Tectonic-magmatic stages of shield evolution: the Pan-African belt in northeastern Egypt

Abstract

The Arabian-Nubian shield illustrates an example of plate tectonics during the Pan-African orogenic event (ca. 950-550 Ma); it is considered one of the most remarkable Proterozoic shield areas yet known. Although there is now a general agreement that the shield has evolved by a series of magmatic arcs and terrain accretion, the evolution of its northernmost part exposed in northeastern Egypt remains controversial. Two contrasting tectonic models have been proposed for the evolution of this region: regional crustal extension and magmatic-arc regimes. There is no convincing evidence of older (Archean) sialic materials within the region, although the region is flanked by Archean crust. The Neoproterozoic crustal components exposed in northeastern Egypt preserve a record for its evolution. A large gabbro-diorite-tonalite complex (GDT, 881 Ma) emplaced during the early stage of the Pan-African orogeny is geochemically primitive, exhibits a low initial 87Sr 86Sr ratio (0.704) and shows trace-element characteristics of oceanic-arc-related lavas. The GDT complex was produced (by fractionation) from a mantle-derived tholeiitic magma formed within an island-arc tectonic environment. A synorogenic stage characterized by extensive volcanism that produced the Dokhan volcanic suite (DVS, 620 Ma) forms a continuous basalt to rhyolitic ignimbrite calc-alkaline magma series, exhibiting features of arc-related volcanism, with REE profiles similar overall to Andean andesites and ignimbrites. The Dokhan suite was produced in a continental-arc setting. A granodiorite-adamellite-leucogranite composite batholith (552 Ma) emplaced during the late stage of the Pan-African orogeny exhibits typical features of I-type complexes, trace element traits of volcanic-arc granites, and is also interpreted to have been formed in an Andean-type setting. A trondhjemite pluton was also formed at this late orogenic stage, by partial melting of GDT host rocks at depth. Cooling and relaxation of the newly formed Pan-African crust caused extensive fracturing, which was followed by intrusion of NE-SW- and NNW-SSE-trending dyke swarms at 493 Ma. This episode marks a fundamental inversion from orogenic compressional to anorogenic extensional processes around the Neoproterozoic-Paleozoic boundary. Anorogenic magmatism was locally associated with such extension-induced structures. The Mount Gharib peralkaline granite (476 Ma), for example, exhibits trace element traits of A-type, within-plate granites, and a high initial 87Sr 86Sr ratio (0.711), and was formed in a rift environment. Thus, the region is characterized by lengthy episodes of discontinuous subduction (∼ 880-550 Ma), during which it evolved to form a primitive crust by early Pan-African island arcs and late Pan-African continental arcs. This was followed by an even longer period of crustal extension (∼ 550-90 Ma) that produced localized anorogenic magmatism.