The White Nile as a source for Nile sediments: Assessment using U-Pb geochronology of detrital rutile and monazite

摘要

Basement terranes exposed at the headwaters of the White Nile include Archean-Paleoproterozoic rocks of the Congo Craton, whose northern sectors were severely reworked during Neoproterozoic orogeny. New U-Pb analyses of detrital rutile and monazite from early Quaternary to Recent coastal quartz sands of Israel, at the northeast extension of the Nile sedimentary system, yield mostly late Neoproterozoic ages, with a dominant peak at ca. 600 Ma. While derivation from the reworked sectors of the Craton cannot be negated, the absence of pre-Neoproterozoic rutile and monazite indicates that the detrital contribution from the Congo cratonic nuclei into the main Nile was insignificant.