Detrital zircon U-Pb geochronology of some metasedimentary units in the Jebba-Bode Saadu area southwestern Nigeria: Implications for northwest Africa – northeast Brazil connections in the Proterozoic

Abstract New U-Pb geochronological data obtained via LA-ICP-MS from detrital zircons in quartzo-feldspathic schists and quartzites from the Jebba-Bode Saadu area, southwestern Nigeria, provide maximum depositional ages and insights into their provenance. The Jebba quartzo-feldspathic schist and quartzite were deposited after the Late Mesoproterozoic (1 199 Ma) and Early Neoproterozoic (938 Ma), respectively, while the units from Bode Saadu were likely deposited after the Late Palaeoproterozoic (1 701 to 1 729 Ma). This suggests that the metasedimentary units in Bode Saadu are probably older than those in Jebba to the north. The protoliths of these units were derived from sources spanning the Archaean to Early Neoproterozoic, with some linked to the local basement and others potentially connected to more distant sources, such as the Borborema Province and the São Francisco Craton in Brazil. The similarities in both age distributions and lithologies between the analysed rock samples and their counterparts from South America support the hypothesis of the Atlantica Continent in the Proterozoic, which included the major cratonic blocks of West Africa and South America.