Stratigraphy And Palaeogeography Of The Hasawnah Formation (Cambrian, Al Qarqaf Arch, Central-Western Libya): Data From Detrital Zircons And Trace Fossils

For central-northern Africa there is a significant knowledge gap to be filled in order to create a consistent reconstruction of the dynamic evolution of this entire palaeogeographic region. This is of exciting interest, because for some areas there is also some economic aspect where included sediments, as in Libya, are significant elements of source rock or reservoir architecture or if they denote important aquifers. In Libya, early Palaeozoic rocks are mainly exposed at the margins of large intracratonic basins in the centralwestern to southwestern region of the country (Ghadamis Basin, Murzuq Basin), in the southeast (Al Kufrah Basin), and in the Tibesti Mountains in the south. One of the most important outcrop areas is in the Jebel Hasawnah (also called Jebel Fezzan or Jebel Al Qarqaf) of the Al Qarqaf Arch (AQA). The amplitude of the uplift is about 6000 m (up to 800 m elevation at present surface) in the AQA area relative to the basement level in the northern Ghadamis Basin area where this level is about 5200 m below surface. The AQA largely separates the Ghadamis Basin in the northwest from the Murzuq Basin in the south (Fig. 1) and represents the northernmost basement outcrop of the so-called Saharan Metacraton.