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Phanerozoic thermochronology record of Afro-Arabia through space and time
Samuel C Boone1,2,3, Malcolm McMillan4, Maria-Laura Balestrieri5
1University of Sydney, School of Geosciences, Camperdown, NSW, 2050, Australia. samuel.boone@sydney.edu.au.
Abstract:
Low-temperature thermochronology has been widely used in eastern Africa and Arabia (Afro-Arabia) to investigate the long-term thermal evolution of the crust in response to Phanerozoic tectonism. Yet, utilisation of this invaluable thermochronology record to inform numerical investigations into the long-term tectonothermal, geodynamic and landscape evolution of the region has been limited by the dispersion of these data across numerous disparate case studies. Here, we present a relational database of apatite (1787), zircon (68) and titanite fission-track (97) analyses, and apatite (1,945), zircon (3310), and titanite (U-Th)/He (83) ages, including 465 new fission-track and 2,583 new single-grain (U-Th)/He analyses from the region. Where available, all detailed data needed for performing thermal history modelling are presented. Also included are 668 digitised thermochronology-derived thermal history simulations. Collectively, this comprehensive database records the Phanerozoic thermal evolution of Afro-Arabia through space and time. The machine-readable database is made publicly available through the EarthBank platform, enabling 4D (3D through time) geospatial data interrogation.
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