Structural and geochronological constraints on the Pan-African tectonic evolution of the northern Damara Belt, Namibia

The Pan-African Orogen formed by convergence of numerous continental blocks during the Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian. This convergence eventually led to amalgamation of Gondwana, a supercontinent crosscut by a network of highly oblique linear orogenic belts that locally intersect each other, as in NW Namibia, where the NNW trending Kaoko Belt joins the NE trending Damara Belt. The northern Damara Belt has preserved well three regional Pan-African tectonic events due to the dominance of weak Neoproterozoic marine sediments (Damara Supergroup) that have been affected by low-grade metamorphism. A newly discovered early N-S horizontal contraction, dated by ⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar at ~590 Ma, is tentatively linked to convergence between the Congo and Kalahari cratons. This was superseded by collision between the Congo and Rio de la Plata cratons between 580 and 530 Ma that thickened and exhumed the orogenic crust of the Kaoko Belt and produce upper crustal N-S oriented folds of earlier fold trains and associated axial planar schistosities in the northern Damara Belt. A switch from E-W to NW-SE horizontal shortening occurred at ~530 Ma as a result of collision with the Kalahari Craton, triggering extensive syn-orogenic magmatism in the entire Damara Belt. During this last event, southward indentation and underthrusting of the Congo Craton promontory below the Neoproterozoic cover sequences produced a deformation front in the northern Damara Belt. Our results show that highly oblique convergent processes competed over a period of ~120 Ma to build Gondwana in Namibia during the late Neoproterozoic to early Cambrian.