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AbstractAbstract
[en] The geology of the southwestern extreme of the African continent is characterised by a series of mobile belts that delimit the western margin of the block constituted by the Kalahari-Kapvaal cratons. In this context, Panafrican belts predominate, represented in the north-northwestern portion by the Damara, in the western region by the Gariep and, in the southern region by the Saldania. These belts, of Neoproterozoic-Eopaleozoic ages predominantly expose sedimentary covers metamorphosed in the greenschist facies. In the northwestern portion of South Africa and south of Namibia, of major interest for the correlation intended in this work. The basement of the Panafrican cover, in this case the Gariep Group, is largely constituted by medium- to high-grade terranes generated during the Kibarian event (1.2-1.1Ga) responsible for the formation of igneous and metamorphic rocks and attributed to the Metamorphic Namaqua-Natal Complex (Frimmel, 1995). This Complex presents low-pressure granulite facies conditions (Clifford et al., 1981) with polymetamorphic evolution, where old nuclei of Paleoproterozoic age (1800-2000Ma) occur within the terranes generated during the Kibarian orogeny. U-Pb studies in zircons by SHRIMP (Robb et al., 1998) confirmed for Namaqua two rock-generating events with pulses between 1220-1170 Ma (Kibarian) and 1060-1030Ma (Namaqua); with the latter the third regional deformation and important magmatism phases would be associated. In this period granulitic metamorphism and intrusion of granitoids 2 occurred and are presently represented by the Nababeep and Modderfontein gneisses that are cut by the Concordia and Rietberg granitoids. The Panafrican superposition is registered predominantly along the coastal region. The Gariep Group occurs along the coastal region tectonically covering the terranes associated with the Namaqua Metamorphic Complex. It is characterised by a group constituted mainly by rocks of very low to low metamorphic grade distributed in two tectono-stratigraphic sets with the eastern portion occupied by parautochthonous units of a passive continental margin (Port Nolloth Zone) and a western allochthonous domain (Marmora Terrane). The evidences of blueschist facies metamorphism, countless times referred in the literature (Kröner, 1974; Porada, 1979), have been recently ruled out by Frimmel and Hartnady (1992). The sedimentation period of the Gariep Group is attributed to the Neoproterozoic because it lays discordantly on the rhyolite units (Ross Pinah Formation) dated by the single zircon evaporation technique as 735Ma (Frimmel, 1995). Meert §& Van der Voo (1994) correlated diamictite intercalations, probably of age between 580 and 560 Ma, in the upper portion of the Gariep Group with the glacial deposits of Vendian age. The northeastern portion of the Gariep Group is covered by not metamorphosed sediments of the Nama Group. In the South-American counterpart, that is, the South-Brazilian region and the Uruguayan territory, an old western domain is observed The Central Domain is represented by the Rio de La Plata Craton (sensus Almeida et al.,1973) ,by de Nico Perez Terrane (Bossi et al.,1992 ;Valentines Block,PavasTerrane (Preciozzi et al.,1979) and the Rivera granitic-gneissic complex ..All of them were generated or intensively reworked during the Neoproterozoic, distributed along its eastern border and as a whole organised in the NE-SW direction. In these domain, a granitic-migmatitic infrastructure and sedimentary basins and low- to medium metamorphic grade covers predominate, related to the Lavalleja-supergroup and Zanja del Cerro Grande Group The Rocha formation is developed as a metasedimentary cover in the Punta del Este Terrane,being associated to the Atlantic Domain. Geochronologic studies recently performed in the southeastern portion of Uruguay allowed the identification of igneous rocks with U-Pb ages in zircons ranging from 650 to 1000Ma. These ages, added to the geological characteristics of the region, allowed the proposition of a new tectonic compartment for the southeastern portion of Uruguay, here named “Punta del Este Terrane”
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2005; 37 p
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Miscellaneous
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AFRICA, ANIMALS, AQUATIC ORGANISMS, ARTHROPODS, CRUSTACEANS, DECAPODS, DEVELOPED COUNTRIES, DEVELOPING COUNTRIES, FOOD, FRUITS, GEOLOGIC STRUCTURES, IGNEOUS ROCKS, INVERTEBRATES, LATIN AMERICA, METAMORPHIC ROCKS, MINERALS, PHASE TRANSFORMATIONS, ROCKS, SILICATE MINERALS, SOUTH AMERICA, VOLCANIC ROCKS
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