Mapping Main Structures and Related Mineralization of the Arabian Shield (Saudi Arabia) Using Sharp Edge Detector of Transformed Gravity Data

Saudi Arabia covers most of the Arabian Peninsula and is characterized by tectonic regimes ranging from Precambrian to Recent. Using gravity data to produce the lateral boundaries of subsurface density bodies, and edge detection of potential field data, a new subsurface structural map was created to decipher the structural framework controls on the distribution of gold deposits in Saudi Arabia. Moreover, we detected the relationships between major structures and mineral accumulations, thereby simultaneously solving the problem of edge detectors over complex tectonic patterns for both deeper and shallower origins. Analytic signal (ASg), theta map (TM), TDX, and softsign function (SF) filters were applied to gravity data of Saudi Arabia. The results unveil low connectivity along the Najd fault system (NFS) with depth, except perhaps for the central zones along each segment. The central zones are the location of significant gold mineralization, i.e., Fawarah, Gariat Avala, Hamdah, and Ghadarah. Moreover, major fault zones parallel to the Red Sea extend northward from the south, and their connectivity increases with depth and controls numerous gold mines, i.e., Jadmah, Wadi Bidah, Mamilah, and Wadi Leif. These fault zones intersect the NFS in the Midyan Terrane at the northern part of the AS, and their conjugation is suggested to be favorable for gold mineralization. The SF maps revealed the boundary between the Arabian Shield and Arabian Shelf, which comprises major shear zones, implying that most known mineralization sites are linked to post-accretionary structures and are not limited to the Najd fault system (NFS).

Genesis of gabbroic intrusions in the Arabian Shield, Saudi Arabia: mineralogical, geochemical and tectonic fingerprints of the Neoproterozoic arc magmatism

The Arabian Shield of Saudi Arabia represents part of the Arabian–Nubian Shield and forms an exposure of juvenile continental crust on the eastern side of the Red Sea rift. Gabbroic intrusions in Saudi Arabia constitute a significant part of the mafic magmatism in the Neoproterozoic Arabian Shield. This study records the first detailed geological, mineralogical and geochemical data for gabbroic intrusions located in the Gabal Samra and Gabal Abd areas of the Hail region in the Arabian Shield of Saudi Arabia. Geological field relations and investigations, supported by mineralogical and geochemical data, indicate that the gabbroic intrusions are generally unmetamorphosed and undeformed, and argue for their post-collisional emplacement. Their mineralogical and geochemical features reveal crystallization from hydrous, mainly tholeiitic, mafic magmas with arc-like signatures, which were probably inherited from the previous subduction event in the Arabian–Nubian Shield. The gabbroic rocks exhibit sub-chondritic Nb/U, Nb/Ta and Zr/Hf ratios, revealing depletion of their mantle source. Moreover, the high ratios of (Gd/Yb)N and (Dy/Yb)N indicate that their parental mafic melts were derived from a garnet-peridotite source with a garnet signature in the mantle residue. This implication suggests that the melting region was at a depth exceeding ∼70–80 km at the garnet stability field. They have geochemical characteristics similar to other post-collisional gabbros of the Arabian–Nubian Shield. Their origin could be explained by adiabatic decompression melting of depleted asthenosphere that interacted during ascent with metasomatized lithospheric mantle in an extensional regime, likely related to the activity of the Najd Fault System, at the end of the Pan-African Orogeny.

Spatio-temporal position of the Ediacaran Thalbah Basin in the Najd Fault System, Arabian Shield

ABSTRACT This paper starts with a bibliographic review of the lithostratigraphy and radiometric dating of the Ediacaran Thalbah Group in the northwestern Arabian Shield, Saudi Arabia. It seeks to establish the spatio-temporal position of the group in the ongoing compilation and correlation of Ediacaran–Cambrian sedimentary time-rock units in the Middle East Geologic Time Scale (Al-Husseini, 2010, 2011, 2014). The group is defined and described in the Thalbah Basin, which crops out in the Al Wajh Quadrangle, and is approximately 100 km (NW-SE) by 40 km (SW-NE) in extent (Davies, 1985). The basin is situated within the approximately (ca.) 300 km-long, NW-trending Qazaz Fault Zone of the Najd Fault System. The Thalbah Group consists of three siliciclastic units: Hashim Formation (ca. 1,050–1,300 m thick) and likely coeval Zhufar Formation (ca. 600–1,400 m thick), and the younger Ridam Formation (ca. 1,000 m thick). Recently published U-Pb dating of detrital zircons gave ages of ≤ 596 ± 10 Ma for the Hashim Formation, and ≤ 612 ± 7 Ma for the Zhufar Formation (Bezenjani et al., 2014). The maximum depositional ages of the Hashim and Zhufar formations indicate they are approximately coeval to the lower part of the sedimentary and volcanic rocks of the Jibalah Group (≤ 605 ± 5 and ≥ 525 ± 5 Ma). The latter group was deposited in pull-apart basins along the ca. 600 km-long Rika and several other extensive fault zones of the NW-trending Najd Fault System in the northern and eastern parts of the Arabian Shield. The Qazaz Fault Zone left-laterally dislocated ophiolites of the NE-trending Yanbu Suture Zone (≥ 700 Ma) by about 100 km. The strike of the Qazaz Fault Zone projects into the Rika Fault Zone, along which five major pull-apart basins contain the Jibalah Group. The Rika Fault Zone dislocated by about 100 km the NS-trending ophiolite outcrop belts of the Ad Dafinah and Hulayfah fault zones (sometimes interpreted as parts the Nabitah Suture Zone, 680–640 Ma). Based on the time correlation of the Thalbah and Jibalah groups, and the highlighted structural features, the Rika and Qazaz fault zones are interpreted as a continuous 30 km-wide, 1,200 km-long, N63°W-striking fault zone, the “Rika-Qazaz Fault Zone”, which left-laterally dislocated the Arabian Shield by approximately 100 km after 605 ± 5 Ma and before 525 ± 5 Ma.

Proposed correlation of Oman’s Abu Mahara Supergroup and Saudi Arabia’s Jibalah Group

ABSTRACT The Ediacaran–Cambrian Middle East Geologic Time Scale is extensively revised in the 2014 version (Enclosure). It suggests the top of the Abu Mahara Group glacial diamictites in Oman represent the termination of the late Cryogenian Marinoan Glaciation at 635 Ma. The overlying Ediacaran Nafun Group of Oman is shown between 635 and 547 Ma based on geochronologic data, and divided into: (1) the Lower Nafun Supersequence (635–582 Ma) consisting of the Hadash Formation (cap carbonate), the Masirah Bay Formation (clastics) and the Khufai Formation (carbonates); and (2) the Upper Nafun Supersequence (582–547 Ma) consisting of the Shuram Formation (clastics and carbonates) and the Buah Formation (carbonates). The Nafun Group lies below the Ediacaran– lower Cambrian Ara Group (evaporites and carbonates), which contains the Ediacaran/Cambrian Boundary currently dated at 541 Ma. The Sub-Shuram Unconformity, which corresponds to the global Shuram δ13C Negative Excursion, separates the Nafun supersequences. Its age was estimated by assuming the thicknesses of the Nafun formations are proportional to time in the Masirah-1 Well, where the Nafun Group attains its greatest-known thickness of 2,308 m in Oman. This assumption coincidently estimated the unconformity at 582 Ma, the same age as the Ediacaran Gaskiers (Varanger or Varingian) Glaciation. The new calibration was used to correlate the Nafun formations to the rock-time units of the Jibalah Group in several isolated basins along the Najd Fault System in the Arabian Shield, using recently published geochronologic data and δ13C measurements, as follows. The younger part of the Lower Nafun Supersequence (635–582 Ma) is here correlated to the Lower Jibalah Supersequence (605 ± 5 to 582 Ma), represented by the Umm al-Aisah Formation in the Jifn Basin, located along the Halaban-Zarghat Fault Zone of the Najd Fault System. The Umm al-Aisah Formation consists of volcanics and clastics that give way to the Umm al-Aisah Limestone. The Upper Nafun Supersequence (582–547 Ma) is here correlated to the Upper Jibalah Supersequence, which unconformably overlies the Umm al-Aisah Limestone, with its basal unit being the Gaskiers-coeval Jifn Polymictic Conglomerate (≥ 200 m thick). In the Bir Sija Basin, located along the Rika Fault Zone of the Najd Fault System, the likely Gaskiers-coeval polymictic conglomerate (150 m thick) is overlain by a 20 m-thick limestone unit, the Bir Sija Limestone, possibly a cap carbonate. The Upper Jibalah Supersequence continues with clastics overlain by the Muraykhah Formation (carbonates) or mixed clastics-carbonates of its equivalent formations. In several outcrops the Upper Jibalah Supersequence is overlain by the lower Cambrian Siq Sandstone Formation (≤ 525 ± 5 Ma) implying the Sub-Siq Unconformity represents a hiatus between 547 and 525 ± 5 Ma. The Jifn Formation in the Jifn Basin, however, may represent continuous deposition between 582 Ma and 525 ± 5 Ma.

Late Ediacaran to early Cambrian (Infracambrian) Jibalah Group of Saudi Arabia

ABSTRACT This paper is one of a series that document the Neoproterozoic – Cambrian rock units in the Middle East Geologic Time Scale. It is focused on the oldest sedimentary succession in Saudi Arabia, the late Ediacaran – early Cambrian (Infracambrian) Jibalah Group (ca. 585 to 530–520 Ma). The group crops out in disconnected, pull-apart basins (ca. 10–100 km long and up to 20 km wide) along the NW-trending, strike-slip Najd Fault System in the Arabian Shield. It was described and mapped in the 1960s to 1980s, and several formations were defined and named in two areas separated by ca. 400 km. The stratigraphic successions in these two areas have not been correlated, nor has their relationship to the subsurface been resolved. This paper reviews the nomenclature, type sections, lithologies and ages of the formations and members (sometimes units and/or facies) of the Jibalah Group. The Jibalah Group unconformably overlies the Ediacaran Shammar Group (ca. 620–585 Ma, consisting mainly of rhyolite or granitic plutons), or older Proterozoic rocks. The age of the intervening Sub-Jibalah Unconformity is here estimated at ca. 585 Ma based on radiometric data and regional correlations. The lower part of the Jibalah Group is defined in the northern Arabian Shield in the Mashhad area, where it consists of three formations, in ascending order: (1) undated Rubtayn Formation, divided informally into the “Volcanic Conglomerate Member” (up to ca. 700 m thick), “Polymictic Conglomerate Member” (up to ca. 1,500 m thick) and “Sandstone Member” (up to ca. 1,000 m thick); (2) poorly dated Badayi Formation consisting of andesite-basalt flows (ca. 150 m thick); (3) undated Muraykhah Formation (330–370 m thick) consisting of the informal “Cherty Limestone Member” (ca. 135 m thick), “Siltstone and Mudstone Member” (ca. 20 m thick) and “Dolomitic Limestone Member” (ca. 135–175 m thick). The Rubtayn, Badayi and Muraykhah formations in the northern Arabian Shield, by stratigraphic position and lithology, correspond to the Umm Al ‘Aisah Formation in the Najd pull-apart basins of the central Arabian Shield. In particular, the Cherty Limestone unit (300–500 m thick) of the Umm Al ‘Aisah Formation is correlated to the Muraykhah Formation, which represents a marine flooding event. Above the Muraykhah Formation, the uppermost part of the group is defined in the central Arabian Shield by the undated Jifn Formation (up to ca. 2,500 m thick). The Jibalah Group is unconformably overlain by the lower Cambrian Siq Sandstone Formation (Asfar Sequence), and the intervening Sub-Siq Unconformity (Angudan Unconformity) has an estimated age between ca. 530–520 Ma.