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Origin of a late Neoproterozoic (605 ± 13 Ma) intrusive carbonate–albitite complex in Southern Sinai, Egypt

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Abstract

New geochemical, isotopic, and geochronological data and interpretations are presented for late Neoproterozoic intrusive carbonates and related rocks of southern Sinai, Egypt (northernmost Arabian–Nubian Shield). The Tarr carbonates are coarsely crystalline and related to explosive emplacement of hypabyssal and volcanic albitite at 605 ± 13 Ma. The carbonates associated with the albitites are divisible into two types: primary dolomitite and secondary breunneritite (Fe-rich magnesite). The dolomitite was clearly intrusive but differs from classic igneous carbonatites, containing much lower abundances of incompatible elements, such as REE, U, Th, Rb, Nb, Y, P, Sr, Zr, Ba, and total alkalies. The breunneritite is a secondary replacement of dolomitite, probably marking the roots of a vigorous hydrothermal system. Albitites show pristine abundances of major and trace elements and were not subjected to a major metamorphic overprint. They are relatively more fractionated, alkaline and related to within-plate A-type magmas, were emplaced in an extensional or non-compressive tectonic regime in the cupola of high-level A-type granite. Tarr albitites may represent residual magma remaining after near-total crystallization of an A-type granite pluton at depth, forcibly emplaced into the roof above the cooling pluton. The intrusive dolomitite exsolved from highly differentiated albitite melt, in the apical regions of a still-buried alkaline “A-type” granite pluton that was rich in CO2; these volatiles migrated upwards and towards the cooler margins of the magma body. Late NNE-SSW extension allowed a shallow-level cupola to form, into which albitite melts and carbonate fluids migrated, culminating in explosive emplacement of albitite breccia and intrusive carbonate. Isotopic compositions of Tarr dolomitite and albitite indicate these are consanguineous and ultimately of mantle origin. Magmatic volatiles fenitized the wall rock, while submarine hydrothermal activity transformed some of the dolomitite into breunneritite. Recognition of Tarr-type should encourage similar hypabyssal complex intrusions to be sought for in association with A-type granitic plutons elsewhere.

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Acknowledgments

We appreciate stimulating discussions with Prof. M.D. Samuel of the Egypt National Research Centre. We greatly appreciate the assistance of K. Ali and M. Whitehouse for zircon dating, B. Woldemichael for isotopic analyses and Y. Sawada for XRF facility. We thank Yaron Be’eri-Shlevin for sharing new geochronologic results on Sinai granites and the use of Fig. 1. This research was partly supported by NSF OCE 0804749 under the US-Egypt Joint Fund Program. The NordSIM ion microprobe facility is financed and operated under an agreement between the research councils of Denmark, Norway, Sweden, and the Geological Survey of Finland and the Swedish Museum of Natural History; this is NordSIM publication number 222.

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  1. Geology Department, National Research Centre, Al-Behoos St., 12622-Dokki, Cairo, Egypt

    Mokhles Kamal Azer

  2. Geosciences Department, University of Texas at Dallas, Box 830688, Richardson, TX, 75083-0688, USA

    Robert J. Stern

  3. Institute for Research on Earth Evolution (IFREE), Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology (JAMSTEC), Yokosuka, 237-0061, Japan

    Jun-Ichi Kimura

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  1. Mokhles Kamal Azer
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  2. Robert J. Stern
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Correspondence to Mokhles Kamal Azer.

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Azer, M.K., Stern, R.J. & Kimura, JI. Origin of a late Neoproterozoic (605 ± 13 Ma) intrusive carbonate–albitite complex in Southern Sinai, Egypt. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 99, 245–267 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-008-0385-1

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