Age Determinations from the Mozambique and Zambesi Orogenic Belts, Central Africa

Nature ◽  
1964 ◽  
Vol 201 (4918) ◽  
pp. 463-464 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. J. SNELLING ◽  
E. HAMILTON ◽  
D. REX ◽  
G. HORNUNG ◽  
R. L. JOHNSON ◽  
...  
1968 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 621-628 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. R. Vail ◽  
N. J. Snelling ◽  
D. C. Rex

The significance of new age determinations on pre-Katangan (Late Precambrian) rocks and minerals from Zambia and adjacent parts of Tanzania and Rhodesia is discussed. In northwestern Rhodesia, the Lomagundi-Piriwiri sediments were deposited between 2500 and 2000 m.y. ago and were folded along meridional trends at circa 1940 m.y. A later episode of folding and metamorphism along similar trends occurred about 1700 m.y. ago, but only affected the western part of the sedimentary sequence (the Piriwiri Series). This latter date is comparable to that which appears to characterize the Tumbide trend, a N- to NE-trending fold system, in Zambia.In Zambia the Tumbide trend is the oldest tectonic episode preserved in the basement and is found only in isolated blocks and cores into which later tectonisms have not penetrated. The dominant pre-Katangan tectonism is represented by the NE to ENE Irumide trend. Such tectonic trends are particularly well developed in the Irumide Orogenic Belt of northern Zambia and adjacent Tanzania. Age determinations set a younger limit of circa 900 m.y. to this trend and the existence of an Irumide Cycle between about 1600 and 900 m.y. is suggested. The possibility that the relatively unmetamorphosed sediments of the Upper Plateau Series and Abercorn Sandstones at the southern end of Lake Tanganyika, the Mafingi Series of northern Malawi, and the Konse Series of Tanzania, represent near-contemporaneous platform deposition associated with the Irumide belt is considered.From this and other recent studies the distribution of orogenic belts in central and eastern Africa can be revised and a number of features of their pattern and inter-relationships noted.


The Precambrian orogenic belts of Africa are often defined by ductile shear zones which developed in response to large displacements, and which mark orogenic ‘ fronts ’ between mobile and stable parts of the crust. They are thought to represent the major crustal reflectors seen by seismic reflection profiling in younger orogenic belts. These orogenic fronts are connected by shear zones that transfer displacement or accommodate different displacements, between orogenic segments. Smaller shears within an orogenic belt occur as a result of differential movements. These shear zones are seen to pass from flat-lying to steep structures and may have a thrust or strike-slip sense. They compare with the staircase trajectories characteristic of foreland thrust belts. In common with thrust belts, the geometry of the shear zones can be used to estimate displacement direction, as can regional extensional fabrics developed in the associated high-strain tectonites. Central Africa has been previously described as a complex network of late Proterozoic ‘mobile belts’. The recognition of similar displacements and time equivalence in these belts allows their reinterpretation in terms of a linked thrust and strike-slip shear-zone system. An example is the Damaran, Lufilian, Zambezi and Ukingan system. These orogenic belts share a similar displacement picture and broad time equivalence and were apparently linked in a lower crustal shear zone of continental dimensions. This shear zone system appears to have developed under a single tectonic framework


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamed G. Abdelsalam ◽  
◽  
Estella A. Atekwana ◽  
Rob L. Evans ◽  
Kevin L. Mickus

2006 ◽  
Vol 46 (1-2) ◽  
pp. v-xi ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve McCourt ◽  
Richard Hanson ◽  
Roger Key

2014 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 171-186 ◽  
Author(s):  
CARLA C.A. NETO ◽  
CLAUDIO M. VALERIANO ◽  
CLAUDIA R. PASSARELLI ◽  
MONICA HEILBRON ◽  
MARCELA LOBATO

The chemical and spectrometric procedures of the U-Pb geochronology method on monazites, recently installed in the LAGIR laboratory, are described in detail. In addition, preliminary results on monazite samples from the Brasília and Ribeira belts are reported and discussed in the context of the regional geology. Several experiments for calibration of ion exchange chromatographic columns with the AG-1x8 resin, were performed with HCl, using dissolved natural monazite samples. The Pb blanks of reagents are ∼0.5 pg/g in acids and ∼1 pg/g in H2O. The total Pb blanks in chemical procedures were below 22 pg. Preliminary results are presented from three case studies related to Brasiliano orogenic belts of SE-Brazil, which correlate very well with previous age determinations from literature: two sub-concordant grains from an Araxá Group quartzite (southern Brasília belt) define a concordia age of 602.6 ±1.4 Ma; a -0.8% discordant grain from a quartzite of the São Fidelis Group (Costeiro Domain, central Ribeira belt) yielded a concordia age of 535.3 ± 2.4 Ma; two 0.4 % and 1.3 % discordant monazite grains from the post-collisional Itaoca Granite (Costeiro Domain, central Ribeira belt) define a concordia age of 476.4 ± 1.8 Ma.


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