Abstract
Serpentinite masses in late Precambrian sediments of the eastern desert of Egypt are in a mélange with associated metagabbros and pillow lavas; they represent pieces of Precambrian oceanic crust. The mélange is of regional extent and is interpreted as a olistostrome which has been thrust northwestwards over shelf sediments and is overlain by island arc volcanics: thus the observed sequence is a structural rather than a stratigraphic one. A plate tectonic model is implied with a suture to the south-east. The interpretation of the late Precambrian (Pan-African) fold belts in Africa is controversial. It is uncertain whether, like Phanerozoic fold belts, they were formed by plate tectonic processes1–5, or whether they are ensialic and unrelated to subduction of oceanic crust6,7 or collision of continental plates. Here we present evidence relating to this problem from the part of the Pan-African belt exposed in the eastern desert of Egypt.
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Shackleton, R., Ries, A., Graham, R. et al. Late Precambrian ophiolitic mélange in the eastern desert of Egypt. Nature 285, 472–474 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/285472a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/285472a0
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