Early Pan-African evolution of the basement around Elat, Israel,and the Sinai Peninsula revealed by single-zircon evaporation dating, and implications for crustal accretion rates

We report 2<r7Pb/206Pb single-zircon evaporation ages for early Pan-African rocks from southern Israel and the northeastern Sinai Peninsula, the northernmost extension of the Arabian-Nubian shield. The oldest rocks are metamorphic schists of presumed island-arc derivation; detrital zircons date the source terrain at ca. 800-820 Ma. A major phase of tonalite-trondhjemite plutonism occurred at ca. 760-780 Ma; more evolved granitic rocks were emplaced at about 745 Ma. A metagabbro-met adiorite complex reflects the youngest igneous phase at ca. 640 Ma. We Find no evidence for pre-Pan-African crust, and our data document important crust-forming events that correlate with similar episodes elsewhe…