Tectonic setting and geochemical characterisation of Neoproterozoic volcanics and granitoids from the Adobha Belt, northern Eritrea

The Adobha Belt consists largely of metamorphosed volcanic and sedimentary sequences and syntectonic granitoids. Identification of the ancient tectonic setting of the belt has been attempted using trace element (including rare earth element) geochemical data on igneous suites. The Himbol volcanics of the Nakfa Terrane represent a calc-alkaline island-arc setting, while the Uogame basalts and associated gabbros characterise a tholeiitic, transitional MORB setting. The chemistry and petrographic features of the basalts and gabbros clearly suggest that they are parts of a dismembered ophiolite. Other authors' work shows that further to the west, the Hager Terrane belongs to a calc-alkaline island-arc setting. The Uogame ophiolitic suite thus portrays a MORB crust sandwiched between two island-arc terranes. Based on the fact that the MORB-type crust occurs within a high strain zone that extends for several hundreds of kilometres along strike, it is concluded here that it represents a terrane-bounding Neoproterozoic ophiolite belt. It is further suggested that this belt might outline a suture that signifies the collision between the island-arcs.     

Examining the impact of multiple climate forcings on simulated Southern Hemisphere climate variability

Climate Dynamics - The study examines the influence of external climate forcings, and atmosphere–ocean–sea–ice coupled interaction on the Southern Hemisphere (SH) atmospheric...     

Trace fossil evidence from the Adigrat Sandstone for an Ordovician glaciation in Eritrea, NE Africa

Trace fossils are described here from the Adigrat Sandstone formation of hitherto uncertain Palaeozoic-Mesozoic age in south-central Eritrea. The formation is subdivided into a lower unit, the Adi MaEkheno Member, and an upper informal unit, Member 2. The formation was deposited on the locally mudcracked top of the glacigenic Edaga Arbi Beds, suggesting that these two rock units were formed in a very short time interval. The Adi MaEkheno Member and the lower part of Member 2 contain trace fossils Arthrophycus alleghaniensis (Harlan), Arthrophycus ?brongniartii (Harlan), Didymaulichnus lyelli (Rouault), Palaeophycus tubularis Hall, Taenidium isp., thin winding ridges, winding ridges and furrows, simple cylinders, and ‘stellate’ forms. A. alleghaniensis is distinctively of Ordovician–Silurian (?Early Devonian) age. The trace fossil association belongs to the Cruziana ichnofacies that indicates a shallow marine environment between the normal and storm wave bases. The trace fossil data and stratigraphic relationships indicate that the Adigrat Sandstone formation and the Edaga Arbi Beds in Eritrea are Ordovician–Silurian in age. The Edaga Arbi Beds are correlated with other Upper Ordovician (Hirnantian) glacial units in northern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula, lending these beds the status of a marker unit in the Lower Palaeozoic stratigraphy of the Horn of Africa. The Jurassic “Adigrat Sandstone” in central-west and eastern Ethiopia cannot be correlated with the Adigrat Sandstone formation in its type area and in Eritrea.