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

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…

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 …

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…