The Arabian-Nubian Shield in Northeast Africa

In Northeast Africa, a greenschist to lower amphibolite facies dominated collisional Pan-African belt extends along the Western flank of the Red Sea. The belt is known as the Egyptian Nubian Shield (ENS) in Egypt. The ENS represents the northern tip of the Arabian-Nubian Shield (ANS) and exhibits most of the essential lithological/structural features of the Midyan terrane exposed in western Saudi Arabia. The low-grade ANS was regarded as the upper crustal equivalent of the high granulite facies-dominated Mozambique Belt (MB), with both forming the N–S oriented East African Orogen (EAO), which formed during a ~200 Ma prolonged stage of closure of the Pacific-sized Mozambique Ocean, and convergence of East and West Gondwana that culminated in arc suturing and terrane accretion. The main objective of the present chapter is to introduce the ENS belt exposed in Northeast Africa. The Neoproterozoic ENS litho-units are typically juvenile and experienced a polyphase deformation history. Following this introduction, the setting of the ANS in Northeast Africa, the broad relations of the ANS with the EAO, and the tectonic components of the ANS will be addressed with reference to their lithotectonic associations, geochemistry and geochronology, and structural and tectonic framework. The chapter provides an opportunity to review the magmatic-metamorphic-tectonic history of the Pan-African belt in Northeast Africa.