An overview of the Ediacaran-Cambrian orogenic events at the southern margins of the Tanzania Craton: Implication for the final assembly of Gondwana

Abstract

The review of petrological and geochronological data from Tanzania and northern Mozambique indicate that Ediacaran to Cambrian (600 and 500 Ma) subduction and collision events resulted to the reworking of the southern and eastern margins of the Tanzania Craton, the Orosirian Ubendian - Usagaran Belt, and the Cryogenian Mozambique Belt. The distribution of the 600 - 500 Ma tectonothermal events in Tanzania and Mozambique connect to define a regional subduction and collisional event termed as the Ufipa Orogeny.The onset of the Ufipa Orogeny was about 590 Ma when the subduction started in northern Ubendian Belt to close the oceans that rifted and opened between 1340 and 655 Ma. Following the subduction, a major collisional event occurred between the Tanzania Craton and the Bangweulu Block between 570 and 550 Ma and the final accretion due to subduction was about 500 Ma in southern Ubendian Belt.Geochronological data indicate that the Ufipa Orogeny occurred concomitantly with Kuunga Orogeny between 600 and 500 Ma, which implies that the Bangweulu Block collided with the Tanzania Craton along the Ubendian Belt (Ufipa Orogeny) in the north, and during the same time the Bangweulu Block collided with the Zimbabwe-Kalahari Craton along the Damara-Lufilian-Zambezi (Kuunga Orogeny) Belt in the south.