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…