Search results for "Precambrian"

Precambrian plate tectonics: Criteria and evidence

2006

Areal extent and first U-Pb age of the Pre-Damaran Abbabis complex in the central Damara belt of South West Africa (Namibia)

1978

The Proterozoic Abbabis Complex emerges from beneath the metasediments of the Late Precambrian Damara Supergroup within mantled gneiss domes and anticlinoria over a wide area in the central granite zone of the Pan African Damara belt. U-Pb dating of composite-, size-, and non-magnetic fractions of metamict zircons from two samples of Abbabis granite-gneiss from the farm Abbabis yielded a concordia intercept age of 1925 −280 +330 Ma. It is speculated that the Abbabis basement rocks are continuous under the Damaran metasedimentary cover and may link up with the Franzfontein basement inlier of similar age. This conclusion supports the ensialic character of the northeastern branch of the Damara…

Chapter 5.2 The Ancient Gneiss Complex of Swaziland and Environs: Record of Early Archean Crustal Evolution in Southern Africa

2007

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the record of early Archean crustal evolution in Southern Africa. Southern Africa preserves one of the most complete and detailed records of early Precambrian crustal evolution, and the Ancient Gneiss Complex (AGC) of Swaziland and the related rocks along the southern margin of the 3.5–3.2 Ga Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB) have played a prominent role in models for the early evolution of continental crust. The AGC is separated from the BGB by a large granitoid sheet-like pluton some 3 Ga in age and known as the Mpuluzi Batholith. In northwest Swaziland, however, small inliers of AGC gneisses occur in faulted and sheared contact with BGB rocks, and t…

Crustal age domains in the Kibaran belt of SW-Uganda: Combined zircon geochronology and Sm–Nd isotopic investigation

2008

Abstract Combination of geochemistry, Nd mean crustal residence ages and single zircon ages reveal distinct provinces not recognized previously within the Kibaran belt of SW-Uganda. Geochemical analyses (HFSE and REE) of four granitoids, namely the Ntungamo, Chitwe, Rwentobo and Kamwezi from the Karagwe Tinfield have been interpreted to be mainly composed of melt components from subduction modified parts of the continental lithospheric mantle. In addition we can demonstrate, from these distinctive batholiths crystallization ages that lead to the result of three age groups, one at around 1566 Ma, the second at 1444 Ma to and the third clusters between 1329 Ma and 1363 Ma. The eNd(t) values f…

Further evidence for an early Carboniferous (∼340 Ma) age of high-grade metamorphism in the Saxonian granulite complex

1998

U–Pb and Pb–Pb zircon ages for metamorphic zircons from granulites in the Saxonian granulite complex are reported, using the SHRIMP ion microprobe, conventional multigrain and single-gain techniques and the evaporation method. This is complemented by a Pb–Pb evaporation age for a post-granulite granite emplaced into the schist mantle around the granulites during uplift of the complex. We also demonstrate that zircon ages are not reset during high-grade metamorphism, as commonly argued, but have a very high closure temperature and usually preserve the isotopic composition reflecting the time of their formation. Multifaceted zircons from four granulite samples that probably grew close to the …

Detrital and igneous zircon ages for supracrustal rocks of the Kyrgyz Tianshan and palaeogeographic implications

2014

Abstract We report detrital zircon ages for Precambrian and early Palaeozoic metasediments from the Tianshan orogen in Kyrgyzstan, an important component of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and compare these with published ages from the Chinese Tianshan and the Tarim craton. These data provide information on possible source terrains and suggest that Precambrian basement is widespread in the Tianshan and may, at least in part, represent continental fragments rifted off the Tarim craton during the early history of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt. Distinct differences in the Precambrian zircon age distribution between the North and Middle Tianshan of Kyrgyzstan support earlier ideas that these …

Precambrian basement around Wadi Halfa, Sudan: a new perspective on the evolution of the East Saharan Craton

1994

This paper provides new geochemical and isotopic data on the evolution of the western foreland to the Nubian shield of north-east Africa. There is abundant evidence for early to middle Proterozoic crust west of the River Nile, but this was severely affected by the Pan-African (~ 500-900 Ma) orogenic cycle. The results are reported of Rb-Sr whole rock and zircon evaporation geochronological studies and whole rock Sm-Nd and feldspar Pb isotopic analyses for four rock units around Wadi Halfa in northern- most Sudan. These results indicate the presence of heterogeneous pre-Pan-African crustal components, preserved in mylonitic gneisses and in conglomerates that unconformably overlie the gneisse…

Composition, structure and evolution of the early Precambrian lower continental crust: constraints from geological observations and age relationships

1986

The high-grade Tseel Terrane in SW Mongolia: An Early Paleozoic arc system or a Precambrian sliver?

2012

Abstract The high-grade metamorphic Tseel Terrane in southwestern Mongolia is dominated by a strongly deformed sequence of migmatitic gneisses which has previously been interpreted as an early Precambrian continental sliver. However, the protolith age and timing of high-grade metamorphism remain poorly constrained. To resolve this problem, high-grade gneisses selected from the western Tseel Terrane were dated in the present study. Zircons with oscillatory zoning from three paragneisses predominantly yielded early Paleozoic ages between 450 and 550 Ma, with prominent peaks at 471 and 506 Ma. U–Pb dating of zircons from a granitic gneiss revealed that the protolith was emplaced at 420 Ma. Zir…

Zircon Ages from the Baydrag Block and the Bayankhongor Ophiolite Zone: Time Constraints on Late Neoproterozoic to Cambrian Subduction‐ and Accretion…

2009

Central Mongolia represents a heterogeneous crustal domain of the Central Asian Orogenic Belt and is composed of contrasting lithotectonic units with distinct preorogenic histories. We report single-zircon evaporation and SHRIMP ages for high-grade rocks of the Neoarchean-Paleoproterozoic Baydrag block and for metaigneous rocks of the junction between the late Neoproterozoic Bayankhongor ophiolite zone (BOZ) and the Baydrag block. Zircon ages for metamorphic rocks of the Baydrag block indicate a major tectonothermal event between 1840 and 1826 Ma, coeval with the emplacement of granitic rocks at middle-crustal level dated at 1839 Ma. A granite-gneiss yielded a much younger crystallization a…