Gondwana breakup: messages from the North Natal Valley
| Type | Article | ||||||||||||||||||||
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| Date | 2020-06 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Language | English | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Author(s) | Moulin Maryline 1, Aslanian Daniel1, Evain Mikael1, Leprêtre Angelique1, 2, Schnurle Philippe1, Verrier Fanny1, Thompson Joseph Offei1, de Clarens P.3, Leroy S.4, Dias N.5, 6, The Pamela‐moz35 Team |
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| Affiliation(s) | 1 : Ifremer, REM/GM/LGS Centre de Brest 29280 Plouzané, France 2 : LGO, Laboratoire Geosciences Ocean IUEM CNRS 29280 Plouzané, France 3 : Total, R&D, avenue Larribau 64000 Pau , France 4 : UPMC, Univ Paris 6 CNRS UMR 7193 ISTEP 4 place Jussieu 75005 Paris, France 5 : ISEL, Instituto Superior de Engenharia de Lisboa Lisboa , Portugal 6 : IDL, Instituto Dom Luis Faculdade das Ciências da Universidade de Lisboa 1749‐016 Lisboa, Portugal |
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| Source | Terra Nova (0954-4879) (Wiley), 2020-06 , Vol. 32 , N. 3 , P. 205-214 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| DOI | 10.1111/ter.12448 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| WOS© Times Cited | 21 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Abstract | The Natal Valley, offshore Mozambique, is a key area for understanding the evolution of East Gondwana. Within the scope of the integrated multidisciplinary PAMELA project, we present new wide‐angle seismic data and interpretations, which considerably alter Geoscience paradigms. These data reveal the presence of a 30 km‐thick crust that we argue to be of continental nature. This falsifies all the most recent paleo‐reconstructions of the Gondwana. This 30 km‐thick continental crust 1000 m below sea level implies a complex history with probable intrusions of mantle‐derived melts in the lower crust, connected to several occurrences of magmatism, which seems to evidence the crucial role of the lower continental crust in passive margin genesis. |
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