Emplacement of the giant Kunene AMCG complex into a contractional ductile shear zone and implications for the Mesoproterozoic tectonic evolution of SW Angola

Massif-type anorthosites are voluminous, plagioclase-dominated batholiths that occur worldwide, but only during the Proterozoic Eon. Granitoids are closely associated with the anorthosites, and they collectively may form an AMCG suite (i.e., anorthosite, mangerite, charnockite, granite). Many fundamental questions regarding the origin of the AMCG complexes remain unresolved, including their tectonic setting and mode of emplacement. Here, we present new data from reconnaissance structural mapping, U–Pb LA-ICP-MS zircon dating, and ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar amphibole and mica dating from a 500 km² area straddling the western margin of one of the world’s largest (≥ 15,000 km²), but also least studied AMCG suites, the Kunene Complex (KC) in Angola. The oldest recognized (pre-Kunene) deformation event D₁ produced a steep WNW–ESE-striking S₁ fabric in supracrustal rocks, migmatite and Paleoproterozoic (1800–1780 Ma) granodiorite before ~ 1680 Ma. This was folded by the D₂ event, resulting in steep, N–S-striking S₂ leucosomes and gneissosity in the rocks surrounding the KC. Concordant magmatic layering and lamination, and high- to low-temperature gneissic foliation in the marginal Kunene anorthosite and coeval megacrystic granite are parallel with S₂ fabrics in the Paleoproterozoic country rocks. Mineral stretching lineations L₂ in all rock types across intrusive contacts are steep and associated with west-side-up (thrust) shearing. Overlapping U–Pb zircon/baddeleyite ages from the Kunene megacrystic granite and Kunene anorthosite, with ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar mica ages from the mantling Paleoproterozoic country rocks, attest to progressive contraction, thrusting and exhumation of the Paleoproterozoic country rocks onto the Kunene anorthosite in the interval 1410–1380 Ma. We suggest that thermal softening of the country rocks caused by heat dissipation from the earliest phase (1500–1410 Ma) of ponding of hot anorthositic magma in the deep crust localized D₂ deformation at the margin of the KC. Our data point to a tectonic model whereby anorthosite sheets were emplaced at a high angle to the shortening direction and along host-rock S₂ anisotropy deep in the crust and cooled during progressive ductile thrusting and exhumation of the country rocks. These results question the current view that Proterozoic AMCG suites are emplaced in extensional environments as large diapiric bodies and favor formation in a continental arc setting.