Mass-production of Cambro-Ordovician quartz-rich sandstone as a consequence of chemical weathering of Pan-African terranes: Environmental implications [rapid communication]

Details Mass-production of Cambro-Ordovician quartz-rich sandstone as a consequence of chemical weathering of Pan-African terranes: Environmental implications [rapid communication] Mass-production of Cambro-Ordovician quartz-rich sandstone as a consequence of chemical weathering of Pan-African terranes: Environmental implications [rapid communication]

Dec 2005

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2005e%26psl.240..818a&link_type=abstract

Earth and Planetary Science Letters, Volume 240, Issue 3-4, p. 818-826.

Mathematics

Logic

10

Scientific paper

A vast sheet of mature quartz sand blanketed north Africa and Arabia from the Atlantic coast to the Persian Gulf in Cambro Ordovician times. U Pb geochronology of a representative section of Cambrian sandstone in southern Israel shows that these sediments are dominated by 550 650 Ma detrital zircons derived from Neoproterozoic Pan-African basement. The short time lag between magmatic consolidation of a Pan-African source and deposition of its erosional products indicates that, despite their significant mineralogical maturity, the voluminous quartz-rich sandstones on the northern margin of Gondwana are essentially first-cycle sediments. Mass production of these voluminous first-cycle quartz-rich sandstones resulted from widespread chemical weathering of the Pan-African continental basement. We suggest that conditions favoring silicate weathering, particularly a warm and humid climate, low relief and low sedimentation rates prevailed over large tracts of Gondwana in the aftermath of the Pan-African orogeny. An unusually corrosive Cambro Ordovician atmosphere and humid climate enhanced chemical weathering on the vegetation-free landscape. We infer that late Neoproterozoic Cambro Ordovician atmospheric pCO2 rose as a consequence of widespread late Neoproterozoic volcanism, followed by an uptake of CO2 by chemical weathering to produce the Cambro Ordovician sandstone as a negative feedback.

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