The Huqf Supergroup of Oman: Basin development and context for Neoproterozoic glaciation

The Huqf Supergroup of the Sultanate of Oman provides important information on the geological evolution of the Arabian-Persian Gulf region during a protracted period of continental dispersal and reassembly on the periphery of the Gondwanan supercontinent during the Neoproterozoic, and also provides important constraints on the nature of extreme climate swings during this critical period in the evolution of Earth's biosphere. The Huqf Supergroup spans the period ca. 725-540 Ma, and is composed of three groups. The Abu Mahara Group ( ca. 725 to < 645 Ma) hosts two glacial successions separated by an interval of non-glacial, deep to shallow marine sedimentary rocks. The base of the overlying Nafun Group ( ca.< 645-547 Ma) is marked by a transgressive post-glacial carbonate, which initiates an overstepping of basement-cored structural highs and the deposition of an extensive blanket of carbonate and siliciclastic stratigraphy. The Ara Group ( ca. 547-540 Ma), which is known mostly from the subsurface, comprises carbonates, evaporites and organic-rich shales, with interbedded ashes, deposited in a large number of N-S trending troughs and platforms. The three groups of the Huqf Supergroup correspond to three phases of basin development. The Abu Mahara Group was deposited on an eroded crystalline and metasedimentary basement. An early stage of basin formation preserved < 1.5 km of marginal to deeper marine sedimentary rocks, including an older Cryogenian glacial succession infilling erosional palaeovalleys. Renewed tectonic subsidence associated with submarine volcanism allowed the preservation of a > 1 km-thick, cyclical, rift basin-fill of glacial and non-glacial sedimentary rocks representing a younger Cryogenian icehouse epoch. Progressively older source areas were exhumed during the interval ca. 725 to < 645 Ma, with unroofed 800+ Ma granitoid plutons providing the bulk of sediment, supplemented by syn-extension volcanics, and eventually by distant Meso- and Palaeoproterozoic sources. The wide extent of the Nafun Group, basin-wide correlation of major lithostratigraphic units, and its modest thickness (∼ 1 km) suggest a period of thermal contraction following Abu Mahara rifting. The Oman area was probably a region of slightly stretched continental lithosphere (which passed to the NE into a passive continental margin), occupied by a continental margin rim basin during deposition of the Nafun Group. The Nafun Group bears little resemblance to the coeval small basin-fills choked with calc-alkaline volcanic detritus in the Arabian Shield, but the correlation of the Nafun Group with the Jibalah Group indicates that the contiguous continental rim basin extended from Oman across the tectonically deformed eastern fringe of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Inundation of the Arabian Shield area and incorporation within the Nafun basin was probably facilitated by extensional collapse and tectonic escape. Sources for 600-640 Ma zircons, found in the Nafun Group, can readily be identified in the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Renewed volcanism, compartmentalization of the basin by N-S trending structural highs and troughs, and an increase in sediment accumulation rates, typifies the Ara Group. The Ara Group deposits formed part of an extensive, latitudinal evaporite belt, with a depocentre translated outwards relative to the Nafun basin, suggesting continuing tectonic progradation of the eastern margin of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Subduction of ocean floor along the former passive continental margin along the periphery of eastern Gondwana is the most likely cause of Ara volcanism and tectonism, in which case the Oman area can be viewed as occupying a retro-arc setting at this stage, between a subducting margin and the East African orogen. Coeval calc-alkaline plutons and rhyolitic to andesitic volcanics are found in the Central Iranian Terrane. Neoproterozoic glaciations are recorded in the rift and passive margin stratigraphy predating the final amalgamation of continental fragments into greater Gondwana. In Oman, glaciation was contemporaneous with the development of an Andean-type orogen in the Arabian-Nubian Shield while passive margin basins continued to subside in northern Iran, India and South China. The elevated topography associated with the Andean-type orogen together with passive margin mega-escarpments may have promoted nucleation of ice caps that sourced marine-terminating valley glaciers and ice streams. However, the triggering of Cryogenian glaciation must ultimately be related to the biogeochemical cycles operating on a planet with a nascent land biota, lack of calcifying plankton and reduced solar luminosity.