Gondwana assembly: The view from Southern Africa and East Gondwana

Abstract

Neoproterozoic-Cambrian tectonism in Africa, Antarctica and formerly adjacent parts of East Gondwana records the final assembly of the Gondwana supercontinent. Here we compile recent data regarding the timing and kinematics of tectonism for critical parts of southern Africa and East Gondwana, focusing on the period between ~ 650-500 Ma, and integrate these data into a regional framework in order to investigate aspects of the assembly of this portion of Gondwana. We use this information to address the following questions. What cratons remained coherent continental blocks between Rodinia break-up and Gondwana assembly? What were the configurations of Neoproterozoic-Cambrian oceans that separated these coherent blocks? When did the cratons reassemble into the Gondwana supercontinent? In southern Africa, the apparent continuity of older terranes across the Neoproterozoic Zambezi belt, together with other evidence, suggest that the Congo and Kalahari cratons have been a coherent block since ~ 1.1 Ga. The Khomas/Adamastor ocean did not transect the Congo/ Kalahari block; instead any tectonic connection with the Neoproterozoic-Cambrian collisional plate boundary in the Mozambique belt must have been via shear zones such as the Mwembeshi dislocation, which was active at ~ 550 Ma. Age and structural data from Queen Maud Land in East Antarctica indicate that this area was also linked with the Congo/Kalahari block and remained attached to it during the breakup of Rodinia. A suture must thus separate this block from the main part of the East Antarctic craton and likely represents the southern continuation of the Mozambique Ocean. Accumulating evidence for Neoproterozoic-Cambrian orogenesis (~ 550-520 Ma) in the Lützow-Holm Bay and Queen Maud Land regions of East Antarctica suggest the postulated continuation of the Mozambique suture zone may lie beneath the ice, where it separates the main part of the East Antarctic craton from the Congo-Kalahari block and contiguous sectors of Queen Maud Lond. There is also increasing evidence for Neoproterozoic-Cambrian tectonism in the Enderby Land and Wilkes Land sectors of East Antarctica, and in formerly adjacent portions of western Australia and India. Although the regional tectonic significance of this activity with regard to Gondwana assembly remains uncertain, its widespread nature is additional evidence that East Gondwana did not remain an entirely coherent, rigid entity since ~ 1.1 Ga. Final assembly of East and West Gondwana occurred in the Cambrian along boundaries that only partially coincide with the Mesozoic continental margins of the southern continents.