Tectonic Assembly of Gondwanaland, Northern Namibia

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Recent hypotheses suggest that the breakup of a single supercontinent at about 750 Ma has led to the origin of several independent continents now widely scattered over the earth. It poses testable models for identifying the former extent and connections of these continents and gives new meaning to previously identified intercontinental (eg. Pan-African/Brasiliano and Grevillian/Kibaran) orogenic systems. The work will focus on a unique triple junction exposed in the Namib Desert on the coastal escarpment of northern Namibia. This key locations is near the center of the hypothesized supercontinent. The initial focus of the project is on the foreland thrust and fold belts of the southern and western Congo margins , involving sequences related to rifting, passive-margin subsidence, terrane accretion and terminal collision. Pesults will provide essential data to reconstruct the tectonic history of this area and to allow a rigorous test of the hypothesis that these events are part of a supercontinent breakup that has led to the present distribution of continental crust.