Tamer Abu-Alam

UiT The Arctic University of Norway · Department of Arctic and Marine Biology

The Feiran–Solaf metamorphic complex of Sinai, Egypt, is one of the highest grade metamorphic complexes of a series of basement domes that crop out throughout the Arabian-Nubian Shield. In the Eastern Desert of Egypt these basement domes have been interpreted as metamorphic core complexes exhumed in extensional settings. For the Feiran–Solaf comple...

Strain caps are one of a series of microstructures that typically form during deformation of a softer matrix around hard objects. As such, they bear information about the kinematics around these bodies in rocks. However strain caps are barely described outside their original definition. Here we describe these microstructures that feature a new phas...

The southern Sinai basement is part of the broader Neoproterozoic Arabian-Nubian Shield, which occupies parts of northeastern Africa and the Arabian Peninsula. The Sinai exposures of the shield are uniquely located as they form a bridge between the two halves of the shield that are elsewhere separated by the Red Sea rift. For shield terrain fragmen...

Calc-silicates have proved to be important rock types to place constraints on the fluid behaviour in high grade metamorphic rocks. Here we describe amphibolite facies calc-silicate rocks of Wadi Solaf, Egypt which is one of the highest grade basement complexes of Egypt and was exhumed in close connection with the Najd fault system – one of the larg...

This study evaluates the unconventional reservoir geomechanical characteristics of the Lower Turonian Abu Roash-F (AR-F) carbonates from the Abu Gharadig field, onshore Egypt, which has not been attempted before. The interval dominantly consists of planktic foraminifera and micrite matrix. The AR-F marine carbonate is organic-rich (0.59–3.57 wt% to...

Flood is one of the most damaging natural disasters as the recent floods have shown their serious impact on Pakistan. Flood control and regulation policies are essential to reduce the risks of economic downturn, a threat to human existence, and to sustain the ecology. The severity of flood catastrophe activities represents a constant and severe iss...

Assessment of organic carbon content (TOC) by geophysical logs has been a challenging task in the formation evaluation of shale gas. This research is conducted to estimate the unconventional hydrocarbon (shale-gas) potential of Talhar Shale in the Southern Indus Basin (SIB), Pakistan. In this study, total organic carbon content (%) was estimated th...

This work aims to utilize oxygen and hydrogen stable isotopes as tracers for determining the groundwater sources of recharge in the central Nile delta. The analyzed water samples were collected from canals and drains as surface water, soil water and shallow, intermediate and deep zones of the groundwater. The isotopic data indicated that surface wa...

Wadi Ghadir ophiolite in the Egyptian Eastern Desert, which forms the northern part of the Nubian Shield, is considered as one of the best-preserved segments of the Neoproterozoic oceanic lithosphere on Earth. Primary melt calculations and thermodynamic modeling of new geochemical data for the Wadi Ghadir pillow lavas and dike complexes, integrated...

Mineral prospectivity mapping (MPM) based on the principle of geometric mean was applied to stream sediment geochemical, fault density, and aeromagnetic data from Tagmout basin, Morocco to determine new areas for optimizing copper exploration. The application of a fuzzy operator using stream sediment data, factor analysis, and fault density map, al...

Research activities and research output, in general, have increased, and keep increasing vastly, and so too is research on the polar regions including Svalbard in the Arctic. Major commercial publishers have built subscription-based services which present research literature for a fee. As Open Science and open access to literature and data is gaini...

In this episode, we discuss the new service Open Polar: The Global Open Access Portal for Research Data and Publications on the Arctic and Antarctic (openpolar.no). Presenting only freely available documents on the Arctic and Antarctic, Open Polar is a thematic search engine that can be a useful tool for both researchers and decision makers. Tamer...

The Saharan Metacraton is a poorly known tract of pre-Neoproterozoic continental crust that occupies the area between the juvenile Arabian Nubian Shield, in the east, and the Tuareg Shield to the west. Neoproterozoic orogenesis (i.e. Oubanguides and East African orogenies) affect the west, the south and the east of the metacraton, respectively, whi...

The majority of geological investigations that deal with the Arabian-Nubian Shield are concerned with the processes of ocean closure, subduction, orogenesis and crustal growth, in relation to the assembly of Gondwanaland in the late Neoproterozoic. Other valuable published works deal with the earlier development of the Arabian-Nubian Shield in the...

The metamorphic rocks of the Sinai Peninsula cover about one-third of the Precambrian basement exposures and are preserved in four isolated metamorphic complexes (Feiran-Solaf, Kid, Sa'al-Zaghra, and Taba meta-morphic complexes), separated by large volumes of granitic intrusions. The metamorphism and structural setting of these complexes are well s...

Data from the Polar Regions are of critical importance to modern polar research. Regardless of their disciplinary and institutional affiliations, researchers rely heavily on the comparison of existing data with new data sets to assess changes that are taking effect. However, in a recent survey of 113 major polar data providers, we found that an est...

Data from the Polar Regions are of critical importance to modern research and decision makers. Regardless of their disciplinary and institutional affiliations, researchers rely heavily on the comparison of existing data with new data sets to assess changes that are taking effect. However, in a recent survey of 113 major polar data providers, we fou...

GSAf newsletter. English and French versions of the 28th session of the Colloquium of Africa Geology second announcement. Preliminary program. Infos on formal registration and abstract submission are enclosed

The bedrock of Mühlig-Hofmannfjella, central Dronning Maud Land in eastern Antarctica, is part of the high-grade Maud Belt and comprises a deep-seated metamorphic-plutonic complex. The P-T-t evolution of anatectic supracrustal gneisses has been recovered through a study of mineral assemblages, textural relationships and U-Pb ID TIMS geochronology o...

Data from the Polar Regions are of critical importance to modern research. Regardless of their disciplinary and institutional affiliations, researchers rely heavily on the comparison of existing data with new data sets to assess changes that are taking effect. In turn, knowledge based on as broad and comprehensive a selection of polar data sets as...

Serpentinite is a major carrier of fluid-mobile elements in subduction zones, which influences the geochemical signature of arc magmatism (e.g. high abundances of Li, Ba, Sr, B, As, Mo and Pb). Based on results from Neoproterozoic serpentinites in the Arabian-Nubian Shield, we herein report the role of antigorite in the transportation of fluid-mobi...

Access research data and research documents (e.g. publications) and make it more visible and findable through the internet is coming up as one of the major challenges for future development of the next generation of Digital Libraries. This challenge becomes more complicated when data producers (e.g. research institutes) are not aware by the needs o...

Open ARI is a planned service at UiT - The Arctic University of Norway in order to collect, sort and archive all the openly available publications and datasets that were published on the Arctic region. This new service will be available as an open access database to users through an interactive searchable front-end. The pilot project will investiga...

The East-West Gondwana collision (0.75 – 0.5 Ga), by oblique convergence, was likely accompanied by high hydrothermal fluid flux and dispersed orogenic gold in the Arabian-Nubian Shield. Gold-bearing quartz veins along steep-dipping shear zones bordering or cutting through the ophiolitic and island arc rocks in the central Allaqi-Heiani belt in Wad...

Orogenic gold ores of Arabian-Nubian Shield are structurally controlled by Najd Fault System. The Najd Fault System controlled the exhumation of the metamorphic complexes and therefore, there is a genetic relationship between the metamorphism and the formation of the orogenic gold ores. In order to constrain this genetic relationship, field observa...

Abstract The Cenozoic volcanism of western Saudi Arabia extends from southern Yemen to Jordan northward. They cover an area of nearly 180,000 km2. The rocks are dominated by alkali olivine basalts and olivine basalts. Al-Wahbah crater, a part of Harrat Kishb, represents a model occurrence to study the gneisses of these rocks. New mineral chemistry...

The southeastern sector of the Hafafit Metamorphic Complex, southern Eastern Desert of Egypt comprises infrastructural orthogneisses of tonalite and syenogranite parentage, amphibolites, and a volcano-sedimentary association. These are overthrust by an obducted suprastructural ophiolite nappes via the Nugrus thrust. The protolith of the biotite-hor...

Late Precambrian intrusive rocks in the Arabian-Nubian Shield emplaced within and around the Najd Fault System of Saudi Arabia feature a great compositional diversity and a variety of degrees of deformation (i.e. pre-shearing deformed, sheared mylonitized and post-shearing undeformed) that allows placing them into a relative time order. It is shown...

The Dronning Maud Land, Antarctica represents

The Arabian-Nubian Shield consists of island arc succession which was tectonically accreted as juvenile crust during closure of the Mozambique Ocean and suturing of East- and West-Gondwana. High-grade upper amphibolite facies metamorphic rocks were exhumed from underneath the arc-succession forming tectonic windows. A geological profile across a se...

The southeastern sector of the Hafafit Metamorphic Complex, southern Eastern Desert of Egypt comprises infrastructural orthogneisses of tonalite and syenogranite parentage, amphibolites, and a volcano-sedimentary association. These are overthrust by an obducted suprastructural ophiolite nappes via the Nugrus thrust. The protolith of the biotite–hor...

The SCAR GeoMap (Geological Mapping Update of Antarctica) action group aims to facilitate an integrated programme to capture existing geological map data, update its spatial reliability, improve representation of glacial sequences and geomorphology, and enable data delivery via web-feature services. The team is collaboratively developing a digital...

Geological mapping and investigation of the mountain chain in Dronning Maud Land has been carried out by a number of geologists from South Africa, Japan, India, Germany, Russia and Norway over the last 40-50 years. The existing geological maps of Dronning Maud Land are, for a large part, based on fairly old data which makes these maps inhomogeneous...

A petrological and metamorphic comparison of Mesoproterozoic metabasic rocks was conducted on the eastern margin of the Archaean Kaapvaal–Grunehogna Craton and the adjacent westernmost Maud Belt (western H.U. Sverdrupfjella), across a major structural discontinuity known as the Pencksökket–Jutulstraumen Discontinuity. Thermodynamic phase diagram mo...

In active tectonic regions, shear zones play an important role in re-configuring the structure of the lithosphere. One of the largest shear zones on Earth is the Najd Fault System of the Arabian-Nubian Shield. The main active phase of this shear zone was during the last stages of the Pan-African Orogeny (ca. 630 - 540 Ma). Six samples of intrusive...

A group of intrusive and extrusive igneous rocks is located around Wadi Kariem, Central Eastern Desert. These rocks have diversed petrographic compositions ranging from gabbros to granites with their volcanic equivalents. They belong to four distinct Neoproterozoic units of the Eastern Desert, namely " metagabbros (MG), older granites (OG), metavol...

Calc-alkaline and alkaline intrusions of the late Neoproterozic form essential part of the Arabian–Nubian Shield. They were formed during the collision between East- and West-Gondwana. Sharm El-Sheikh area, Sinai, includes wide compositional array of these intrusions that can be considered as a case study. Variations in both tectonic and thermobaro...

Field evidence from the Baladiyah complex in the northern part of the Arabian-Nubian Shield of Saudi Arabia shows several erosional unconformities separating different high- and medium-grade metasedimentary rocks within the complex. This indicates that the collision between East- and West-Gondwana involved several cycles of exhumation and burial pr...

Field evidence from the Baladiyah complex in the northern part of the Arabian–Nubian Shield of Saudi Arabia indicates several erosional unconformities separating different high- and medium-grade metasedimentary sequences. This suggests that the collision between East and West Gondwana involved several cycles of exhumation and burial, providing a un...

Metamorphic core complexes are usually thought to be associated with regional crustal extension and crustal thinning, where deep crustal material is exhumed along gently dipping normal shear zones oblique to the regional extension direction. We present a new mechanism whereby metamorphic core complexes can be exhumed along crustal-scale strike-slip...

The orogenic belts are characterized by intrusions of several intrusive rocks which mark different magmatic cycles during the tectonic evolution of the belts. Arabian-Nubian Shield is considered to be one of the largest Neoproterozoic juvenile continental crust exposures on Earth which was formed due to the collision between East- and West-Gondwana...

Field evidence from the Baladiyah complex in the northern part of the Arabian^Nubian Shield of Saudi Arabia indicates several ero-sional unconformities separating different high-and medium-grade metasedimentary sequences. This suggests that the collision between East and West Gondwana involved several cycles of exhumation and burial, providing a un...

Abstract Calc-alkaline and alkaline intrusions of the late Neoproterozic form essential part of the Arabian–Nubian Shield. They were formed during the collision between Eastand West-Gondwana. Sharm El-Sheikh area, Sinai, includes wide compositional array of these intrusions that can be considered as a case study. Variations in both tectonic and the...

Neoproterozoic arc mantle beneath the Arabian Nubian Shield (ANS) in the Eastern Desert (ED) of Egypt exhumed due to intra-oceanic upthrusting are represented mainly by exposed ophiolitic peridotites serpentinized to different degree. Metamorphism is related to the Pan-African collision and the subduction of oceanic lithosphere. However, polarity o...

Alteration of Mid-Archean oceanic lithosphere, Barberton greenstone belt (South Africa): Insights into fluid-rock interaction processes from metamorphic and geochemical constraints

A petrological and metamorphic comparison of Mesoproterozoic metabasic rocks on the eastern margin of the Archaean Grunehogna Craton and the adjacent Maud Belt in western Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, revealed a difference in peak metamorphic conditions from T = 290 ± 50oC to 690 - 748oC and P = 3.0 ± 0.8 to 8.5 - 10.7 kbar over a distance o...

Upper amphibolite facies rocks from mid-crustal levels are exhumed in the Arabian-Nubian Shield as metamorphic complexes surrounded by low-grade rocks. These middle crustal level rocks were exhumed during the East- and West-Gondwana collision (Pan-African event) in a time interval of ca. 630 to 590 Ma. One of these metamorphic complexes (i.e. Balad...

The Arabian-Nubian Shield is made up of juvenile crust which was formed due to arc-arc accretion during the East- and West-Gondwana collision (Pan-African event) and the closing of the Mozambique Ocean. Thus the shield is composed of ophiolitic and volcanic material with oceanic affinity. However rocks with continental affinity can be found as high...

The metamorphic complexes of the Arabian-Nubian Shield were exhumed by different exhumation mechanisms (i.e. in extension or oblique transpression regime) during the Pan African activity of Najd Fault System - the largest pre-Mesozoic shear zone on Earth. The different exhumation mechanisms could be the consequence of (i) orientation of the complex...

Petrological and metamorphic constraints from five metamorphic complexes which were exhumed during the collision between East- and West-Gondwana across the main collisional suture zone are presented. These include: (a) Meatiq complex in Eastern Desert of Egypt, (b) Feiran-Solaf complex in Sinai, Egypt (c) Sa'al-Zaghra complex in Sinai, Egypt, (d) G...

A new tectonic model of the exhumation mechanism of the Arabian-Nubian Shield will be presented at the EGU2013 by Abu-Alam and Stüwe (2013). According to this new tectonic model, the shear zones of the Arabian-Nubian Shield can be classified into two types; deep-seated and relatively shallow shear zones. The deep-seated shear zones are accompanied...

Neoproterozoic arc mantle beneath the Arabian Nubian Shield (ANS) in the Eastern Desert (ED) of Egypt exhumed due to intra-oceanic upthrusting are represented mainly by exposed ophiolitic peridotites serpentinized to different degree. Metamorphism is related to the Pan-African collision and the subduction of oceanic lithosphere. However, polarity o...

Calc-alkaline to alkaline intrusions of the late Neoproterozic form essential part of the Arabian- 21 Nubian Shield that was formed during the collision between East- and West-Gondwana. Sharm El– 22 Sheikh area, Sinai includes wide compositional array of these intrusions that can be considered as a 23 case study to follow up the variations in both...

During the Precambrian-Cambrian transition, the Arabian-Nubian Shield underwent final assembly and accretion to the Saharan Metacraton concurrent with the assembly of eastern and western Gondwana. The Arabian-Nubian Shield consisted of volcanic island-arc terranes, equivalent intrusions and the connecting oceanic crust. During the eastern and weste...

The Arabian-Nubian Shield is the largest tract of juvenile continental crust of Neoproterozoic age on Earth. This crust was generated due to arc-arc collision associated with the closing of the Mozambique Ocean. Distribution of ophiolitic rocks marks fossils suture zones in the shield. Petrological, mineral chemistry, whole-rock chemistry and therm...

The Butana region lies 250 km south east of Khartoum and is one of the few exposures of Proterozoic basement in Central Sudan. The area is characterized by a flat surface and isolated basement exposures. Various authors have allocated the region to part of the Arabian-Nubian Shield or to part of the reworked Sahara Craton. Although the area is inde...

The northernmost part of the Neoproterozoic Arabian-Nubian Shield (Sinai) comprises volcano-sedimentary metamorphic complexes evolved during the Pan-African Orogeny. Distinction among Sinai metamorphic complexes is largely based on the fact that they are located in different area (some tens of kilometers apart) and are separated by extensive region...

Low-grade metabasites and hydrothermally altered ultramafic rocks form most of the Paleoarchean Barberton Greenstone Belt (BGB) of South Africa. However, P^T constraints are sparse and the nature of the greenschist-facies metamorphism is poorly characterized. This study provides new P^T estimates and descriptions of the petrological characteristics...