Ediacaran terrane accretion within the Arabian-Nubian Shield

Abstract

The Ad Dawadimi Terrane is an Ediacaran basin of the Arabian Nubian Shield (ANS), Saudi Arabia. This basin terrane is situated in the far eastern part of the ANS and represents the youngest accretion event of the exposed ANS. Therefore, the timing of events within the basin is key to understanding both the closure of the Mozambique Ocean and the amalgamation of Gondwana along the northern East African Orogen. Here we present U/Pb detrital zircon data for the Abt Formation, the principle basin sediments of the Ad Dawadimi Terrane, along with 40Ar/ 39Ar ages on muscovite and whole rock Sm/Nd data. These data indicate that deep-water deposition in the Abt Basin did not end until after ca. 620Ma and that deformation and greenschist-facies metamorphism of the Abt Formation occurred at 620±3 (2σ) Ma along an active margin. This is the youngest terrane amalgamation event reported so far in the Arabian-Nubian Shield, but we suggest even younger sutures lie further east beneath the Phanerozoic cover of eastern Saudi Arabia. Our results suggest that the Ediacaran basins of the eastern ANS were not part of the Huqf basin in Oman, which was instead part of a passive margin of Neoproterozoic India, separated from the active margin of Africa by the Mozambique Ocean that probably did not close until the late Ediacaran or early Cambrian. © 2011 International Association for Gondwana Research.