Facies and facies association of the siliciclastic Brak River and carbonate Gemsbok formations in the Lower Ugab River valley, Namibia, W. Africa

Abstract The Neoproterozoic Zerrissene Turbidite Complex of central-western Namibia comprises five turbiditic units. From the base to the top they are the Zebraputs Formation (greywacke and pelite), Brandberg West Formation (marble and pelite), Brak River Formation (greywacke and pelite with dropstones), Gemsbok River Formation (marble and pelite) and Amis River Formation (greywacke and pelites with rare carbonates and quartz-wacke). In the Lower Ugab River valley, five siliciclastic facies were recognised in the Brak River Formation. These are massive and laminated sandstones, classical turbidites (thick- and thin-bedded), mudrock, rare conglomerate and breccia. For the carbonate Gemsbok R…

Cambrian orogeny in the Ribeira Belt (SE Brazil) and correlations within West Gondwana: ties that bind underwater

A Damara orogen perspective on the assembly of southwestern Gondwana

The Pan-African Damara orogenic system records Gondwana amalgamation involving serial suturing of the Congo-Sao Francisco and Ro ´o de la Plata cratons (North Gondwana) from 580 to 550 Ma, before amalgamation with the Kalahari - Antarctic cratons (South Gondwana) as part of the 530 Ma Kuunga-Damara orogeny. Closure of the Adamastor Ocean was diachronous from the Aracuao ´ Belt southwards, with peak sinistral transpressional deformation followed by craton overthrusting and foreland basin development at 580- 550 Ma in the Kaoko Belt and at 545-530 Ma in the Gariep Belt. Peak deformation/metamorphism in the Damara Belt was at 530-500 Ma, with thrusting onto the Kalahari Craton from 495 Ma thro…

Flame foliation: Evidence for a schistosity formed normal to the extension direction

Abstract Foliations are normally thought to develop approximately parallel to the XY-plane of the finite strain ellipsoid, i.e., perpendicular to the main shortening direction. We present a new type of schistosity named “flame foliation” that forms orthogonal to the main extension direction, approximately parallel to the YZ-plane of finite strain. Flame foliation consists of anastomosing biotite-rich selvedges overprinting S1 in pelitic layers of metaturbitites in NW Namibia. The biotite crystals in the selvedges are peculiar because they are oriented oblique or orthogonal to the flame foliation itself and parallel to the previous S1 cleavage, a feature no other foliation shows. In some cas…

Protomylonite, Mylonite and Ultramylonite

The objective of this chapter is to show how variation of strain intensity can be judged in thin section. Usually this kind of variation can best be observed in low-grade mylonites where the percentage of porphyroclasts decreases progressively with strain intensity. However, the percentage of matrix is highly dependent on mineralogical composition (e.g. quartz and biotite tend to convert to matrix readily). Compositional banding in gneiss can therefore result in mylonitic banding of apparent strain variation, which in fact only reflects variation in composition of the parent rock. Several examples of ultramylonite are derived from quartzitic rocks that tend to form few or no porphyroclasts …

Evolution of mica fish in mylonitic rocks

Abstract Mineral fish are lozenge-shaped porphyroclasts, single crystals in a finer grained matrix, which occur in ductile shear zones and which are commonly used as shear sense indicators. Mineral fish of biotite, tourmaline, K-feldspar, garnet, hypersthene and quartz occur in mylonites but most common are white mica fish. These mica fish can be subdivided into six morphological groups that develop by different mechanisms determined by different initial shapes and orientations. The principal mechanisms of formation are intracrystalline deformation combined with rigid body rotation. Concomitant selective grain size reduction occurs by recrystallisation, cataclastic separation, pressure solu…

Depositional ages and provenance of the Neoproterozoic Damara Supergroup (northwest Namibia): implications for the Angola-Congo and Kalahari cratons connection

Abstract The Damara Orogen is composed of the Damara, Kaoko and Gariep belts developed during the Neoproterozoic Pan-African Orogeny. The Damara Belt contains Neoproterozoic siliciclastic and carbonate successions of the Damara Supergroup that record rift to proto-ocean depositional phases during the Rodinia supercontinent break up. There are two conflicting interpretations of the geotectonic framework of the Damara Supergroup basin: i) as one major basin, composed of the Outjo and Khomas basins, related to rifting in the Angola-Congo-Kalahari paleocontinent or, ii) as two independent passive margin basins, one related to the Angola-Congo and the other to the Kalahari proto-cratons. Detrita…

Stratigraphy of the Neoproterozoic Damara Sequence in northwest Namibia: Slope to basin sub-marine mass-transport deposits and olistolith fields

Abstract The Neoproterozoic Damara Sequence (>1000 m thick) is composed of siliciclastic and carbonate rocks that crop out in the Damara Belt, Namibia. In Damaraland (including the Vrede, Bethanis, Austerlitz and Toekoms farms), these rocks were deformed and metamorphosed under greenschist facies (biotite zone) conditions during the Damara Orogeny. The stratigraphy and paleoenvironments of the Damara Sequence rocks are debated by the scientific community. We use field data, including detailed 1:25,000 geological mapping, elaboration of stratigraphic profiles and observation of preserved primary structures, textures and composition, to identify lithofacies and lithofacies associations, and t…

Shear Sense Indicators

Many geologists study mylonites with the exclusive aim to determine the sense of shear. Obviously this is an important aspect, but it is important to study shear zones first, before shear sense determination is attempted. In order to deduce the correct sense of shear we recommend the following procedure (Fig. 9.1)

Porphyroblasts and Reaction Rims

A volume of rock involved in deformation and metamorphism will continuously undergo changes in structure and mineral content. This chapter treats mineral growth and replacement structures and the way in which their geometry can be used to reconstruct tectonic history. Two types of informative structures are treated: porphyroblasts and reaction rims.

A Framework of Microtectonic Studies

From their first use in the last century, thin sections of rocks have been an important source of information for geologists. Many of the older textbooks on structural geology, however, did not treat microscopic aspects of structures, while petrologists would describe microscopic structures as, for example, lepidoblastic or nematoblastic without paying much attention to kinematic and dynamic implications. During the last decades, however, structural geologists learned to profit from the wealth of data that can be obtained from the geometry of structures studied in thin section, and metamorphic petrologists have appreciated the relation of structural evolution on the thin section scale and m…

Low-Grade Mylonites

The temperature range for these mylonites is thought to be roughly between 250 and 500 °C. There is a gradual transition between cataclasites and low-grade mylonites. Whereas many feldspar porphyroclasts in low-grade mylonites still show fracturing by cataclasis, the quartz is usually deformed by crystal-plastic processes as shown by its change in shape and by undulose extinction. At increasing temperature bulging recrystallisation starts to manifest itself along the lobate contacts and eventually recrystallisation by subgrain rotation takes over (Chapter 10).

How to make a transverse triple junction—New evidence for the assemblage of Gondwana along the Kaoko-Damara belts, Namibia

T-shaped orogenic triple junctions between mobile belts usually form in two unrelated stages by subsequent and oblique continental collisions separated by a significant time span. Besides these “oblique triple junctions”, another type, named “transverse triple junctions”, may exist. Such junctions are created by a more complex mechanism of partly contemporaneous convergence of three cratons in a restricted time frame, involving strike slip. The Neoproterozoic–Cambrian Kaoko-Damara junction between the Rio de la Plata, Congo, and Kalahari cratons in Namibia is an example of such a transverse orogenic triple junction, formed by at least four subsequent but partly related deformation events. I…

530Ma syntectonic syenites and granites in NW Namibia — Their relation with collision along the junction of the Damara and Kaoko belts

Abstract The Lower Ugab and Goantagab structural domains are located at the junction between the N–S trending Kaoko and the E–W trending Damara belts (NW Namibia), where Neoproterozoic metavolcano-sedimentary sequences were intruded by several syenitic/granitic plutons. We present here new U–Pb ages on zircon grains from the Voetspoor and Doros plutons. Together with petrological, geochemical and structural data we evaluate the timing of the deformation and relation to the geodynamics during the final stage of Gondwana amalgamation. The plutons are composed of three main rock types: hornblende quartz-syenite, syenodiorite and biotite granite. The two former are predominant and show genetic …

Crystal-Plastic Deformation, Recovery and Recrystallisation of Quartz

As stated in the introduction, this chapter is included because of the special importance of quartz to estimate metamorphic conditions during and after mylonitisation. The theory behind crystal-plastic deformation is treated elsewhere (e.g. Passchier & Trouw 2005). The main optical expression of crystal-plastic deformation is smooth, non-patchy undulose extinction. Elongated grains with such undulose extinction, sometimes accompanied by deformation lamellae, are indicative for low-temperature deformation. At slightly higher temperatures recovery produces subgrains and recrystallisation tends to substitute the old deformed grains by small new ones. Three types of recrystallisation can be dis…

High-Grade Mylonites

High-grade mylonites are formed at temperatures above 650 °C. They are relatively uncommon, probably because their conservation is problematic. Most mylonites formed under these conditions would tend to fully recrystallise which destroys and masks the mylonitic structure. Mylonitic features are only preserved if grain growth is somehow inhibited in the rock, e.g. by its polymineralic nature.

Mylonites Derived From Parent Rocks Other Than Granites and Gneisses

Most mylonites shown in this atlas are derived from granites and gneisses. This is not a coincidence; the mineralogy of these rocks favours the formation of mylonites because of the contrasting behaviour of quartz and biotite on the one hand (forming matrix) and feldspar and muscovite on the other hand (forming porphyroclasts). Another group of rocks that readily forms mylonites are impure quartzites in which resistant minerals tend to form fish-like structures, again, by strong contrast in rheological behaviour.

Intrusion mechanisms in a turbidite sequence; the Voetspoor and Doros plutons in NW Namibia

Abstract Two syntectonic plutons of Cambrian age intruded Neoproterozoic metaturbidites in Namibia at the junction of the NS trending Kaoko and EW trending Damara belts. Sinistral transpression in the Kaoko Belt produced km-scale upright D1 folds overprinted by minor D2 folds. D3 is associated with N–S shortening in the Damara Belt. The plutons show two main pulses of intrusion: hornblende syenite intruded late during D1 or during D2 and biotite granite during D3. Each tectonic event produced a strain shadow defined by the shape of folds and the foliation trend around the plutons. The internal igneous fabric and the arrangement of wall rock xenoliths that locally make up 50% of the intrusio…

Complex vein systems as a data source in tectonics: An example from the Ugab Valley, NW Namibia

Abstract Neoproterozoic metaturbidites in the Lower Ugab Domain, Namibia, contain a complex network of four sets of quartz-calcite veins, overprinted by km-scale folds associated with four regional foliations. The veins formed by fluid overpressure predating the main deformation. Deformation structures developed at the junction of two mobile belts during the assembly of Gondwana, the NS Kaoko Belt, and the EW trending Damara Belt. Km-scale NS trending folds were initiated during EW constriction in the Kaoko Belt, while their further development and all subsequent events are related to constriction in the EW-Damara Belt, with coeval sinistral strike slip in the Kaoko Belt. Deformation of the…

Medium-Grade Mylonites

The temperature range for the formation of this group of mylonites is approximately 500 to 650 °C. In medium-grade mylonites quartz is usually fully recrystallised, mainly by subgrain rotation, and has grown to a polygonal crystalloblastic fabric of strain free grains with an average grain size exceeding about 50 micrometers.

Foliations, Lineations and Lattice Preferred Orientation

Many microstructures in rocks are defined by a preferred orientation of minerals or fabric elements. We distinguish foliations, lineations and lattice-preferred orientation.

Key-ring structure gradients and sheath folds in the Goantagab Domain of NW Namibia

Abstract The concept of deformation phases is one of the corner stones of structural geology but, despite its simplicity, there are situations where the concept breaks down. In the Goantagab Domain of NW Namibia, structures in an area of complex deformation can be subdivided into at least four sets, attributed to four deformation phases on the basis of overprinting relations. Three of these sets of structures, however, formed during the same tectonic event under similar metamorphic circumstances but slightly different flow conditions. These sets of structures show gradational transitions in space that can be understood by a concept of “key-ring structure gradients”, where older D A structur…

Tectonic evolution of the southern Kaoko belt, Namibia

Abstract The tectonic evolution at the junction of the Panafrican Kaoko and Damara belts is well recorded in the siliciclastic and carbonate successions of the Neoproterozoic Zerrissene turbidite system, metamorphosed to the biotite zone of the greenschist facies. The structures in the turbidites are attributed to two main deformational events. The older one generated two continuous folding phases, D1 and D2, and the younger one resulted in D3 deformation. D1, of dominant E–W shortening, caused upright kilometre-scale folds with well-developed axial planar cleavage, N–S trending axial planes and subhorizontal axes. This phase graded into D2 that refolded the first folds coaxialy and develop…

From Sample to Section

A sound analysis of microstructures relies on correct sampling and on the right choice of the direction in which thin sections are cut from samples. This chapter discusses the steps of sample collection; choice of sectioning plane, and problems involved in the interpretation of three-dimensional structures from two-dimensional sections.