the Saharan Metacraton and Congo-Tanzania Craton. Farther south, the ANS is in contact with the Congo-Tanzania Craton and Mozambique Belt. A southeastern ANS margin is recognized as a contact with pre-Neoproterozoic gneiss belonging to a crustal block referred to as Azania. An eastern ANS margin, long a topic of debate, is suspected beneath Phanerozoic cover in central Arabia, and a northwestern margin with late Mesoproterozoic crust is suspected in Sinai.

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Section: Inheritancementioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Eastern Margin Of Ansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Eastern Margin Of Ansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Eastern Margin Of Ansmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Eastern Margin Of Ansmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An Expanding Arabian-Nubian Shield Geochronologic and Isotopic Dataset: Defining Limits and Confirming the Tectonic Setting of a Neoproterozoic Accretionary Orogen

Johnson¹

2014

TOGEOJ

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Structural geology of the Rub' Al‐Khali Basin, Saudi Arabia

Stewart

2016

Tectonics

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The Rub' Al‐Khali basin lies below a Quaternary sand sea, and the structural evolution from the Late Precambrian to Neogene is known only from reflection seismic, gravity, and magnetic data, and wells. Gravity and magnetic data show north‐south and northwest‐southeast trends, matching mapped Precambrian faults. The deepest structures imaged on reflection seismic data are undrilled Precambrian rifts filled with layered strata at depths up to 13 km. The distribution of Ediacaran‐Cambrian Ara/Hormuz mobile salt is restricted to an embayment in the eastern Rub' Al‐Khali. The Precambrian rifts show local inversion and were peneplained at base Phanerozoic. A broad crustal‐scale fold (Qatar Arch) developed in the Carboniferous and amplified in the Late Triassic, separating subbasins in the west and east Rub' Al‐Khali. A phase of kilometer‐scale folding occurred in the Late Cretaceous, coeval with thrusting and ophiolite obduction in eastern Oman. These folds trend predominantly north‐south, oblique to the northwesterly shortening direction, and occasionally have steep fault zones close to their axial surfaces. The trend and location of these folds closely matches the Precambrian lineaments identified in this study, demonstrating preferential reactivation of basement structures. Compression along the Zagros suture reactivated these folds in the Neogene, this time the result of highly oblique, north‐northeast to south‐southwest shortening. Cretaceous‐Tertiary fold style is interpreted as transpression with minor strain partitioning. Permian, Jurassic, and Eocene evaporite horizons played no role in the structural evolution of the basin, but the Eocene evaporites caused widespread kilometer‐scale dissolution collapse structures in the basin center.

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A discussion on the tectonic implications of Ediacaran late- to post-orogenic A-type granite in the northeastern Arabian Shield, Saudi Arabia

et al. 2017

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The transition from late‐orogenic to post‐orogenic magmatism following major orogenic episodes such as the Neoproterozoic to Cambrian East African Orogen (EAO) is an important, yet not well‐understood geological event marking the cessation of subduction‐controlled magmatism between buoyant lithospheric fragments. Forming the northern part of the EAO in the Arabian‐Nubian Shield are three granitic suites that successively intruded the same northeastern area and post‐date the ~640 Ma major orogenic episode: (1) 620–600 Ma alkali feldspar (hypersolvous) granite with alkaline/ferroan/A‐type geochemistry, (2) 599 Ma granite cumulates (some garnet‐bearing) with calc‐alkaline/magnesian affinities, and (3) 584–566 Ma alkali feldspar (hypersolvous) granite (aegirine‐bearing) with a distinctive peralkaline/ferroan/A‐type signature. Combining whole‐rock geochemistry from the southern and northern Arabian Shield, suites 1 and 2 are suggested to be products of late‐orogenic slab tear/rollback inducing asthenospheric mantle injection and lower crustal melting/fractionation toward A‐type/ferroan geochemistry. Suite 3, however, is suggested to be produced by post‐orogenic lithospheric delamination, which replaced the older mantle with new asthenospheric (rare earth element‐enriched) mantle that ultimately becomes the thermal boundary layer of the new lithosphere. Major shear zones, such as the 620–540 Ma Najd Fault System (NFS), are some of the last tectonic events recorded across the Arabian Shield. Data presented here suggest that the NFS is directly related to the late‐orogenic (620–600 Ma) slab tear/rollback in the northeastern Shield as it met with opposing subduction polarity in the southern Shield. Furthermore, this study infers that east and west Gondwana amalgamation interacted with opposing convergence reflected by the NFS.

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Precambrian basement character of Yemen and correlations with Saudi Arabia and Somalia

Cited by 103 publications

References 13 publications

An Expanding Arabian-Nubian Shield Geochronologic and Isotopic Dataset: Defining Limits and Confirming the Tectonic Setting of a Neoproterozoic Accretionary Orogen

An Expanding Arabian-Nubian Shield Geochronologic and Isotopic Dataset: Defining Limits and Confirming the Tectonic Setting of a Neoproterozoic Accretionary Orogen

Structural geology of the Rub' Al‐Khali Basin, Saudi Arabia

A discussion on the tectonic implications of Ediacaran late- to post-orogenic A-type granite in the northeastern Arabian Shield, Saudi Arabia

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