1 Provenance of sandstones in Ethiopia during Late 2 Ordovician and Carboniferous–Permian Gondwana 3 glaciations: petrography and geochemistry of the Enticho 4 Sandstone and the Edaga Arbi Glacials 5 6 Anna Lewina,*, Guido Meinholdb,c, Matthias Hinderera, Enkurie L. Dawitd, 7 Robert Busserte 8 9 aInstitut für Angewandte Geowissenschaften, Fachgebiet Angewandte 10 Sedimentologie, Technische Universität Darmstadt, Schnittspahnstraße 9, 11 64287 Darmstadt, Germany 12 bAbteilung Sedimentologie / Umweltgeologie, Geowissenschaftliches 13 Zentrum Göttingen, Universität Göttingen, Goldschmidtstraße 3, 37077 14 Göttingen, Germany 15 cSchool of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Keele University, 16 Keele, Staffordshire, ST5 5BG, UK 17 dDepartment of Geology, University of Gondar, P.O. Box 196, Gondar, 18 Ethiopia 19 eInstitut für Angewandte Geowissenschaften, Fachgebiet 20 Explorationsgeologie, Technische Universität Berlin, Ackerstraße 76, 13355 21 Berlin, Germany 22 23 *corresponding author. Tel. +49 6151 1620634 24 E-mail address:
[email protected] (A. Lewin). 25 26 27 Abstract 28 29 We compare Ethiopian glaciogenic sandstone of the Late Ordovician 30 and Carboniferous–Permian Gondwana glaciations petrographically 31 and geochemically to provide insight into provenance, transport, and 32 weathering characteristics. Although several studies deal with the 33 glacial deposits in northern Africa and Arabia, the distribution of ice 34 sheets and continent-wide glacier dynamics during the two 35 glaciations remain unclear. Provenance data on Ethiopian Palaeozoic 36 sedimentary rocks are scarce. The sandstones of the Late Ordovician 37 glaciation are highly mature with an average quartz content of 95% 1 38 and an average chemical index of alteration of 85, pointing to intense 39 weathering and reworking prior to deposition.