Northern Africa and northeastern South America formed an extensive passive margin that experienced a long period of continental sedimentation after Western Gondwana's final assembly (Ordovician-Silurian). In the late Cambrian to Ordovician, these regions were covered by thick successions of quartz-rich sandstone widely deposited across the Western Gondwana due to extensive continental-scale alluvial systems (northeastern Brazil) and huge sediment distributive systems (northern Africa; Gondwana super-fan system/Gondwana mega-fan system). Here, we present a compilation of detrital zircon UPb ages of sandstone from North Africa, the Middle East (East African-Arabian Zircon Province and West African Zircon Province), and Northeast Brazil, allowing us to identify and integrate the sediment provenance along the northern margin of Western Gondwana during the Cambrian-Ordovician times. The here-named Northeast Brazil Zircon Province, based on kernel density estimate plots, multidimensional scaling, and cumulative age distribution, shows similar source areas and comparable detrital zircon UPb age spectra to the West African Zircon Province, both being sourced by Neoproterozoic orogenic areas (Brasiliano and Trans-Saharan orogens). We argue that all the post-Western Gondwana assembly sediments were ultimately redistributed by transcontinental alluvial systems (continental-scale rivers systems in northeast Brazil) and large sedimentary fans and distributive systems (northern Africa) towards the extensive passive margin of Western Gondwana. These continental-scale alluvial systems flowed in an extensive platform or ramp slightly tilted towards the north/northwestern margins of Western Gondwana, giving birth to several pericratonic sedimentary basins.

中文翻译：

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早期古生代西冈瓦纳巨尺度冲积系统的 Source-Sink 重建


北非和南美洲东北部形成了一个广泛的被动边缘，在西冈瓦纳最后组装（奥陶纪-志留纪）之后经历了长期的大陆沉积。在寒武纪晚期至奥陶纪，由于广泛的大陆尺度冲积系统（巴西东北部）和巨大的沉积物分配系统（北非;Gondwana 超级风扇系统/Gondwana mega-fan system）。在这里，我们展示了来自北非、中东（东非-阿拉伯锆石省和西非锆石省）和巴西东北部砂岩的碎屑锆石 UPb 年龄汇编，使我们能够识别和整合寒武纪-奥陶纪时期西冈瓦纳北缘沿线的沉积物来源。这里命名的巴西东北部锆石省，基于核密度估计图、多维尺度和累积年龄分布，显示出与西非锆石省相似的源区和可比的碎屑锆石 UPb 年龄光谱，两者都来自新元古代造山区（巴西利亚诺和跨撒哈拉造山带）。我们认为，所有后西冈瓦纳集合体沉积物最终都被跨大陆冲积系统（巴西东北部的大陆尺度河流系统）和大型沉积扇和分配系统（北非）重新分布到西冈瓦纳广阔的被动边缘。这些大陆尺度的冲积系统在一个广阔的平台或斜坡中流动，略微向西冈瓦纳的北部/西北边缘倾斜，产生了几个克拉通沉积盆地。