Pre-Neoproterozoic basement evolution of southwestern Egypt

Detrital zircon provenance of north Gondwana Palaeozoic sandstones from Saudi Arabia

“…The eastern Saharan Metacraton also contains Palaeoproterozoic and Archaean crustal components (e.g. Küster et al 2008;Bea et al 2011;Kongnyuy et al 2012;Zhang et al 2019b) and thus can be seen as a possible source area. This may be supported by the fact that the eastern and southeastern parts of the Saharan Metacraton were exposed at the surface and thus were prone to erosion throughout most of the Palaeozoic, according to palaeogeographic reconstructions (e.g.…”

“…The exception is uppermost Palaeoarchaean basement rock in SW Egypt, i.e. 3.22 ± 0.02 Ga Detrital zircon provenance study from Saudi Arabia gneiss at Gebel Kamil (Bea et al 2011) and 3.245 ± 0.05 Ga gneiss at Gebel Uweinat (Zhang et al 2019b). The Devonian samples yielded the highest amount of Palaeo-and Eoarchaean zircon ages compared to all other studied samples and, surprisingly, they yielded the oldest zircon ages yet recorded from Arabia and the surrounding area: 3771 ± 37 Ma (#: 82) and 3850 ± 25 Ma (#: 38) in the Jubah Formation sample 152 (Figs 4, 5).…”

Detrital zircon similarities and dissimilarities between the Iberian Pyrite Belt, Ossa-Morena Zone and Meguma

“…6) as visual inspection of the Birimian-Eburnean curve suggests relevant differences between the peri-Gondwanan terranes (see below) that may have paleogeographic implications (see next subsection). Indeed, in the North African cratonic regions, the magmatic and metamorphic events are mainly constrained to ~2.0-2.2Ga in the WAC (Boher et al, 1992;Liégeois et al, 1991;Parra-Avila et al, 2019;Schofield et al, 2006), ~1.9-2.2Ga in the TSB (Bechiri-Benmerzoug et al, 2017;Bendaoud et al, 2008;Nouar et al, 2011;Peucat et al, 2003) and marked by a ~2.0Ga event in the SM (Zhang et al, 2019). Notably, pre-Mesoproterozoic crust is unknown in the Arabian-Nubian Shield (Be'eri-Shlevin et al, 2012;Stern et al, 2010).…”