|
The late Neoproterozoic-early Palaeozoic extension along the West African craton and the Peri-Gondwanan terranes |
1 Departamento de Geociências, Centro de Geofísica de Évora, Universidade de Évora, Apartado 94, 7002-554 Évora, Portugal(e-mail: mpereira{at}uevora.pt)
2 Research School of Earth Sciences, The Australian National University, Canberra, A.C.T. 0200, Australia
3 Departamento de Geologia, Faculdade de Ciências, Universidade de Lisboa, Portugal
Sensitive high-resolution ion microprobe U–Th–Pb age determinations on detrital and inherited zircon from the Évora Massif (SW Iberian Massif, Portugal) provide direct evidence for the provenance of the Ossa–Morena Ediacaran basins (Série Negra) and a palaeogeographical link with the West African craton. Three samples of the Série Negra paragneisses contain large components of Cryogenian and Ediacaran (c. 700–540 Ma) detrital zircon, but have a marked lack of zircon of Mesoproterozoic (c. 1.8–0.9 Ga) age. Older inherited zircons are of Palaeoproterozoic (c. 2.4–1.8 Ga) and Archaean (c. 3.5–2.5 Ga) age. The same age pattern is also found in the Arraiolos biotite granite, which was formed by partial melting of the Série Negra and overlying Cambrian rocks. These results are consistent with substantial denudation of a continental region that supplied sediments to the Ediacaran Ossa–Morena basins during the final stages of the Cadomian–Avalonian orogeny (peri-Gondwanan margin with principal zircon-forming events at c. 575 Ma and c. 615 Ma). Combined with the detrital zircon ages reported for rocks of the same age from Portugal, Spain, Germany and Algeria, our data suggest that the sediment supply to the Ediacaran–Early Palaeozoic siliciclastic sequences preserved in all these peri-Gondwanan regions was similar. The lack of Grenvillian-aged (c. 1.1–0.9 Ga) zircon in the Ossa–Morena and Saxo-Thuringia Ediacaran sediments suggests that the sediment in these peri-Gondwanan basins was derived from the West African craton.
