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In-Depth Information
13
New Regional Correlations Between the Congo,
Paran
´
and Cape-Karoo Basins of Southwest
Gondwana
Bastien Linol, Maarten J. de Wit, Edison J. Milani, Francois Guillocheau,
and Claiton Scherer
13.1
Introduction
Africa and the Karoo and Kalahari Basins of southern Africa,
thus suggesting a unified stratigraphy across large parts of
southwest Gondwana. Subsequently, during the two decades
1947-1967, advances in paleomagnetism and the discovery of
sea-floor spreading finally allowed more accurate plate-
reconstructions. Based on this new data, the first detailed
Geological Map of Gondwana was produced by de Wit
et al. (
1988
), clearly documenting similarities and differences
in the stratigraphy of Africa, South America, Madagascar,
India, Antarctica, Australia and New Zealand when viewed
in this Gondwana framework (Fig.
13.1
).
Today, paleogeographic reconstructions of Gondwana can
be routinely computed and animated through geological times
using modern software systems (e.g.
http://www.gplates.com
;
www.reeves.nl/Gondwana
). But these models need to be
tested and continuously refined further through new field
observations and correlations between the different continents
(e.g. Iannuzzi and Boardman
2007
:
The recognition of the complementary shapes of Africa and
South America as early as the sixteenth century generally
suggested that the two continents were once united (e.g.
Oreskes
2001
). This idea was latter transformed into the
hypothesis of the displacement of the continents, or
'
Conti-
nental Drift
,byWegener(
1912
), and then supported by field
observations by Keidel (
1916
) and Du Toit (
1926
,
1927
,
1937
) who, first correlated in detail the litho- and bio-
stratigraphy of the Paleozoic Cape and Karoo sequences of
southern Africa, with the Sierra de la Ventana and Paran
´
sequences of South America. Thereafter, pioneering Belgian
geologists Robert (
1946
)andCahen(
1954
) also established
robust correlations between the Congo Basin (CB) of central
'
Problems in western
Gondwana geology
workshop). Here, based on recent field-
work in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and in
Brazil, and modern basin analysis of the Congo, Paran
´
and
Cape-Karoo Basins (Milani
1997
; Milani and de Wit
2008
;
Linol
2013
), we describe new regional stratigraphic
correlations of their Phanerozoic sequences with the aim to
improve paleogeographic and geodynamic models of south-
west Gondwana.
'
13.2 General Sequence Stratigraphic
Framework
The CB of central Africa and the Paran
´
Basin (PB) of
eastern South America, now on the opposite margins of the
South Atlantic, are two large and long-lived Phanerozoic
basins that preserve comparatively similar stratigraphic
records (Fig.
13.2
).
The subcircular CB is the largest basin (ca. 1.8 million km
2
),
formed near the center of Gondwana, and now completely
surrounded by Precambrian basement
(Fig.
13.1
).
Its
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