Preliminary detrital zircon signatures from the southern Asir terrane, Saudi Arabia: A link to Yemen or the Nubian Shield?

Abstract

The Arabian Shield comprises early Neoproterozoic to Cambrian (∼850–530 Ma) tectonostratigraphic terranes formed by the closure and accretion of juvenile volcanic arcs and back-arc basins associated with Gondwana assembly. Unlike the Nubian Shield which preserves crustal isotopic signatures, the Arabian Shield is distinctly juvenile with the exception of the Paleoproterozoic (∼1800–1670 Ma) Khida subterrane in Saudi Arabia and the terranes of Yemen. This study presents the first combined zircon U-Pb, O and Hf isotope data of metavolcanic and metasedimentary rocks from southwestern most Saudi Arabia, near the Yemen border – a region thought to contain some of the oldest (>815 Ma) lithologies in Saudi Arabia, including the Atura Formation and the Tayyah Belt. One volcaniclastic metasediment sample from the Atura Formation yields zircon U-Pb age peaks of 741, 672, 646 Ma (n = 131), δ18O(V-SMOW) ranging from 4.6 to 8.3‰ and ɛHf (t) from +7.7 to +12.5. Two samples from the Tayyah Belt include an older metasandstone and a late intruding granitic dyke which provides a minimum age for the Tayyah Belt. The former yields two significant U-Pb peaks of 812 (n = 8) and 999 (n = 6) Ma, δ18O and ɛHf (t) values ranging from 4.4 to 9.6‰ and −10.1 to +12.4, respectively; the later yields a concordia age of 645.8 [±1.7] Ma (n = 29), δ18O ranging from 5.7 to 6.6‰, and ɛHf (t) of +5.9 to +9.6. The zircon age and juvenile Hf signatures from the Atura Formation are consistent with the synorogenic phase in the Shield. Sedimentation was likely associated with arc volcanism during the previously documented eastward phase of accretion at ∼740–640 Ma and the closure of the Mozambique Ocean. In contrast, the data from the texturally more mature Tayyah Belt metasediment indicate a more distal, and more evolved crustal input at the time of sediment deposition which is unusual for the Saudi Arabian Shield. Consequently, the Tayyah metasediments are likely sourced from areas with greater continental affinity, such as the cratonic basement and/or reworked crust of the Sahara metacraton in NE Africa.