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[Paleogeographic reconstruction of the Levant area in the Early Miocene (15–20 Ma) highlighting the main sediment routing systems into the deep Levant Basin and their detrital zircon and rutile U‐Pb age spectra and a non metric multi‐dimensional scaling map (MDS) of detrital zircon U‐Pb ages of studied Israeli Miocene samples and Miocene Nile Delta samples. ASG, Azrqa Sirhan Graben; DST, Dead Sea Transform. , Abstract Isolated, Miocene continental basins scattered over Israel and Jordan represent the remnants of a continental‐wide fluvial system, which originated in Arabia and transported siliciclastic sediments westward to the deep Levant Basin. These basins define two geographically separated sedimentary provinces. The detrital zircon age spectra in both provinces are dominated by Neoproterozoic U‐Pb ages (550–1,000 Ma), resembling those of Paleozoic‐Mesozoic sandstones exposed along the uplifted Red Sea Rift flank. However, while the southern province exhibits two prominent peaks at ~600 and ~1,000 Ma, similar to those seen in Cambrian‐Ordovician sandstones in southern Israel and Jordan, the northern province shows an additional significant age peak at ~800 Ma and its overall spectrum resembles that of Devonian sandstones in northern Saudi Arabia. These variations distinguish the two Miocene clastic outliers as pertaining to two separate, NW‐directed transport systems delivering siliciclastic sediments from Arabia towards the deep Levant Basin. The detrital zircon U‐Pb‐Hf signal of the Israeli Miocene clastic units differs from that of the River Nile, particularly in the lack of Cenozoic‐Mesozoic‐aged zircons in the former. This allows us to distinguish the properties of the fluvial system that existed in Arabia, on the eastern side of the Red Sea, from that of the River Nile that drained its western flanks. While it is commonly accepted that the (proto‐)Nile River played a key role in the Levant Basin fill, the eastern fluvial system that prevailed on the Arabian side may have been also important.]

The Cenozoic geodynamics of the north-eastern Mediterranean Basin have been dominated by the subduction of the African Plate under Eurasia. A trench-parallel crustal-scale thrust system (Misis-Kyrenia Thrust System) dissects the southern margin of the overriding plate and forms the structural grain and surface expression of northern Cyprus. Late Eocene to Miocene flysch of the Kythrea (Degirmenlik) Group is exposed throughout northern Cyprus, both at the hanging-wall and foot-wall of the thrust system, permitting access to an extensive Cenozoic sedimentary record of the basin. We report the results of a combined examination of detrital zircon and rutile U-Pb geochronology (572 concordant ages), coupled with Th/U ratios, Hf isotopic data and quantitative assessment of grain morphology of detrital zircon from four formations (5 samples) from the Kythrea flysch. These data provide a line of independent evidence for the existence of two different sediment transportation systems that discharged detritus into the basin between the late Eocene and late Miocene. Unique characteristics of each transport system are defined and a sediment unmixing calculation is demonstrated and explained. The first system transported almost exclusively North Gondwana-type, Precambrian-aged detrital zircon sourced from siliciclastic rock units in southern Anatolia. A different drainage system is revealed by the middle to late Miocene flysch sequence that is dominated by Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic-aged detrital zircon, whose age range is consistent with the magmatic episodicity of southeast Anatolia, along the Arabia-Eurasia suture zone. Deposition of these late Miocene strata took place thereupon closure of the Tethyan Seaway and African-Eurasian faunal exchange, and overlap in time with a pronounced uplift of eastern Anatolia. Our analytical data indicate the onset of prominent suture-parallel sediment transport from the collision zone of south-eastern Anatolia into the Kyrenia Range of northern Cyprus, marking the drainage response to the continental collision between Arabia and Eurasia.

LA-ICPMS U-Pb geochronology of detrital rutile from North Gondwana Cambro-Ordovician sandstones is reported for the first time. Our sampling sites in Israel, Jordan and Ethiopia are situated thousands of kilometers apart thus providing a continental-scale perspective on the cooling and unroofing history of the provenance of the great Cambro-Ordovician sandstone sheet. Detrital rutiles in the Cambrian sandstone of Israel and Jordan define a unimodal age concentration at 0.59–0.58 Ga, preceding the timing of major orogenic sutures and predating the final assembly of Gondwana. Cooling to below the rutile U-Pb closure temperature followed continental-scale Pan-African granitoid intrusion at 0.63–0.60 Ga, signifying that rather than representing high-grade metamorphism the detrital rutile age spectra reflect widespread resetting, cooling and exhumation associated with late to post-tectonic igneous activity. The unimodal 0.59–0.58 Ga age spectra do not change significantly up the Cambrian sequence, implying exhumation prior to Cambrian sedimentation generated ample crustal material with an almost uniform U-Pb rutile signature that was prone to deliver immense amounts of detritus. Therefore, rather than reflecting progressive erosion of Cambrian Supermountains, the North Gondwana Cambrian sandstone represents secondary denudation of an already-exhumed metamorphic basement. Alongside the older (0.59–0.58 Ga) detrital rutile population, which dominates the Cambrian sequence, 0.55 Ga detrital rutiles first appear in the Ordovician of Jordan while 0.54 Ga rutile locally dominates the Ordovician from Ethiopia, some 2000 km upstream the Cambro-Ordovician fluvial system, close to its headwaters. The Ordovician drainage basin has thus been extended to include crustal vestiges that were exhumed coeval with Gondwana consolidation, but it is likely that most of the rock carapace that has been eroded from consolidating Cambrian orogenic sutures has been delivered to the south (modern coordinates).

The Neoproterozoic Arabian–Nubian Shield (ANS), which comprises the northern sector of the East African Orogen (EAO), has been deeply denuded in Ediacaran times and its erosional products were deposited across NE Africa and Arabia; they are also found in a number of peri-Gondwana terranes. A vast Late Neoproterozoic clastic wedge, locally interbedded with volcanics, developed on the northern outskirts of the ANS and spread into areas currently at the foothills of the Taurus and Zagros belts to coalesce into a wide peri-Arabian-Mesopotamian basin. The southern limit of this basin is manifested in the subsurface of Israel and Jordan by a few km thick arkose sequence, the Zenifim Formation, which underlies the Cambro–Ordovician quartz-rich sandstones. The detritus stored in this formation was mostly eroded from the adjacent ANS at the cessation of Neoproterozoic orogeny. Along a ∼150 km long transect in the subsurface of Israel, the arkosic facies of the Zenifim Formation changes from a proximal alluvial fan in the south, to a sea marginal facies in the north reflecting the transgression of the proto-Tethys onto the decaying Neoproterozoic orogen. We studied the detrital zircon U–Pb–Hf from core samples of arkose from different parts of the Zenifim Formation in order to constrain the composition of its provenance and to obtain the Late-Neoproterozoic detrital fingerprint of the ANS. The proximal alluvial fan and plain facies is dominated by a remarkable concentration of U–Pb detrital zircon ages between 0.6 and 0.7 Ga with a peak around 0.63 Ga, alongside a few older grains (0.8 Ga and 0.9 Ga). Pre-Neoproterozoic detrtital zircons are absent. The youngest detrital zircon population peaks at 0.60 Ga. The entire inventory of detrital zircons yielded positive ɛHf values between +11 and +5, generally overlapping ɛHf values of Neoproterozoic rocks of the northern ANS. It is notable that little indication for the exposure of the Cryogenian rocks of the ANS is represented by the detrital zircon signal in the alluvial fan deposits, a feature indicating the prevalence of Ediacaran granitoids in the provenance. Towards the north, the youngest detrital zircons in the sea marginal facies concentrate at 0.58 Ga implying this part of Zenifim Formation is among the youngest Late Neoproterozoic sedimentary units in the northern ANS. The detrital zircon signal exhibits a preponderance of Neoproterozoic-aged detrital zircons peaking at 0.6 Ga and 0.75–0.8 Ga, but Grenvillian-like age peaks at 0.92, 1.0 and 1.1 Ga are also identified. Additionally, a small number of 1.8, 2.1 and 2.6 Ga-aged zircons, and a few Late Neoproterozoic detrital zircons with negative ɛHf values also occur. Erosion of basement rocks in the northern ANS was generally capable of accounting for most of the detrital zircon spectra in the sea marginal facies, but we point out two other potential sources. Our preliminary investigations indicate that dike swarms that invaded the northern ANS in the mid Ediacaran carry abundant inherited pre-Neoproterozoic zircons and Neoproterozoic-aged zircons with negative ɛHf values. The presence of such zircons in post −0.58 Ga sediments, subsequently to the major diking phases, can thus be accounted for, at least partly, by the erosion of dikes and associated volcanics. Likewise, a northern provenance that resided within the Cadomian realm or laterally along the Gondwana margin could also play a role in delivering zircons of this type to the sea marginal facies of Zenifim Formation.

A voluminous Cambrian–Ordovician sequence of quartz-rich sandstones was deposited in northern Gondwana following its assembly by a series of Neoproterozoic–Cambrian orogenic events. Paleocurrent markers indicate that the sediments were carried from Gondwana hinterland toward the supercontinent margins in the north (present coordinates). Derivation from Neoproterozoic terranes is evident from the ubiquity of detrital zircons with Neoproterozoic U-Pb ages, but the exact provenance of these siliciclastic deposits remains unclear. Herein we present new Hf isotopic data from U-Pb dated detrital zircons of the Cambrian–Ordovician sandstone that tops the juvenile Neoproterozoic basement of the Arabian-Nubian Shield in Israel and Jordan. It is remarkable that the detrital zircon Hf isotopic signal is in marked contrast to the Nd and Hf isotopic signature of the underlying basement. A preponderance (61%) of the Neoproterozoic-aged detrital zircons from the Cambrian–Ordovician sandstones yielded negative e Hf(t) values incompatible with a juvenile source. Therefore, most of the detrital zircons were derived from distant terranes comprising pre-Neoproterozoic crust reworked during the assembly of Gondwana, rather than from the adjacent Arabian-Nubian Shield. Because our sampling sites are situated at the northern tip of the Arabian-Nubian Shield, sand must have been transported several thousand kilometers before deposition. This finding also implies that the Arabian-Nubian Shield and other Neoproterozoic orogens of northeast Africa were completely worn down by the onset of Cambrian deposition and that vast areas in the northern part of Gondwana were low lying at that time.