Gondwanaland from 650-500 Ma assembly through 320 Ma merger in Pangea to 185-100 Ma breakup:supercontinental tectonics via stratigraphy and radiometric dating

• Published in: Earth-Science Reviews
• Main Author: Veevers, JJ
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: English
• Published: 2004
• Subjects: Gondwanaland; Gondwana facies; Pangea; paleogeography; tectonics; coal; LATE ORDOVICIAN GLACIATION; U-PB AGES; CENTRAL TRANSANTARCTIC MOUNTAINS; WEST-AFRICAN CRATON; EASTERN AUSTRALIA; DETRITAL-ZIRCON; FLOOD BASALTS; SOUTH-AMERICA; NEW-ZEALAND; CONTINENTAL RECONSTRUCTIONS; Transantarctic Mountains; New Zealand; Antarc*; Antarctica
• Online Access: https://researchers.mq.edu.au/en/publications/c918b581-1cb5-4b13-b99f-b308152d3cf2; https://doi.org/10.1016/j.earscirev.2004.05.002

Gondwanaland lasted from the 650-500 Ma (late Neoproterozoic-Cambrian) amalgamation of African and South American terranes to Antarctica-Australia-India through 320 Ma (mid-Carboniferous) merging with Laurussia in Pangea to breakup from 185 to 100 Ma (Jurassic and Early Cretaceous). Gondwanaland straddled the equator at 540 Ma, lay wholly in the Southern Hemisphere by 350 Ma, and then rotated clockwise so that at 250 Ma Australia reached the S pole and Africa the equator. By initial breakup of Pangea at 185 Ma, Gondwanaland had moved northward such that North Africa reached 35degreesN. The first clear picture of Gondwanaland, in the Cambrian, shows the assembly of continents with later Laurentian, European and Asian terranes along the "northern" margin, and with a trench along the "western" and "southern" margins, reflected by a 10,000-km-long chain of 530-500 Ma granites. The interior was crossed by the Prydz-Leeuwin and Mozambique Orogenic Belts. The shoreline lapped the flanks of uplifts generated during this complex terminal Pan-Gondwanaland (650-500 Ma) deformation, which endowed Gondwanaland with a thick, buoyant crust and lithosphere and a nonmarine siliciclastic facies. During the Ordovician, terranes drifted from Africa as the first of many transfers of material to the "northern" continents. Central Australia was crossed by the sea, and the eastern margin and ocean floor were flooded by gains of quartz (and 600-500 Ma zircon) from Antarctica. Ice centres in North Africa and southern South America/Africa waxed and waned in the latest Ordovician, Early Silurian, latest Devonian, and Early Carboniferous. In the mid-Carboniferous, Laurussia and Gondwanaland merged in the composite called Pangea by definitive right-lateral contact along the Variscan suture, with collisional stress and subsequent uplift felt as far afield as Australia. Ice sheets developed on the tectonic uplands of Gondwanaland south of 30degreesS. In the Early Permian, the self-induced heat beneath Pangea drove the first stage of ...