Late Proterozoic transpression on the Nabitah fault system-implications for the assembly of the Arabian Shield
Links
- More information: Publisher Index Page (via DOI)
- Download citation as: RIS | Dublin Core
Abstract
The longest proposed suture zone in Saudi Arabia, the Nabitah suture, can be traced as a string of ophiolite complexes for 1200 km along the north-south axis of the Arabian Shield. Results of a field study in the north-central shield between 23° and 26°N indicate that the Nabitah suture is indeed a major crustal discontinuity across which hundreds of kilometers of displacement may have occurred on north-south trending, subvertical faults of the Nabitah fault system. Although not a unique solution, many structures within and near these faults can be reconciled with transpression, i.e., convergent strike-slip, and syntectonic emplacement of calc-alkaline plutonic rocks. Transcurrent motion on the Nabitah fault system appears to have began prior to 710 Ma, was active circa 680 Ma, and terminated prior to significant left-lateral, strike slip on the Najd fault system, which began sometime after 650 Ma. Northwest-directed subduction in the eastern shield could have produced the observed association of calc-alkaline magmatism and left-lateral transpressive strike slip, and is consistent with interpretation of the Abt schist and sedimentary rocks of the Murdama group as relics of the associated accretionary wedge and fore-arc basin.
Study Area
| Publication type | Article |
|---|---|
| Publication Subtype | Journal Article |
| Title | Late Proterozoic transpression on the Nabitah fault system-implications for the assembly of the Arabian Shield |
| Series title | Precambrian Research |
| DOI | 10.1016/0301-9268(91)90008-X |
| Volume | 53 |
| Issue | 1-2 |
| Year Published | 1991 |
| Language | English |
| Publisher | Elsevier |
| Description | 29 p. |
| First page | 119 |
| Last page | 147 |
| Country | Saudi Arabia |