M. Brasier et al., New U-Pb zircon dates for the Neoproterozoic Ghubrah glaciation and for the top of the Huqf Supergroup, Oman, GEOLOGY, 28(2), 2000, pp. 175-178
The Huqf Supergroup, Oman, contains volcanic horizons with the potential to
calibrate Neoproterozoic events and chemostratigraphy using U-Pb zircon ge
ochronology, A tuffaceous bed near the base, within the lower (Ghubrah) dia
mictite and beneath a lower cap carbonate, provides the first C-Pb zircon d
ate obtained from within a Neoproterozoic glacial deposit, This date of 723
+16/-10 Ma suggests a Sturtian age. Diamictites about 1 km higher in the s
ection are overlain by the Hadash cap dolomite, which compares with cap dol
omites above Marinoan glacial units elsewhere. A U-Pb zircon age of 544.5 /- 3.3 Ma from ignimbrites in the Fara Formation, near the top of the super
group, is just beneath that of the Precambrian-Cambrian boundary (ca, 543 M
a), consistent with the presence of the Neoproterozoic skeletal-fossil Clou
dina in correlative subsurface rocks, This revised chronology confirms the
existence of four negative delta(13)C excursions between ca, 723 and 543 Ma
, the lower two of which are clearly associated with glaciations.