{"title":"非洲中北部神秘的大陆地壳:撒哈拉变陆块还是撒哈拉盾?","authors":"J. G. Shellnutt","doi":"10.25131/sajg.124.0047","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"\n The continental crust of North-Central Africa between the Tuareg and Arabian-Nubian shields and south to the Central African Orogenic Belt is enigmatic due to the few bedrock exposures especially within the central region. The current understanding, based on a review of geochronology and isotope geochemistry, is that the central Sahara region is a large, coherent craton that was ‘highly remobilized’ during the Late Neoproterozoic amalgamation of Gondwana and referred to as the Saharan Metacraton. However, new data from the Guéra, Ouaddaï, and Mayo Kebbi massifs and the Lake Fitri inlier of Chad suggest that it may be a composite terrane of older cratonic blocks or microcontinents with intervening Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic domains and referred to as the ‘Central Sahara Shield’. It is postulated that the older crust and juvenile crust were sutured together along a Pan-Gondwana collisional belt (Central Sahara Belt) that bisects the central Sahara region. The ‘Central Sahara Shield’ hypothesis suggests the Chad Lineament, a narrow arcuate gravity anomaly within central Chad, could be a collisional belt suture zone and that it may explain the existence of the relatively juvenile crust that typifies southern and eastern Chad. The new data improves upon the existing knowledge and challenges the lithotectonic paradigm of the Saharan Metacraton. Further investigations are required to fully characterize the crust of the central Sahara region and to test the contrasting hypotheses.","PeriodicalId":49494,"journal":{"name":"South African Journal of Geology","volume":"1 1","pages":""},"PeriodicalIF":1.2000,"publicationDate":"2021-06-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":"{\"title\":\"The enigmatic continental crust of North-Central Africa: Saharan Metacraton or Central Sahara Shield?\",\"authors\":\"J. G. Shellnutt\",\"doi\":\"10.25131/sajg.124.0047\",\"DOIUrl\":null,\"url\":null,\"abstract\":\"\\n The continental crust of North-Central Africa between the Tuareg and Arabian-Nubian shields and south to the Central African Orogenic Belt is enigmatic due to the few bedrock exposures especially within the central region. The current understanding, based on a review of geochronology and isotope geochemistry, is that the central Sahara region is a large, coherent craton that was ‘highly remobilized’ during the Late Neoproterozoic amalgamation of Gondwana and referred to as the Saharan Metacraton. However, new data from the Guéra, Ouaddaï, and Mayo Kebbi massifs and the Lake Fitri inlier of Chad suggest that it may be a composite terrane of older cratonic blocks or microcontinents with intervening Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic domains and referred to as the ‘Central Sahara Shield’. It is postulated that the older crust and juvenile crust were sutured together along a Pan-Gondwana collisional belt (Central Sahara Belt) that bisects the central Sahara region. The ‘Central Sahara Shield’ hypothesis suggests the Chad Lineament, a narrow arcuate gravity anomaly within central Chad, could be a collisional belt suture zone and that it may explain the existence of the relatively juvenile crust that typifies southern and eastern Chad. The new data improves upon the existing knowledge and challenges the lithotectonic paradigm of the Saharan Metacraton. Further investigations are required to fully characterize the crust of the central Sahara region and to test the contrasting hypotheses.\",\"PeriodicalId\":49494,\"journal\":{\"name\":\"South African Journal of Geology\",\"volume\":\"1 1\",\"pages\":\"\"},\"PeriodicalIF\":1.2000,\"publicationDate\":\"2021-06-01\",\"publicationTypes\":\"Journal Article\",\"fieldsOfStudy\":null,\"isOpenAccess\":false,\"openAccessPdf\":\"\",\"citationCount\":\"2\",\"resultStr\":null,\"platform\":\"Semanticscholar\",\"paperid\":null,\"PeriodicalName\":\"South African Journal of Geology\",\"FirstCategoryId\":\"93\",\"ListUrlMain\":\"https://doi.org/10.25131/sajg.124.0047\",\"RegionNum\":4,\"RegionCategory\":\"地球科学\",\"ArticlePicture\":[],\"TitleCN\":null,\"AbstractTextCN\":null,\"PMCID\":null,\"EPubDate\":\"\",\"PubModel\":\"\",\"JCR\":\"Q2\",\"JCRName\":\"GEOLOGY\",\"Score\":null,\"Total\":0}","platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"South African Journal of Geology","FirstCategoryId":"93","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.25131/sajg.124.0047","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"地球科学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q2","JCRName":"GEOLOGY","Score":null,"Total":0}
The enigmatic continental crust of North-Central Africa: Saharan Metacraton or Central Sahara Shield?
The continental crust of North-Central Africa between the Tuareg and Arabian-Nubian shields and south to the Central African Orogenic Belt is enigmatic due to the few bedrock exposures especially within the central region. The current understanding, based on a review of geochronology and isotope geochemistry, is that the central Sahara region is a large, coherent craton that was ‘highly remobilized’ during the Late Neoproterozoic amalgamation of Gondwana and referred to as the Saharan Metacraton. However, new data from the Guéra, Ouaddaï, and Mayo Kebbi massifs and the Lake Fitri inlier of Chad suggest that it may be a composite terrane of older cratonic blocks or microcontinents with intervening Mesoproterozoic to Neoproterozoic domains and referred to as the ‘Central Sahara Shield’. It is postulated that the older crust and juvenile crust were sutured together along a Pan-Gondwana collisional belt (Central Sahara Belt) that bisects the central Sahara region. The ‘Central Sahara Shield’ hypothesis suggests the Chad Lineament, a narrow arcuate gravity anomaly within central Chad, could be a collisional belt suture zone and that it may explain the existence of the relatively juvenile crust that typifies southern and eastern Chad. The new data improves upon the existing knowledge and challenges the lithotectonic paradigm of the Saharan Metacraton. Further investigations are required to fully characterize the crust of the central Sahara region and to test the contrasting hypotheses.
期刊介绍:
The South African Journal of Geology publishes scientific papers, notes, stratigraphic descriptions and discussions in the broadly defined fields of geoscience that are related directly or indirectly to the geology of Africa. Contributions relevant to former supercontinental entities such as Gondwana and Rodinia are also welcome as are topical studies on any geoscience-related discipline. Review papers are welcome as long as they represent original, new syntheses. Special issues are also encouraged but terms for these must be negotiated with the Editors.