New Regional Correlations Between the Congo, Parana´ and Cape-Karoo Basins of Southwest Gondwana - Geology and Resource Potential of the Congo Basin - page 242

Fig. 13.4 Regional Phanerozoic
map (modified from Pankurst and
Vaughan 2009 ) and cross-section
of Gondwana, showing the CB,
PB and CKB, flanked to the south
by an extensive, long-lived
Phanerozoic orogenic belt, named
the Gondwanides

A B

30 km

WIND CIRCULATION

5 km

0

PB

CB

B

CB

CKB

PB

E

A

Gondwanides

outpouring of extensive continental flood basalts, as part of
Large Igneous Provinces (LIPs, or

et al. 2001 ; Trumbull et al. 2007 ) and the final opening of the
South Atlantic Ocean (Fig. 13.5b ).
Thereafter, Gondwana break-up continued during the
mid-Cretaceous with the final separation of Antarctica
from Africa (e.g. Fairhead 1988 ; Maurin and Guiraud
1993 ; Fig. 13.5c ) with the opening the Weddell Sea and
the southern oceans following the extrusion of the Agulhas
LIP between 90-110 Ma (Gohl et al. 2011 ). At about the
same time, continental rifting occurred in north-central
Africa (Fig. 13.5d ), and abundant kimberlites were
emplaced across southern Africa (Jelsma et al. 2009 ),
attesting of important intraplate reorganization and inter-
mittent interactions with mantle processes. This time-
interval (mid-Cretaceous) also coincides with a global cli-
mate maximum (e.g. Puc ´ at et al. 2003 ; Forster et al. 2007 )
and accelerated exhumation and erosion across southern
Africa during the onset of the Kalahari epeirogeny (de Wit
2007 ; Tinker et al. 2008 ).
The period shortly thereafter (Late Cretaceous-Cenozoic)
heralds the onset of long-term global cooling (e.g. Zachos
et al. 2001 ; Puc´at et al. 2007 ; Decker et al. 2013 ) particularly
as new ocean circulation regimes evolved during the rapid
growth of the Indian and South Atlantic Oceans (Fig. 13.5e ).
Australia, and then New Zealand separated from Antarctica,
and with the eruption of the Deccan LIP (66 Ma; Ganerød
et al. 2011 ) the Indian plate detached fromSeychelles (Torsvik
et al. 2013 ) with the former to collide thereafter with Asia
(Fig. 13.5f ), forming the Himalaya and Tibet Plateau (e.g.
Searle 2013 ). Following the formation of the Ethiopian LIP

' hot-spot plumes ' ;

Fig. 13.5 ).
Gondwana first separated from Laurentia (North Amer-
ica) in the Late Triassic with rifting marked by the emplace-
ment of the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP:
3-11

10 6 km 3 ) between 201-202 Ma (Marzoli et al. 1999 ;
Blackburn et al. 2013 ). Then, in the Early Jurassic the Karoo
LIP erupted in southeastern Africa and in southern
Antarctica as the Ferrar Province (Fig. 13.5a ),

totaling

10 6 km 3 (Encarnaci´n et al. 1996 ). Across South
Africa, Botswana and in Zimbabwe, the Karoo lavas and
abundant dykes and sill complexes are dated between
178-183 Ma (Duncan et al. 1997 ; Jones et al. 2001 ; Jourdan
et al. 2007 ). These lavas commonly cover Upper Triassic to
Lower Jurassic aeolian dune sequences that indicate contem-
poraneous hot and arid conditions (e.g. Veevers et al. 1994 ;
Johnson et al. 2006 ).
Some 50 million years later, Early Cretaceous rifting
between South America and Africa was associated with the
eruption of the Paran´ LIP in southeastern Brazil and in
western Namibia as the Etendeka Province between
131-132 Ma (totaling 2.3 10 6 km 3 ; Peate et al. 1992 ),
both of which flood basalts also cover and are interlayered
with (hot and arid) aeolian dunes (Scherer and Goldberg
2007 ; Miller 2008 ). This magmatic activity terminated
with the intrusion of 128-132 Ma dyke swarms along the
Brazilian and African margins (Deckart et al. 1998 ; Kirstein

2.5