Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD
Résumé : Incipient granulite facies conditions and carnockitization affected metasedimentary formations of northern Nigeria during the early stage of the Late Neo-proterozoic (Pan-African) orogeny. This domain is characterized by recumbent foliations consistent with crustal thickening. Far from the Pan-African plutons, initial Barrovian-type metamorphism (medium temperature) evidenced by kyanite and staurolite inclusions is documented only front garnet cores. This early stage was followed by a temperature increase up to >= 700 C, with decompression coeval with the generation of garnet-cordierite melts and emplacement of garnet granitoid sheets. Hectometric-wide layers of non-retrograded granulites survived conformably within anatexites and S-type garnet-bearing anatectic granites from the Toro area. Temperatures of >= 800 C required for the crystallization of granulites facies rocks at c. 0.7 GPa pressure and coeval dry anatexis, were reached regionally as a result of heat supply from abundant anhydrous monzo-dioritic to noritic magmas injected as metre-wide veins and as stocks and pinions (charnockites, monzodiorites). The available geochronological results suggest a long-lived thermal perturbation (638-585 Ma) in this former continental domain of northern Nigeria rooted by Archaean crust that was later the site of the Jurassic anorogenic magmatism.
Proceedings Of The Geologists Association

hal-00407196
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00407196
DOI : 10.1016/S0016-7878(07)80046-0

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
eoproterozoic eclogite and garnet amphibolites, representing retrogressed eclogites, from the Tassendjanet-Tidéridjaouine terrane in the Pan-African Western Hoggar (Tuareg shield, Southern Algeria) form lenses enclosed in 1.8 Ga subalkaline Paleoproterozoic orthogneisses. They lie along a major sinistral shear zone marking the boundary with the Archean/Paleoproterozoic granulitic In Ouzzal terrane and are associated with high-pressure metasediments. According to thermodynamic calculations, peak condition of the eclogitic stage is 650 °C, 20-22 kbar followed by post-peak heating and exhumation at 730 °C, 10-14 kbar and cooling to 610 °C, 7-10 kbar. Their major, trace-element and isotopic compositions are consistent with emplacement of former basalts in the shoulder of a 700-800 Ma continental rift that evolved to an oceanic basin. The eclogite and garnet amphibolites were thus part of the continental portion of a subducting slab that was pulled down by a denser oceanic lithosphere. Sheath and recumbent folds associated with the exhumation of HP units are verging toward the west, meaning that the former slab was dipping to the east. U-Pb zircon dating on metamorphic zircons bordering ilmenite and rutile in the eclogite gave an age of 623 ± 2 Ma, interpreted as the syn-collisional exhumation stage of the high-pressure unit. This event was rapidly followed by transpressional tectonics and abundant magmatism linked to the northward motion of the adjacent In Ouzzal terrane.
ISSN: 0301-9268

hal-01054338
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01054338
DOI : 10.1016/j.precamres.2014.04.002

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Springer Verlag
Résumé : International audience
We show here that the Amalaoulaou complex, in the Pan-African belt of West Africa (Gourma, Mali), corresponds to the lower and middle sections of a Neoproterozoic intra-oceanic arc. This complex records a 90-130-Ma-long evolution of magmatic inputs and differentiation above a subducting oceanic slab. Early c. 793 Ma-old metagabbros crystallised at lower crustal or uppermost mantle depths (25-30 km) and have geochemical characteristic of high-alumina basalts extracted from a depleted mantle source slightly enriched by slab-derived sedimentary components ((La/Sm)(N) < 1; epsilon(Nd): +5.4-6.2; Sr-87/Sr-86: 0.7027-0.7029). In response to crustal thickening, these mafic rocks were recrystallised into garnet-granulites (850-1,000A degrees C; 10-12 kbar) and subject to local dehydration-melting reactions, forming trondhjemititic leucosomes with garnet-clinopyroxene-rutile residues. Slightly after the granulitic event, the arc root was subject to strong HT shearing during partial exhumation (detachment faults/rifting or thrusting), coeval with the emplacement of spinel- and garnet-pyroxenite dykes crystallised from a high-Mg andesitic parental magma. Quartz and hornblende-gabbros (700-660 Ma) with composition typical of hydrous volcanic rocks from mature arcs ((La/Sm)(N): 0.9-1.8; epsilon(Nd): +4.6 to +5.2; Sr-87/Sr-86: 0.7028-0.7031) were subsequently emplaced at mid-arc crust levels (similar to 15 km). Trace element and isotopic data indicate that magmas tapped a depleted mantle source significantly more enriched in oceanic sedimentary components (0.2%). Exhumation occurred either in two stages (700-660 and 623 Ma) or in one stage (623 Ma) with a final exhumation of the arc root along cold P-T path (550A degrees C, 6-9 kbar; epidote-amphibolite and greenschist facies conditions) during the main Pan-African collision event (620-580 Ma). The composition of magmas forming the Cryogenian Amalaoulaou arc and the processes leading to intra-arc differentiation are strikingly comparable to those observed in the deep section of exposed Mezosoic oceanic arcs, namely the Kohistan and Talkeetna complex. This evolution of the Amalaoulaou oceanic arc and its accretion towards the West African craton belong to the life and closure of the Pharusian Ocean that eventually led to the formation of the Greater Gondwana supercontinent, a similar story having occurred on the other side of the Sahara with the Mozambique Ocean.
ISSN: 0010-7999

hal-00639447
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00639447
DOI : 10.1007/s00410-011-0624-5

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Maghrebides, Betics and some parts of the Calabrian, NE Sicilian and Tuscan allochtons constitute dismembered fragments of the Alpine belt that resulted from the Cenozoic collision between Africa and Eurasia and the opening of the Western Mediterranean basin. Mineral and whole-rock geochemical analyses have been performed on three distinct outcrops of mantle material from the Edough Massif of NE Algeria, namely the Bou Maiza (BM) gabbros, the La Voile Noire (LVN) amphibolites and the Sidi Mohamed (SM) peridotites. In all samples, Sr isotopes are largely affected by seawater alteration (87Sr/86Sract. > 0.70384 and up to 0.70888) and cannot be used to evaluate the nature of the source reservoirs. SM peridotites display variable depleted mantle Nd isotopic signatures (εNdact. from + 7.0 to + 12.2) and geochemical features suggesting no significant chemical depletion as a result of partial melting and melt extraction (Mg# < 90; slightly LREE-depleted patterns with La/YbN = 0.33-0.39). These rocks are interpreted as parts of the subcontinental lithospheric mantle incorporated into the crustal units of the Edough Massif during the early stages of opening of the Algerian basin. BM gabbros and LVN amphibolites show geochemical signatures indicating derivation from a common Depleted Mantle reservoir (εNd > + 7.9) and are likely cogenetic, but without filiation with the SM peridotites. Pb isotopes indicate a contribution of sediments in the source reservoir, which is attributed to contamination solely by hydrous fluids released from a sedimentary component. This observation, together with a LILE-enrichment, suggests a back-arc basin environment. These results indicate that BM and LVN units were obducted onto the North African margin and subsequently fragmented, probably during doming and exhumation of the lower continental crust of the Edough massif. Doming resulted in opposite movements of the overlying oceanic units, southward for the BM units and northward for LVN amphibolites.
ISSN: 0040-1951

hal-01122777
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01122777
DOI : 10.1016/j.tecto.2014.03.031

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : The Borborema Province, in the NE of Brazil, is a rather complex piece in the Brazil-Africa puzzle as it represents the junction of the Dahomeyide/Pharusian, Central African, Aracuai and Brasilia fold belts located between the West-African/Sao Luis, Congo/Sao Francisco and Amazonas craton. The correlation between the Dahomeyides from W-Africa (Ghana, Benin, Togo, and Mali) and the Borborema Province involves the Medio Coreau and Central Ceara domains. The inferred continuation of the main oceanic suture zone exposed in the Dahomeyides of W Africa is buried beneath the Phanerozoic Parnaiba Basin in Brazil (northwest of the Medio Coreau domain) where some high density gravity anomalies may represent hidden remnants of an oceanic suture. In addition to this major suture a narrow, nearly continuous strip composed of mainly mafic pods containing relics of eclogite-facies assemblages associated with partially migmatized granulite-facies metapelitic gneisses has been found further east in the NW Borborema Province. These high pressure mafic rocks, interpreted as retrograded eclogites, are located between the Transbrasiliano Lineament and the Santa Quiteria continental arc and comprise primitive to evolved arc-related rocks with either arc- or MORB-type imprints that can indicate either deep subduction of oceanic lithosphere or roots of continental and oceanic magmatic arcs. Average peak P-T conditions under eclogite-facies metamorphism (T=770 degrees C and P = 17.3 kbar) were estimated using garnet-clinopyroxene thermometry and Jd content in clinopyroxene. Transition to granulite-facies conditions, as well as later widespread re-equilibration under amphibolite facies, were registered both in the basic and the metapelitic rocks and suggest a clockwise P-T path characterized by an increase in temperature followed by strong decompression. A phenomenon possibly related to the exhumation of a highly thickened crust associated with the suturing of the Medio Coreau and Central Ceara domains, two distinct crustal blocks separated by the Transbrasiliano Lineament.
ISSN: 1342-937X

hal-00413584
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00413584
DOI : 10.1016/j.gr.2009.01.003

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : LA-ICP-MS and SIMS U–Pb analyses have been performed on detrital zircon grains from four heavy mineral rich metasediments collected at different levels of the Nathorst Land Group (Eleonore Bay Supergroup, Greenland). Zircons from high-grade samples collected in the sillimanite and migmatite zones exhibit modifications to their structure, which are lacking in grains from a low-grade sample (0.3 GPa and 350–400 °C). In the sillimanite zone (0.5 GPa, 650 °C), thin discontinuous rims (<20 μm) plating detrital zircon grains document a metamorphic overgrowth during the Caledonian event dated at 428 ± 25 Ma (2σ). In the migmatite zone (0.4 GPa, 700 °C), zircons underwent severe recrystallisation processes but no new zircon growth. Ilmenite, which constitutes over 50% of the heavy mineral layers, underwent recrystallisation in both high-grade samples and is likely to represent the main source of Zr available for growth of zircon rims in the sillimanite zone. However, in the migmatite zone sample, the metamorphic conditions allowed titanite overgrowth around ilmenite, which acted as a sink for Zr and inhibited new zircon growth. 207Pb/206Pb ages for 152 detrital zircons broadly range between 2800 and 990 Ma. The detrital zircon age signature is characterized by the large predominance of late Paleoproterozoic (1.85–1.60 Ga) grains in all analysed samples and by lesser amounts of Archean (2.7–2.8 Ga) and Mesoproterozoic (1.2–1.0 Ga) zircons. The overall age range indicates that detritus can be sourced from the Labradorian and Makkovikian provinces of northeastern Laurentia. The youngest grain analysed (987 ± 18 Ma) indicates that deposition took place during the Neoproterozoic, in a post-Grenvillian sedimentary environment and was likely coeval with the Mid-Neoproterozoic episode of aborted rifting that affected the eastern margin of Laurentia. The lack of detritus originating from Amazonia or Baltica, placed adjacent to Laurentia during the early stages of Rodinia fragmentation, suggests that these two continental landmasses did not constitute a topographic high during the Neoproterozoic or that the Mid-Neoproterozoic rifting opened toward an open ocean to the north of a combined Laurentia/Baltica, thus resulting in a general south to north direction of transport of the sediments.
ISSN: 0301-9268

hal-00407204
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00407204
DOI : 10.1016/j.precamres.2007.01.002

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Gold mineralisation in the Yatela Main gold mine is hosted in a saprolitic residuum situated above Birimian supracrustal rocks, and at depth. The supracrustal rocks comprise metamorphosed calcitic and dolomitic marbles that were intruded by diorite (2106 ± 10 Ma, 207Pb/206Pb), and sandstone-siltstone-shale sequences (youngest detrital zircon population dated at 2139 ± 6 Ma). In-situ gold-sulphide mineralisation is associated with hydrothermal activity synchronous to emplacement of the diorite and forms a sub-economic resource; however, the overlying saprolitic residuum hosts economic gold mineralisation in friable lateritized palaeosols and aeolian sands (loess).Samples of saprolitic residuum were studied to investigate the morphology and composition of gold grains as a proxy for distance from source (and possible exploration vector) because the deposit hosts both angular and detrital gold suggesting both proximal and distal sources. U–Pb geochronology of detrital zircons also indicated a proximal and distal source, with the age spectra giving Archaean (2.83–3.28 Ga), and Palaeoproterozoic (1.95–2.20 Ga) to Neoproterozoic (1.1–1.8 Ga) zircons in the Yatela depocentre. The 1.1–1.8 Ga age spectrum restricts the maximum age for the first deposition of the sedimentary units in the Neoproterozoic, or during early deposition in the Taoudeni Basin. Models for formation of the residuum include distal and proximal sources for detritus into the depocentre, however, it is more likely that material was sourced locally and included recycled material. The creation of a deep laterite weathering profile and supergene enrichment of the residuum probably took place during the mid-Cretaceous-early Tertiary.
ISSN: 0899-5362

hal-01277679
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01277679
DOI : 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2015.07.017

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Diamond-bearing UHP metamorphic rocks witness for subduction of lithospheric slabs into the mantle and their return to shallow levels. In this study we present U–Pb and trace elements analyses of zircon and rutile inclusions from a diamond-bearing garnet megacryst collected in a mélange unit exposed on the northern margin of Africa (Edough Massif, NE Algeria). Large rutile crystals (up to 300 μm in size) analyzed in situ provide a U–Pb age of interpreted as dating the prograde to peak subduction stage of the mafic protolith. Trace element analyses of minute zircons (≤30 μm) indicate that they formed in equilibrium with the garnet megacryst at a temperature of 740–810 °C, most likely during HP retrograde metamorphism. U–Pb analyses provide a significantly younger age of attributed to exhumation of the UHP units. This study allows bracketing the age of UHP metamorphism in the Western Mediterranean Orogen to the Oligocene/early Miocene, thus unambiguously relating UHP metamorphism to the Alpine history. Exhumation of these UHP units is coeval with the counterclockwise rotation of the Corsica–Sardinia block and most likely resulted from subduction rollback that was driven by slab pull.
ISSN: 0012-821X

hal-01622789
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01622789
DOI : 10.1016/j.epsl.2017.06.043

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Résumé : International audience
The Amalaoulaou Neoproterozoic island-arc massif belongs to the Gourma belt in Mali. The metagabbros and pyroxenites forming the main body of this arc root show the pervasive development of garnet. In the pyroxenites, the latter has grown by reaction between pyroxene and spinel during isobaric cooling. By contrast, in the metagabbros, garnet textures and relations to felsic veins exclude an origin through solid-state reactions only. It is proposed that garnet has grown following dehydration and localized melting of amphibole-bearing gabbros at the base of the arc. The plagioclase-saturated melts represented by anorthositic veins in the metagabbros and by trondhjemites in the upper part of the massif provide evidence for melting in the deep arc crust, which locally generated high-density garnet clinopyroxene rutile residues. Garnet growth and melting began around 850 degrees C at 10 kbar and the tonalitic melts were most probably generated around 1050 degrees C at P >= 10 kbar. This HT granulitic imprint can be related to arc maturation, leading to a P-T increase in the deep arc root and dehydration and/or dehydration-melting of amphibole-bearing gabbros. Observation of such features in the root of this Neoproterozoic island arc has important consequences, as it provides a link to models concerning the early generation of continental crust.
ISSN: 0016-7568

hal-00420960
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00420960
DOI : 10.1017/S0016756808005499

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Dahomey belt in Togo and Benin is an important segment of the larger West Gondwana Orogen. Here, we review the geodynamic evolution of the Dahomey belt and discuss new U–Pb and Lu–Hf zircon data in light of similar data previously acquired on the geologically related Northern Borborema Province, in NE Brazil. Eighteen samples from different tectonic settings and regions within the belt were collected for zircon isotopic investigation. Passive margin deposits of the Atacora Structural Unit and lower units of the Volta Basin have detrital zircon signatures compatible with the flanking West Africa Craton. The arc-related magmatism resulted from the east-dipping subduction of the Goiás-Pharusian oceanic lithosphere and is represented by a variety of granitoids emplaced in the Benino-Nigerian Shield between 670 and 610 Ma. These granitoids were mainly sourced from crustal reservoirs with subordinate juvenile input. Detrital zircon ages from syn-orogenic deposits in Benino-Nigerian Shield suggest that arc development could have started as early as 780 Ma. The main period of melting in the internal part of the belt, the Benino-Nigerian Shield, is related to crustal thickening and occurs only ca. 30 m.y. after initiation of the continental collision, marked by the ca. 610 Ma ultra-high pressure (UHP) metamorphism recorded at Lato Hills. Foreland development represented by the upper units of the Volta basin developed soon after continental collision and persisted with the development of the west-verging thrust front synchronously with the main period of crustal melting due to collision at ca. 580 Ma. The subvertical Transbrasiliano Lineament in South America, that corresponds to the Kandi Lineament in Africa, provides a present-day fit between NW Africa and NE Brazil. Restoration of the movement of the Transbrasiliano-Kandi Lineament (strike-slip plate boundary) places the Dahomey belt and Borborema Province (NE Brazil) along the same section of the West Gondwana Orogen. This configuration would explain some of the misfits previously discussed in the literature and aligns the UHP eclogites in Togo and NE Brazil.
ISSN: 0301-9268

hal-01358584
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01358584
DOI : 10.1016/j.precamres.2016.01.032

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : Integrated field, LA-MC-ICP-MS geochronology and geochemical data from the Novo Oriente Group have been investigated in order to determine their provenance and possible tectonic setting. This group in the southwestern portion of the Ceara Central Domain, is a well-preserved metavolcanosedimentary sequence, in part exhalative, composed of two distinct formations. The proximal coastal Bonsucesso Formation comprises mainly quartzite and minor basic metavolcanic rocks and is in gradational contact with the distal Caranbas Formation which constitutes a metapelitic-volcanic-carbonate sequence, including metabasic rocks with pillow structure and sheared serpentinized ultrabasic rocks. The youngest detrital zircon found in the quartzite of the Bonsucesso Formation yielded an age of ca. 2.1 Ga and well-defined peaks around 2.2.2.3-2.4 and 2.5 Ga. In addition, zircons from a related metabasalt yielded an upper intercept age of 2083 +/- 28 Ma. We interpret the zircons found in this metabasalt as inherited from the host quartzite. This fact is supported by depleted-mantle Nd model ages (T-DM age) from correlated metabasic and metaultrabasic rocks from other places in the Novo Oriente sequence, which have yielded ages between 1.36 and 1.69 Ga, that is younger than the zircon age obtained in the metabasalt extruded over the Bonsucesso quartzite. Geochemical data of the metasedimentary rocks from the Caraubas Formation indicates a provenance composed of a mixture of felsic and intermediate sources typical of old stable cratons and older continental roots of active tectonic settings. The rocks of the Crania (Medio Coreau Domain) and Bacaja Complexes (southeastern Amazonian Craton) exposed to the west of the Novo Oriente Group, and largely covered by the Phanerozoic Parnaiba intracratonic basin, are the most likely source rocks. Since the precise age of the Novo Oriente Group is not yet well constrained, two distinct settings may be proposed: (1) it may represent a more evolved basin developed from extensional processes during the Mesoproterozoic (ca. 1.5-1.3 Ga); and (2) it could constitute part of the passive margin systems developed during the break-up of the Rodinia crown copyright supercontinent (ca. 0.95-0.8 Ga), associated with a pre-Brasiliano/Pan-African ocean (e.g. Pharusian Ocean). Crown.
ISSN: 1342-937X

hal-00512825
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00512825
DOI : 10.1016/j.gr.2010.02.001

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
In pre-drift reconstructions, the central and southern parts of the Borborema Province, northeastern Brazil, belong to a large Brasiliano-Pan-African orogenic realm situated to the north of the São Francisco-Congo Craton. In order to better understand the timing and geodynamic setting under which this orogenic system developed, a structural, geochemical and geochronological study was conducted across the east Pernambuco shear zone (EPSZ) system, which separates the Pernambuco-Alagoas Domain (PEAL) from the Central Domain. A sample of the Pinhões orthogneiss (GE-1), in the Central Domain, one sample of a syenitic orthogneiss (CA-34) wrapped by the EPSZ, and one sample of orthogneiss named Altinho (CA-40), in the northern portion of the PEAL, were dated by LA-ICP-MS. The Pinhões orthogneiss yielded an age of 869 ± 9 Ma, interpreted as the emplacement age of the protolith during a late Tonian magmatic episode. Samples CA-40 and CA-34 yielded 206Pb/238U weighted mean ages of 652 ± 6 Ma and 636 ± 3 Ma, respectively, which are interpreted as dating emplacement and crystallization of the magmatic protoliths. However, it is also possible that these rocks were formed during the same magmatic event in view of the identical ages of 646 ± 13 Ma and 646 ± 11 Ma, respectively, given by the less precise upper intercept of the discordia lines. The metaluminous and magnesian nature of the Altinho orthogneiss is akin to the calc-alkalic suite. However, some samples plot in the intraplate field in tectonic discrimination diagrams and the Nd TDM model age of 1.36 Ga is unlike that of juvenile magmas in convergent settings. The Altinho orthogneiss is quite similar in terms of trace elements geochemistry to the syenitic orthogneiss, which has a clearer intraplate affinity, and the dated samples have identical initial Sr isotope ratios (0.7047). Therefore, emplacement in an extensional setting is preferred over a convergent one. Two samples of paragneisses (SB-1 and BB-9) from the PEAL were also dated. The ages of the youngest zircon grains in sample BB-9 (655–642 Ma) overlap the crystallization age of the Altinho orthogneiss, implying that sedimentation is younger than or, at best, synchronous with magmatism. The age of low Th/U grains in samples CA-34 (615 ± 8 Ma) and SB-1 (587 ± 12 Ma) are related to a subsequent metamorphic overprint, which is loosely constrained between 580 and 620 Ma. These observations, combined with evidence provided by previous studies, suggest that the change from an extensional to a contracional setting occurred at ca. 640–630 Ma. In contrast with most collisional orogens, where a long period of oceanic subduction precedes collision, the inferred tectonic evolution suggests that the Brasiliano Orogeny resulted from inversion of continental and/or proto oceanic rifts.
ISSN: 0895-9811

hal-01174177
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01174177
DOI : 10.1016/j.jsames.2014.09.007

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Unusual high-pressure inner thermal aureoles are described from the Minador and Angico Torto epidote-bearing tonalitic plutons that emplaced into green schist-facies metasedimentary rocks of the Neoproterozoic Cachoeirinha-Salgueiro belt, northeastern Brazil. The foliated pelitic hornfelses display the mineral assemblage garnet, kyanite, staurolite, muscovite, biotite, plagioclase +/- quartz. Rare fibrolite is only found very close to the contacts. Hornfelses display steep mineral lineations and steeply-dipping foliations concordant with magmatic contacts. Leucocratic veinlets containing quartz, oligoclase, garnet, kyanite, staurolite, rutile and ilmenite suggest that limited melting conditions were reached very close to magmatic contacts (T >= 650 degrees C, P around 8 kbar). These high-pressure hornfelses form a few meters thick, rigid envelopes around the two plutons. Contrary to known examples of kyanite-bearing hornfelses that recorded high-temperature decompression, the nearly isobaric cooling down to ca. 450 degrees C is constrained by 3.20-3.30 Si contents of retrogressive phengites from both inner hornfelses and ductilely-deformed tonalite at the pluton margins. Isograds and bathograds are, therefore, apparently telescoped due to HP/LT shearing, possibly caused by subsequent differential vertical movements affecting these two solidified plutons. The unusual depth of emplacement of these syn-kinematic calc-alkaline plutons is explained by a tentative geodynamic model involving a pre-620 Ma-subduction setting.
ISSN: 0895-9811

hal-00424503
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00424503
DOI : 10.1016/j.jsames.2008.09.005

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Geological Society of London
Résumé : The Borborema and Benin–Nigeria provinces of NE Brazil and NW Africa, respectively, are key areas in the amalgamation of West Gondwana by continental collision during the Brasiliano/Pan-African orogenies. Both are underlain by complex basement: Nigeria has c. 3.05 Ga Archaean crust but no known Palaeoproterozoic rocks >2.0 Ga; in NE Brazil, 2.6–3.5 Ga Archaean rocks form small cores within Palaeoproterozoic gneiss terrains affected by plutonism at c. 2.17 Ga. Both regions exhibit Late Palaeoproterozoic (c. 1.8 Ga) rift-related magmatism and metasedimentary sequences overlying the basement. The Seridó Group of NE Brazil (<0.65 Ga) is similar to the Igarra Sequence in SW Nigeria. The Ceará Group, which may date back to c. 0.85 Ga, is a passive margin deposit on crust thinned during initiation of an oceanic domain. In both provinces, basement and sedimentary cover were involved in tangential tectonics that resulted in crust-thickening by nappe-stacking associated with closure of this ocean. Frontal collision between c. 0.66 and 0.60 Ga later evolved to an oblique collision, generating north–south continental strike-slip shear zones at c. 0.59 Ga. In NE Brazil, the main Pan-African suture is probably buried beneath the Parnaíba Basin. The Transbrasiliano Lineament, interpreted as the prolongation of the Kandi–4°50 Lineament in Hoggar, may represent a cryptic suture.
West Gondwana: Pre-cenozoic correlations across the south atlantic region

hal-00412234
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00412234
DOI : 10.1144/SP294.4

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
The Timétrine massif exposed west of the Pan-African suture zone in northeastern Mali belongs to the passive margin of the West African craton facing to the east intra-oceanic arc assemblages and 730 Ma old pre-collisional calc-alkaline plutons. The Timétrine lithologic succession includes from the base to the top Mesoproterozoic cratonic to passive margin formations overlain by deep-sea Fe-Mg schists. Submarine metabasalts and two ultramafic massifs of serpentinized mantle peridotites are inserted as olistoliths towards the top whereas turbidites of continental origin represent the younger unit. Field and petrological data have revealed a distinct metasedimentary sequence attached to the serpentinized peridotites. It essentially consists of impure carbonates, Fe jaspers and polymictic breccias containing altered blocks of mantle peridotites, most rocks being enriched in detrital chromite. This association is interpreted as reworked chemical and detrital sediments derived from the alteration of mafic-ultramafic rocks. It is argued that mantle exhumation above sea floor took place during the Neoproterozoic rifting and crustal thinning period under possible tropical conditions, as suggested by the large volume of silicified serpentinites. In spite of greenschist facies metamorphic overprint characterized by widespread Fe-rich blue amphiboles that are not diagnostic of high-pressure conditions, it is possible to reconstruct a former ocean-continent transition similar to that evidenced for the Mesozoic period, followed by the deposition of syn-to post rift terrigeneous turbidites roughly coeval with ocean spreading some time before 800 Ma. It is concluded that the serpentinite massifs were tectonically emplaced first in an extensional setting, then incorporated within deep-sea sediments as olistoliths and finally transported westward during late Neoproterozoic collisional tectonics onto the West African craton.
ISSN: 0899-5362

hal-00985586
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00985586
DOI : 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2013.11.004

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
A laser ablation ICP-MS U-Pb age of 17.84 +/- 0.12 Ma (late Burdigalian) was obtained from monazites separated from a leucocratic diatexite collected in close proximity to a small peridotite massif incorporated into the lower crustal sequence of the Edough Massif (north-eastern Algeria), a southern segment of the peri-Mediterranean Alpine Belt. Monazites extracted from a neighbouring deformed leucogranite intruding early Paleozoic phyllites yield a consistent age of 17.4 +/- 1.3 Ma. Zircons occurring in the same leucogranite, with magmatic characteristics, have an age of 308 +/- 7 Ma interpreted as dating magmatic crystallisation of the leucogranite and reflecting partial melting during the Hercynian orogeny. Low Th/U domains (Th/U<0.10) from the same grains substantiate recrystallisation during a younger metamorphic event whose upper age limit is 286 +/- 11 Ma. These results emphasize the polycyclic evolution of basement rocks preserved in the crystalline units of the western Mediterranean and indicate that part of their metamorphic features were inherited from older, Hercynian, events. Taken together with published Ar-Ar dates, the late Burdigalian age of monazites indicates a rapid cooling rate of c. 370 degrees C/Ma and is regarded as closely approximating the emplacement of the peridotites into the Hercynian basement. The monazite ages are significantly younger than those recorded for orogenic peridotites from the Betic-Rif oroctine and for the timing of lithospheric extension forming the Alboran sea. It is also younger than rifting and back-arc extension opening the Liguro-Provencal basin. The late Burdigalian age is interpreted as dating the incipient rifting event that opened the Algerian basin, which is consequently not a continuation of the Liguro-Provencal basin. At the scale of the western Mediterranean, these observations concur with current models supporting slab roll-back and an eastwards migration of extension in the western Mediterranean, but suggest that the Algerian basin opened as a result of torsion and stretching of the Thethyan slab due to its steepening under the Alboran microplate.
ISSN: 0009-2541

hal-00424511
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00424511
DOI : 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2008.11.016

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD Elsevier
Résumé : International audience
Field and petrostructural investigations in the Central Mauritanides provide new precisions on the polyorogenic character of the nappe edifice of this belt. The upper structural unit exposed in the Gaoua area includes anatectic gneisses and high-grade metasediments affected by medium temperature, high-pressure metamorphism and cut by granitoids. They represent a basement unconformably overlain by a monometamorphic cover, the Gaoua Group, of assumed lower Paleozoic age. Late Paleozoic regional metamorphism of metapelites from this cover is characterized by pyrophyllite-kyanite-chloritoid assemblages equilibrated at T around 420 degrees C and P = 1 GPa. In the lower structural unit exposed in the south around Boufkerine-Farkaka, metapelites of the Gadel Group display slightly retrogressed garnet-kyanite-staurolite-rutile assemblages that equilibrated at T around 600 degrees C and P >= 1.2 GPa before the intrusion of 639 Ma old plutons. The Gadel Group locally overlies in unconformity polycyclic gneisses. This continental assemblage represents an outboard terrane inserted between two monocyclic greenschist facies terranes: remnants of oceanic lithosphere in the east and arc-derived metasediments and metavolcanics cut by 670 Ma old calc-alkaline plutons in the west. All units have been involved in late Paleozoic nappes emplaced to the east above the West African craton and its late Neoproterozoic to Cambro-ordovician cover. Though an east-directed vergence is locally recorded in the Neoproterozoic units, most early E-W trending stretching and mineral lineations are synchronous with greenschist facies metamorphism developed during the Late Paleozoic and roughly coeval with the Applachian nappe system.
ISSN: 0899-5362

hal-00424501
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-00424501
DOI : 10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2008.09.004

Éditeur(s) : HAL CCSD [London] : Nature Pub. Group Nature Publishing Group
Résumé : International audience
The deeply eroded West Gondwana Orogen is a major continental collision zone that exposes numerous occurrences of deeply subducted rocks, such as eclogites. The position of these eclogites marks the suture zone between colliding cratons, and the age of metamorphism constrains the transition from subduction-dominated tectonics to continental collision and mountain building. Here we investigate the metamorphic conditions and age of high-pressure and ultrahigh-pressure eclogites from Mali, Togo and NE-Brazil and demonstrate that continental subduction occurred within 20 million years over at least a 2,500-km-long section of the orogen during the Ediacaran. We consider this to be the earliest evidence of large-scale deep-continental subduction and consequent appearance of Himalayan-scale mountains in the geological record. The rise and subsequent erosion of such mountains in the Late Ediacaran is perfectly timed to deliver sediments and nutrients that are thought to have been necessary for the subsequent evolution of sustainable life on Earth.
ISSN: 2041-1723

hal-01122789
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-01122789
DOI : 10.1038/ncomms6198