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The Grenvillian and Pan-African orogens:

World's largest orogenies through geologic
time, and their implications on the origin of
superplume

ARTICLE in GONDWANA RESEARCH · AUGUST 2008

Impact Factor: 8.24 · DOI: 10.1016/j.gr.2008.01.001

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Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51 – 72

www.elsevier.com/locate/gr

The Grenvillian and Pan-African orogens: World's largest orogenies through

geologic time, and their implications on the origin of superplume
S. Rino a , Y. Kon a , W. Sato a , S. Maruyama a,⁎, M. Santosh b , D. Zhao c
a
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Tokyo 152-8551, Japan
b
Faculty of Science, Kochi University, Akebono-cho, Kochi 780-8520, Japan
c
Research Center for Prediction of Earthquakes and Volcanic Eruptions, Tohoku University, Sendai 980-8578, Japan
Received 17 October 2007; received in revised form 25 December 2007; accepted 2 January 2008
Available online 18 January 2008

Abstract

The Neoproterozoic Earth was shaped largely by the Grenvillian and Pan-African orogenies. Out of these, the Grenvillian orogeny has long
been regarded to be of minor nature in terms of global-scale orogenic episodes, whereas the Pan-African orogeny has been widely recognized in
many continental fragments, although not in major parts of Asia. Based on chronological information in zircons from major river mouths across
several important terrains of the globe, we show here that the Grenvillian orogeny contributed significantly to the formation of the continental
crust. The time period between 0.6 Ga and 0.8 Ga marked the climax at the dawn of the Pan-African orogeny. Continental crust formed in this
period is concentrated in the Pan-African orogenic belts widely across the globe. These regions were widespread over the half hemisphere of the
globe, and were subsequently reduced in size after they moved to form Laurasia. The normalized frequency distribution of zircon ages from river-
mouth sand over the world clearly demonstrates that Neoproterozoic and (0.9–0.6 Ga) and Grenvillian (1.3–1.0 Ga) peaks define the largest
population. This means that extensive subduction, and hence active plate tectonics, might have operated through these periods. The zircon study
has also brought to light new regions of the Grenvillian orogenic belts, particularly in the continents which are now covered by thick Phanerozoic
sedimentary basins. Based on the new locations of Grenvillian orogens identified in this study, and using the distribution patterns as a marker bed,
we propose revised paleogeographic configurations of the Rodinia and Gondwana supercontinents.
Our results demonstrate that the Neoproterozoic was the most active period of crust formation in the Earth. The cold basins, formed right after
the assembly of Rodinia, exhibit a basin chain fringing the northern periphery of Rodinia, which turned into sites of mantle upwellings and led to
the rifting and separation of the supercontinental assembly. The continents then moved northwards after the formation of Gondwana at ca. 540 Ma,
and enlarged the northern half of the supercontinent Pangea since 250 Ma.
Based on the results, we also evaluate the role of supercontinents in the mechanism of generation of superplumes addressing the enigma that
the coldest mantle right above the Core–Mantle Boundary turns to the hottest one over a period of several hundreds of million years. Slab
graveyard formed by the Pan-African subduction can be imaged through P-wave tomography. We postulate that the high-velocity anomaly in the
D” layer underneath Gondwana has now transformed to the low-V regions to generate the African superplume. The tectonic history of solid Earth
in the Phanerozoic seems to be controlled by the slab graveyards formed by the Grenvillian orogeny ca. 1.0 Ga.
© 2008 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Keywords: Rodinia; Gondwana; Zircon chronology; Crustal growth; Superplume; Cold basins; Slab graveyard

1. Introduction within the broad time span when there was a rapid decrease of
geothermal gradients along the subduction zones, and widespread
The Grenvillian (ca. 1.0 Ga) and late Pan-African (ca. 0.55 Ga) influx of CO2 associated with the major orogenic events
orogenies mark important periods in Earth history, as they fall (Maruyama et al., 2007 and references therein, Santosh and
Omori, 2008a,b2this issue). The Grenvillian orogenic belts have
⁎ Corresponding author. not been fully described in many continents, except the type
E-mail address: smaruyam@geo.titech.ac.jp (S. Maruyama). locality in Canada, North America, and some terrains in other
1342-937X/$ - see front matter © 2008 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
doi:10.1016/j.gr.2008.01.001
52 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72
continental fragments (Fig. 1) in spite of the wide attention
devoted to the reconstruction of the Neoproterozoic super-
continent Rodinia (Fitzsimons, 2000; Meert, 2001; Condie, 2002;
Rogers and Santosh, 2004 and references therein). Rodinia was
first proposed by McMenamin and McMenamin (1990), and
various configurations and refinements have since then been
published by several workers. The configuration of Rodinia
mostly refers to the works by Hoffman (1991) and Dalziel (1991)
which show blocks surrounding Laurentia and attached East
Antarctica along a series of Grenville-age belts. A similar
configuration was proposed by Meert (2001) based on paleo-
magnetic evidence. This orogenic belt has been best investigated
in North America from the southeastern region of the 1.8–1.9 Ga
Laurentia supercontinent, particularly from the type area in
Canada and the Adirondack mountain in USA (e.g. Hoffman,
1989), where high-grade metamorphism reaching granulite facies
has attracted by many petrologists, structural geologists and
geochronologists (e.g., Bohlen et al., 1985). Following the
breakup of Rodinia, the final assembly of Gondwana occurred
during the late Neoproterozoic–Cambrian times and involved the
collision of different blocks of East and West Gondwana with the
Mozambique belt in between. Various configurations and models
on the timing and tectonics of assembly of this supercontinent
have also been proposed, with support from geologic, geochro-
nologic and paleomagnetic data (Meert, 2002; Collins and
Pisarevsky, 2005; Santosh et al., 2006; Meert and Lieberman,
20082this issue, and references therein).
Tracing the history of evolution of continents and super-
continents, and their implications on solid earth processes,
require an understanding of the growth of the continental crust
through time. Various models have been proposed for the
formation mechanism and growth rate of the continental crust,
which include: (1) thermal evolution model and estimation
of dominant growth of continental crust in the Archean
Fig. 1. Global distribution of the Grenvillian (blue) and Pan-African (red) orogenic belts over the world. The distribution in the central portion of Australia is not well
known.
(Armstrong, 1991; Reymer and Schubert, 1984); (2) gradual
continental growth since the Archean on the basis of the present
day distribution of continental crust and its age (Dewey and
Windley, 1981; Condie, 1998); and (3) a major spike in crust
formation in the Archean followed by subsequent gradual
increase based on the isotopic evolution of the mantle (O'Nions
et al., 1979; Allegre, 1982; McCulloch and Bennett, 1994).
Recently, a new method was developed by Rino et al. (2004)
based on the dating of detrital zircons from river sands to record
the episodic character of continental growth and its relationship
to mantle processes.
In this paper, we present a synthesis of age data on magmatic
zircons from several new locations including Grenvillian and
Pan-African orogenic belts from various regions of the world,
based on zircons sampled from river sands from major river
mouths. In a previous study, Rino et al. (2004) introduced the
basic principle of zircon study to estimate the growth rate of
continental crust of the Earth, using an example of Mississippi
river and its drainage hinterland in North America. This study
addressed several questions such as: (1) how many zircons are
necessary to obtain meaningful results; (2) does the age
population reflect the basement rock ratio with different age;
(3) how to evaluate the recycling of source materials, role of
sedimentary cover, and the mechanism of sedimentary mixing
etc. The study showed that the river-mouth zircon data clearly
reflect the spatial distribution of continental crust with different
ages in the drainage region of North America. Preliminary
results from zircon age populations of some of the major rivers
over the world were reported in Rino et al. (2004) and Iizuka
et al. (2005). Here we present a synthesis of the comprehensive
results from 16 major drainage basins from over 6000 zircon
analyses. The data allow a precise definition of the growth curve
of continental crust through time, based on 26% coverage
of landmass by river-mouth zircons through the four-step
 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72
improvements such as: (1) covered vs. uncovered regions,
combined with global geology, (2) analogy of East Antarctica
and eastern half of Australia with N. Africa, (3) submerged
portion of continental crust, and (4) juvenile arc crust in the
western Pacific.
The results presented in this study are based on zircon data
from major rivers in widely separated continental fragments
across the globe which suggest that the Grenvillian and Pan-
African were probably the world's largest orogens through time
that generated a substantial part of the Earth's continental crust.
We also propose revised paleogeographic reconstructions of
Rodinia at ca. 1.0 Ga and Gondwana at ca. 0.55 Ga, and discuss
the role of these supercontinental assemblies in controlling
the Phanerozoic mantle convection of the Earth. We draw
inferences on the origin of the Pacific and African superplumes
from the slab graveyards formed during the formation of the two
supercontinents.
2. Geological outline
A brief geological outline of the Grenvillian and Pan-African
orogens investigated in this study is given below.
The Grenvillian orogenic belt (also known as Kibaran in
Africa, Kröner and Stern, 2004) has been best investigated in
North America, particularly in the Adirondack Mountain. The
Grenville province of North America comprises several hundred
km wide zone of Mesoproterozoic (Helikian) metamorphic
rocks exhibiting polyphased deformation (Whitney, 1992). The
belt stretches from southern Labrador to the eastern shore of
Lake Huron, and from there a subsurface extension is traced
southwest to the Llano Uplift in Texas. Blocks of Grenville-age
rocks are also found in northern Mexico. The Grenville province
is characterized by radiometric ages in the range of 1.45 to
1.0 Ga, although in the northeastern part, close to the Grenville
front, these ages are overprinted on older rocks. It is bound on the
NW by the Superior (N 2.5 Ga), and southern (1.0–1.8 Ga)
provinces of the Canadian shield, with the exception of
numerous, partially allochthonous exposures within the Appa-
lachian orogen. Protoliths of the Grenville metamorphic rocks
are shallow marine platform deposits including stromatolites
inter-layered with calc–silicate sediments, carbonaceous sedi-
ments, quartzite, acidic tuff and thin mafic flows. All of these
were extensively deformed under upper amphibolite to granu-
lite-facies metamorphism (7–8 kb, 625–820 °C, Bohlen et al.,
1985). The highlands are underlain by the granulite facies,
whereas amphibolite-facies rocks dominate the NW lowlands.
South America has prominently figured in studies that
elucidate the tectonic architecture of West Gondwana (e.g.
Cordani et al., 2003; Teixeira et al., 2007). The cratonic masses
that formed the West Gondwana in the Neoproterozoic included
Amazonia, West Africa, São Francisco–Congo, Rio de La Plata
and Kalahari. Smaller continental masses or micro-continents,
include the Central Goiás massif, the Borborema/Trans-Saharan
block, as well as the Luiz Alves, Paraná and Pampia cratonic
fragments. Signals of extension and fracturing within the
Rodinia assembly are traced from the São Francisco–Congo
craton where 1000–1100 Ma mafic dyke swarms are observed,
53
with final breakup at 750 Ma. The formation of intra-oceanic
magmatic arcs within the large Goiás Ocean occurred prior to
930 Ma ago. The first continental collisions related to Gondwana
are traced back to ca. 800 Ma, with the major accretion episodes
identified between 650 and 500 Ma, corresponding to the
Brasiliano/Pan-African Orogenic Cycle. Thus, the fragmenta-
tion of Rodinia in this region is considered to be partially
synchronous with the agglutination of Gondwana.
Another Grenvillian orogen is in the Eastern Ghats Belt in
India, correlated with East Antarctica, where a large number of
petrological studies have been published particularly with
reference to granulite-facies rocks subjected to ultrahigh-
temperature metamorphism under CO2-rich conditions (e.g.:
Sarkar et al., 2003 and references therein). The Terrane
Boundary Shear Zone in this belt is similar to the Grenville
front and transported granulite-facies rocks westward over the
dominantly amphibolite-facies suites of the Archean cratons
(Biswal et al., 2002). In Pangea, the Eastern Ghats was separated
from the Rayner Belt of Antarctica by the Archean Napier
Complex (Biswal et al., 2002). Rogers and Santosh (2004)
considered the Eastern Ghats to represent an exterior thrust belt,
and the Rayner suite the interior magmatic belt, of a typical
Grenville orogen. Grenvillian orogens have also bee recognized
in Australia, Africa, and Antarctica (cf. Fitzsimons, 2000),
although detailed characterization has not been done as yet,
mostly due to poor exposures by weathering, ice cover, and
difficulty to access. The Grenvillian orogens in Russia, East Asia
and South Asia have also not been defined well, due to the thick
Phanerozoic sedimentary cover.
Africa is a composite continent composed of five major
Archean cratons: W. Africa, Congo, Tanzania, Kaapvaal and
Kalahari together with large continental blocks formed during
the Late Proterozoic, the last of which occupies the northern half
of African and Saudi Arabia. The Archean cratons are cemented
by Pan-African collisional belts (Stern, 1994, 2002, and
references therein; Goscombe and Gray, 2008). Tectonically,
Africa is divided into three major blocks: (1) West Africa, (2)
Central North and Saudi Arabia, and (3) South Africa, and the
African cratons are cemented by Kibaran (= Grenvillian) belts in
the south. The West African craton is a continuation of
Amazonia, and is characterized by the ca. 610 Ma blueschist–
eclogite belt along the NS-trending border of the West African
craton (Maruyama et al., 1996). The Central North and Saudi
Arabia are dominated by juvenile arcs and subordinate amounts
of Proterozoic continental fragments. Although Gass (1981)
speculated huge number of island arcs in the Saharan region, a
considerable amount of Proterozoic micro-continents may be
present, and hence called Metacraton. About one third of Africa
is Saharan Metacraton from Trans-Saharan suture to Ouban-
gides to the Arabian–Nubian Shield. The older crust is
overprinted by Neoproterozoic (Abdelsalam et al., 2002;
Stern, 2008-this issue), although the exposure of the basement
rocks is poor because of widespread occurrence of Neoproter-
ozoic to Phanerozoic sedimentary basins.
Asia is the largest continent in the world, assembling one
third of the continental crust on the Earth. It is a collage of
several cratonic blocks including Siberia, Russia, North China,
54 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72
South China, Tarim, Indochina and India, among other blocks
(e.g.: Metcalfe, 2006 and references therein). Apart from the
assembly of this large continent, nearly 70 micro-continents are
also involved in the formation of Asia (Maruyama et al., 1989).
Many small marginal basins are also present in the western
Pacific Ocean. Due to the thick post-Miocene cover on the low
lands, and because of the extensively developed Phanerozoic
tectonically controlled basins, the basement geology has not
been well investigated in many of the blocks. The river-sand
zircons from these regions demonstrate the widespread
occurrence of Grenvillian and Pan-African orogens as discussed
in the next section.
The evolution of Australia during the Proterozoic super-
continent cycles has been the focus of several studies (e.g.:
Wilde, 1999 and references therein; Clark et al., 2007).
According to the current understanding of the geology of this
continent, the Neoproterozoic crust constitutes only a small
component. The Pilbara, Yilgarn and Capricorn orogens as a
composite continent in Australia are broadly similar to the
South province of Africa. The Albany–Fraser orogen developed
between Gawler and Yilgarn cratons marks the Grenvillian
collision orogen. The rest, except the eastern Lachlan and New
England foldbelts, is a collage of 0.5–1.8 Ga terrains, with both
Grenvillian and Pan-African ages, quite similar to those in
Central-North Africa province.
3. Techniques and approach
In the present work, we summarize new data from U–Pb
ages of zircons in sand from the major river mouths across the
globe (Fig. 1) including North America, South America, East
Asia, South Asia, Russia and Africa, adding on to the earlier
report by Rino et al. (2004). The data included in this paper
come from the mouths of Mackenzie and Mississippi Rivers in
North America, the Amazon and Parana Rivers in South
America, The Congo, Nile, Niger, Zambezi and Orange Rivers
in Africa, the Yellow, Yangtze, Mekong, Ganges and Indus
Rivers in Asia, and the Ob' and Volga Rivers in Russia.
Spot-analysis method was employed on the detrital zircons
with a ThermoElemental VG PlasmaQuad 2 ICP MS (see Rino
et al., 2004 for details). The laser ablation system is a MicroLas
production (Gottingen, Germany) GeoLas 200CQ, which
utilize a Lambda Physik (Gottingen, Germany) COMPex 102
ArF excimer laser as a 193 nm DUV (deep ultraviolet) light
source. The instrumental sensitivities achieved by the LA-ICP-
MS are 1.5 × 104 cps/μg g− 1 for Pb and U on NIST 610 SRM
from a diameter of 20 μm pit size ablated by a 5 Hz repetition
rate with a source pulse energy of 140 mJ. The application of the
quick-LA ICP MS-based method by Rino et al. (2004) was
shown to be more advantageous compared to the other methods,
allowing more accurate estimation of the rate of continental
growth. This is due to: 1) even collection of zircons from
sedimentary and granitic rocks in the hinterlands of the Earth's
major rivers; 2) determination of the age of juvenile crust due to
the high closure temperature of U–Pb systematics of zircons
thus avoiding the recycled material; 3) direct determination of
the age of continental crust formation. Zircons were handpicked
from the heavy mineral separates at the Tokyo Institute of
Technology, then mounted and polished. Most zircons are
euhedral to subhedral in shape, colorless ranging in size from 50
to 150 μm. The internal structure of the zircons was studied with
a JEOL JSM-5310 scanning cathode luminescent microscopy
where most zircons display oscillatory zoning patterns implying
their magmatic origin. Zircons affected by metamorphic
processes such as those with homogenous texture, overgrowths
or mantles etc. were excluded. The ages reported from zircon
chronology in this paper are from the cores of igneous zircons.
The zircons selected for geochronology are also characterized
by low Th/U ratios (0.0–1.0) with no correlation with age
values, indicative of their magmatic origin (Whitehouse et al.,
1999). Metamorphic zircons constitute less than 1% of the 6000
zircon grains studied. Representative analytical data on zircons
from the various river mouths discussed in this study are given
in Appendix A (supplementary data table).
4. Results
The river drainage of the Mackenzie and Mississippi Rivers
covers mainly the core portion of North America and partly the
northwestern portion of the Phanerozoic orogenic belts. The river-
mouth zircons show three major peaks of zircon age population
correlating with the regional geology of North America: ca.
2.7 Ga formation of extensive juvenile arcs, 1.6–1.8 Ga orogeny
and the 1.5–1.2 Ga for the Grenvillian, Pacific type, or intra-
oceanic arc mixtures that accreted during the Grenville orogen
(Fig. 2).
The Amazon and Parana rivers drain a large area and cover
60% of the South American continent. Zircon data from the
Amazon River show peaks at 2.6–2.6 Ga, 2.1–2.2 Ga and 1.1 to
1.0 Ga. Zircons from the Parana River show strongest peak at
0.6–0.7 Ga, with subordinate peaks at 2.6–3.1 Ga and 1.5–
2.1 Ga (Fig. 3). In both cases, a regional contribution from
Grenvillian aged provenance is indicated (Figs. 2, 3), from
which we deduce a regional distribution of the Grenvillian
orogens in these terranes. Since all the zircons investigated are
of magmatic origin, the results indicate the generation of
substantial continental crust in these terrains during this time
span. Although minor, Grenvillian zircons are also present in
the river-mouth zircons in both Amazon and Parana rivers.
Considering the drainage regions of both these rivers, it can be
inferred that Grenvillian orogens must be present along the
foothill of the Andes, and to the south in the Parana region. The
marked contrast in the absence of Pan-African zircons in the
Amazon River, against the predominant occurrence of Pan-
African zircons in the Parana River, suggests a close similarity
to Africa for the southern part of South America.
In Africa, the Nile and Niger Rivers cover the Pan-African
orogenic belts with abundant juvenile oceanic arcs and
subordinate amounts of orogens predominated by juvenile
continental crust. On the other hand, the watershed of the Congo
River is situated on the Congo Craton, although covered by a
vast sedimentary basin. The most prominent age peak for
zircons from the Nile River is at 0.6–0.8 Ga. Minor peaks are
present at 2.1 and 2.7 Ga. Zircons from the Niger River show
 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72 55

Fig. 2. (a) Geologic sketch map of North America showing the drainage regions (broken lines) of Mackenzie and Mississippi Rivers. (a), (b) and (c) show the age population
of zircons collected from the river mouth, and their areal distribution of basement geology in the drainage region. Note the presence of the Grenvillian zircons from the river-
mouth sand from the McKenzie river, indicating source from the Grenvillian orogen, presumably from the Alaskan–Canadian region (b) Modified after Rino et al. (2004).

major peak at 0.5–0.8 Ga with minor peaks from 2.1 to 2.3 Ga. 1.9–2.1 Ga and finally a small peak at 2.7 Ga. Zircons from the
The Zambezi River zircons show four major peaks: the most Orange River show three main peaks: a major one at 1.0–
prominent one at 0.9–1.0 Ga, second at 0.7–0.8 Ga, the third at 1.3 Ga, two small peaks at 1.9–2.1 Ga and 0.5–0.7 Ga.
56 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72

Fig. 3. (a) Geological sketch map of South America and the drainage regions (broken lines) of Amazon and Parana Rivers. (b) Amazon and (c) Parana show the age
population of zircons collected from the river mouth, and their areal distributions of basement geology in the drainage regions encircled by broken lines in above figure.
Note the difference from N. America and other regions shown in Figs. 4, 5, 6 and 7, with the zircon age-population frequency not matching well the basement geology.
Major reason for this discrepancy is the extremely poor exposure of basement along Amazon and Parana Rivers.
 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72 57

Fig. 4. (a) A simplified geotectonic map of Africa (Johnson and Oliver, 2004; Guiraud et al., 2005; Cawood and Buchan, 2007) and adjacent regions showing the
drainage regions (broken lines) of Niger and Nile Rivers. Zircon age population of river-mouths from Niger and Nile are shown in bottom figures (b) and
(c), respectively. Note the slight difference in terms of the Grenvillian age, more in the Nile compared to that from Niger. The western part of Africa close
to Amazonia is dominated by the late Archean and late Proterozoic, whereas the central and eastern Africa are dominated by the Pan-African ages as shown in
Fig. 5.
58 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72

Reflecting the differences among the various blocks within the
geological architecture of Africa, the age populations of river-
mouth zircons also display marked variation. The Pan-African
zircons occur predominantly in Niger and Nile rivers. The
contribution of Grenvillian zircons is minor in the Niger
(Province 1) but is considerable in the Nile (Province 2), as
inferred from age data histograms shown in Fig. 4. In South
Africa, the Grenvillian zircons show predominance in the
Congo River. They are also common in the Zambezi and
Orange rivers (Figs. 4, 5).
In the Asian continental collage, zircons examined from the
mouth of major rivers such as Yellow River, Yangtze River,

Fig. 5. (a) A simplified geotectonic map of Africa and adjacent regions showing the drainage regions (broken lines) of Congo, Orange and Zambezi Rivers. The central
portion of Africa is dominated by Archean and early Proterozoic cratons cemented by narrow Pan-African belts. These characters are well reflected by the river-mouth
zircons from Congo (b), Orange (c) and Zambezi (d) Rivers, although thick cover of sedimentary basins are common in the entire Africa. Nevertheless, the detrital
zircons reflect the basement geology very well, suggesting the mechanism of sedimentary mixing; more the recycling, better the mixing. Southern Africa shows more
component of Grenvillian than Pan-African, and quite different from northern Africa.
 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72 59

Fig. 6. A simplified geotectonic map of Asia (modified after Maruyama et al., 1989). The watershed regions for the Volga, Ob, Yellow, Indus, Ganges, Mekong, and Yangtze
Rivers are also shown. Asia is the largest continent over the world, but the youngest in its formation during the late Paleozoic to early Mesozoic by the extensive collision–
amalgamation of more than 7 major continents of Russian platform, Siberian platform, Kazakhstan Block, N. China, S. China, Indochina, and Tarim cratons. Moreover, more
than 76 micro-continents are present in Asia and surrounding regions as shown in black color. Cenozoic collision of India against Asia shaped the modern Asia.
60 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72

Mekong River, Ganges River, Indus River, Ob' and Volga
River. The Yellow River zircons show 3 peaks: 0.5–0.7 Ga,
1.8–2.0 Ga and 2.3–2.5 Ga. Zircons from the Yangtze River
define four ages peaks with the highest peak at 0.3–0.5 Ga,
second at 0.8 to 1.0 Ga, third at 1.8–2.0 Ga and a minor peak at
2.5 to 2.7 Ga. Zircon age data from the Mekong River show four
peaks: a highest peak at 0.9–1.1 Ga, followed by peaks at 1.6 to
1.8 Ga and 0.3 to 0. 5 Ga, and a fourth small peak at 2.4–2.6 Ga.
The Ganges River zircons display five peaks: a prominent one
at 0.6–1.1 Ga, sharp peaks at 1.6–1.8 Ga, 1.4–1.5 Ga and 0.3–
0.5 Ga and a small peak at 2.4–2.6 Ga. From the Indus River,
five main peaks are obtained for the zircons: a group of
prominent peaks at 1.7–1.8 Ga, 0.7–0.9 Ga, 0.4–0.5 Ga and a
second sharp peak at 0.1–0.2 Ga and a minor peak at 2.4–
2.5 Ga. Pb–Pb age population of the Ob' River zircons shows
three main peaks: the highest one at 0.3–0.7 Ga, a second
prominent peak at 1.8–2.0 Ga and a small peak at 2.5–2.7 Ga.
The Volga River zircons show 4 main peaks: the highest one at
0.3–0.6 Ga, a second prominent peak at 0.9–1.1 Ga, a broad
peak at 1.1–2.0 Ga and a small peak at 2.6–2.8 Ga (Figs. 6, 7).
A summary of the age data shown in Fig. 6 illustrates
dominant Grenville ages (1.0–1.1 Ga) in most cases, except in
the case of the Yellow river where it is less pronounced. On the
other hand, Pan-African ages dominate in zircons from Volga,

Fig. 7. Age-population diagrams of river-mouth zircons for each river and its comparison to the basement geology shown in Fig. 6. Most of the drainage regions of
Volga (a), Ob' (b), Yellow (c), Indus (d), Ganges (e), Mekong (f) and Yangtze (g) are in general covered by late Proterozoic to Phanerozoic sedimentary basins, hence
the exposures of basement hard rocks are poor. Nevertheless, the zircon age population does reveal the presence of hidden hard rocks underneath, as supported by the
local exposures in each province. Note the widespread occurrence of both Pan-African and Grenvillian zircons in Asia. A closer look reveals that the western part of
Asia (Volga, Ob', Indus) is characterized by the Pan-African ages, whereas the eastern part (Ganges, Yellow, Mekong, and Yangtze) is by the Grenvillian ages.
 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72 61

Fig. 8. Episodic growth of continental crust and the supercontinental cycle as illustrated from the river-mouth zircon data discussed in this study. The vertical axis is
normalized to the percentage as against the total landmass (100%). The timing of supercontinent of P, G, R, C, and N are shown on the top column. P — Pangea; G —
Gondwana (or Pannotia); C — Columbia; N — Nuna. Note the dominant five peaks at 2.7, 2.0–2.2, 1.7–1.9, 1.0–1.2, 0.5–0.8 Ga indicating the episodic growth of
continental crust. Two major peaks at Grenville and Pan-African are distinguished, with independent periods of crustal formation in the late Proterozoic, which is
identified as the world largest through time.

Ob and Indus rivers, and also from the Yellow river. Pan-
African ages, though not major, are common in all the rivers
in Asia (Fig. 7). It is interesting to note that the western three
rivers are dominated by Pan-African ages with minor
Grenvillian contribution, whereas the eastern four rivers
are characterized by predominant Grenvillian ages with
minor Pan-African ages.
In the Australia–Antarctica sector, we have not analyzed any
river-mouth zircons in the present study. However, a previous
study by Sugita (2002) reported zircon age populations at
2.7 Ga from the Fortescue Group sandstone, which is part of a
worldwide unconformity, representing river-mouth zircon age-
population histogram in Australia. Judging from the similarity
of geology of the NE part of Australia to that in the northern part
of Africa, a similar age population would be expected,
predominated by the Neoproterozoic orogeny.
5. Discussion
The zircon data presented in this study can be used to trace
the episodic growth of continental crust and its relationship with
the supercontinental cycle as illustrated in Fig. 8. Two major
peaks can be identified from the zircon age data, indicating the
Grenvillian and Pan-African as the world's largest orogenies.
Fig. 8 incorporates data reduction based on several steps, first
the normalization of the age population proportional to the
spatial distribution; the percentage indicated on the right vertical
axis corresponds to the proportion with respect to the total space
oflandmass on the globe. After normalizing the zircon age
population from each river mouth, we obtained the frequency
histogram of the zircon age through time (Fig. 8). The total land
mass area that we have sampled cover river drainage regions for
16 major rivers occupying about 26% of the total landmass of

Fig. 9. Localized activity of present and Cretaceous crustal formation on the Earth. Note the meaning of the global-scale TTG (tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite)
plutonism which is not widespread over the all continents, but localized and restricted to consuming plate boundaries (after Maruyama et al., 2007). Minor felsic rocks
can be formed along the continental rift such as the African rifts, but presumably by the partial melting of already-existing lower continental crust.
62 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72
 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72 63

the globe, which is around one fourth of the global landmass.
We then move on to compare the result with world-geology,
covered vs. uncovered region, in terms of space-ratio of orogens
with different ages, in order to correct any over-exaggeration of
a particular age population. Next, the unexposed continental
crust off continents, up to about 300 m below sea level was
considered, assuming the lateral continuation of orogens from
the land nearby. The two large continents of Australia and
Antarctica have been regarded to be of same extent as that of
northern Africa, except the western one third of Australia
(which is the same as southern Africa). Moreover, the western
Pacific oceanic domain has also been considered to add to the
growth of the continental crust through time because the
formation of a juvenile, acidic continental crust in this region
during the last 100 Ma has been estimated geophysically. The
details of these various steps and procedures of computation
will be discussed elsewhere (Rino et al., in prep). Here we use
only the results before the four-step corrections, because the
final result after the corrections was found to be identical with
that presented here.
Thus, Fig. 8 shows the episodic growth of continental crust
through time. Note the normalization of continental crust
(frequency in the vertical axis) to 100%. Although the zircon
population covers a wide time range from 4.2 Ga to the present,
the following three major inferences can be drawn. (1) The
continental crust shows episodic growth with 4 peaks at 2.6–
2.7 Ga, 2.0–2.2 Ga, 1.0–1.2 Ga, and 0.5–0.8 Ga. (2) There are
two major periods of “depletion” with least crust formation at
1.4–1.5 Ga and 2.3–2.5 Ga. The small peaks older than 3.0 Ga
and the youngest age peak near present may not represent the
true situation, because the subduction of continental crust
predominated as juvenile island arcs subducted into the deep
mantle in the late Archean and tectonic erosions at the trench in
the Phanerozoic (Dewey and Windley, 1981). (3) The episodic
growth of continental crust suggests the discontinuous growth
of felsic crust, which in turn indicates the active and inactive
periods of plate tectonics through time. For example, in the
Grenvillian time between ca. 1.0–1.2 Ga, the crust formation
was 2–3 times higher than that at 1.2–1.7 Ga. Thus, Fig. 8
clearly represents the episodic growth of continental crust
through time, and shows that the Neoproterozoic was the period
of most extensive continental crust formation. The Grenvillian
and Pan-African times are thus key periods, and hence we
redefine these two as the potential periods of crust formation.
An example is the Cretaceous pulsation of plate tectonics
culminated during the Cretaceous time when circum-Pacific
volcano-plutonic belt with 200–300 km wide was made
(Fig. 9). We also emphasize that the batholith belts occur only
along the consuming plate boundaries, one around the Pacific
and the other among the northern Tethyan boundary, and not
everywhere on the globe (Fig. 9).
5.1. Distribution of Grenville and Pan-African belts
The term Pan-African was first introduced by Kennedy
(1964) to describe continent-wide thermotectonic events which
culminated in the structural differentiation of Africa at ca.
500 Ma. Later studies showed that the Pan-African or Brasiliano
orogeny spans almost the entire Neoproterozoic and Early
Cambrian from ca. 1000 to 500 Ma (cf. Rogers and Santosh,
2004). Meert (2003) proposed that the Pan-African could be
subdivided into three different orogenic episodes. The earliest
activity, from ca. 900 to 600 Ma consisted largely of
compression and consumption of oceanic lithosphere, primarily
in the Arabian–Nubian shield and farther south along the East
African Orogen. This was followed by a period of extension and
intrusion of post-orogenic granites for around 500 Ma centered
around 570 Ma, designated as the Kuunga Orogeny. The final
episode consisted largely of thermal resetting of many areas
which lasted up to 450 Ma. Neoproterozoic crust is also
common in Asia including Mongolia, S. China and Tarim.
Thus, it is evident that the term Pan-African orogeny,
although widely used, is still loosely defined. In some works,
the term is used to describe all the Neoproterozoic orogens,
encompassing nearly 500 million years of Earth history.
Originally developed by Kennedy (1964) to describe tecto-
nothermal events in Africa at the end of the Precambrian and
beginning of Paleozoic time (500 ± 50 Ma), the term is now
commonly applied to all Neoproterozoic and early Paleozoic
crust formation and reworking in Africa. The term is sometimes
applied to Neoproterozoic orogeny elsewhere in Gondwana, but
is rarely applied to Neoproterozoic crust-forming episodes of
similar age in North America or Eurasia. Kröner and Stern
(2004) and Stern (2008-this issue) provide detailed guidelines
on the usage of terms to refer to various time periods in the
Neoproterozoic. The terms Tonian (1000–850 Ma), Cryogenian
(850–630 Ma) and Ediacaran (630–544 Ma) are now widely
used to divide the long Neoproterozoic Era into sub-equal time
slices. The term "Grenville" orogeny is not strictly Neoproter-
ozoic, but belongs to late Mesoproterozoic". Although the terms
Paleo-, Meso- and Neoproterozoic are in common usage, we
retain the usage of Pan-African and Grenvillian in this study,
and redefine them based on our results.
Fig. 10 summarizes the normalized distribution of age-
population frequency pattern of five different domains of
cratons. The vertical axis is normalized to the percentage of area
occupied by each domain with respect to the total area on the
globe, leading to the small numbers for each domain shown in
Fig. 10. From the zircon age populations identified in this study,
the Grenvillian zircons (1.0–1.1 Ga) and Pan-African zircons
(0.8–0.5 Ga) show the highest peaks among those in various
parts of the world (Fig. 8). If we enlarge the time span, as 0.9–
1.2 Ga, the orogeny seems to be broadly equivalent in time span

Fig. 10. Top: Zircon population diagrams for each continent, documented by major river-mouth zircons. Group 1 is from North America and Baltica, Group 2 by
northern South America, and W. Africa, Group 3 by South Africa W. Australia and southern South America, Group 4 by northern Africa, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan and
East Australia, and Group 5 for East Asia including Indochina, N. and S. China, Siberia and Kazakhstan. Note the presence of both Pan-African and Grenvillian zircons
everywhere, particularly in Group 5. Bottom: World distribution of 5 different types of cratons and orogens. Also note the anti-clockwise distribution pattern of Group,
1,2,3,4 and 5, which is similar to that on the map of Gondwana at 540 Ma, but entirely different from the distribution on the map of Rodinia at 750 Ma.
64 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72
as to that of the Pan-African (0.8–0.5 Ga). Rift-related bimodal
ages (ca. 1.2 to 1.1 Ga) were recently obtained from the western
margin of the Kalahari in the fore-arc or back-arc of a
subduction regime (H.M. Rajesh, personal communication,
2007). Thus, the Grenvillian and Pan-African orogenies
dominate (ca.30%) the age of crust formation through time.
The global distribution of Grenville orogens has important
implications on the plate tectonic framework of the Earth,
although currently these terrains have been totally re-organized.
For example, it can be postulated that if the present day plate
tectonics were one order of magnitude faster than it was, then
huge amounts of continental crust would have been formed.
However, it is noted that the sites of global granitic magmatism
(cf. Fig. 9) is highly restricted to only along the subduction
zones. This is true in the case of the Cretaceous pulse period
when plate tectonic activity was accelerated by 150% although
restricted to the Pacific domain (Maruyama et al., 1996). At the
same time, plumes and superplumes became very active during
the Cretaceous pulse, indicating the material addition from the
lower mantle as an inevitable result of the collapse of stagnant
slabs at the 660 km depth barrier (Utsunomia et al., in press).
The Cretaceous accelerated TTG volcano-plutonism was
worldwide, covering the circum-Pacific and Tethyan regions
(Fig. 9). Nevertheless, Africa remained quiet, without the
formation of subduction zone magmas, because of the absence
of consuming plate boundaries in and around this region. In a
similar process, Europe also remained quiescent, except in the
southern margins. Major part of Asia also shows a similar
pattern, except in the eastern and southern margins.
A similar process is also envisaged for the Grenville orogens,
although the re-organization of these terrains has obliterated
much of the details. In the following section, we attempt a
paleogeographic reconstruction of Rodinia to Gondwana (or
Pannotia, a term used by some workers, e.g. Dalziel, 1992), to
define a general rule of continental dispersion and amalgama-
tion through the Wilson cycle. Previous studies have proposed
some general models such as the “inside-out” theory of
Hoffman (1991) or the “inside-in”, or a combination of the
two (Murphy and Nance, 2005).
The normalized frequency distribution of zircon ages from
river-mouth sand over the world clearly demonstrates that the
Grenvillian (1.2–1.0 Ga) and Neoproterozoic (0.8–0.6 Ga)
peaks define the largest population (Fig. 9). This means that
extensive subduction, and hence active plate tectonics, might
have operated through these periods. Earlier models held that
the Early Earth such as in the Archean must have been active to
produce large amounts of continental crust; such as the view
that 80% of the crust was formed by the end of Archean
(Reymer and Schubert, 1984). However, our results demon-
strate that the Neoproterozoic was the most active period for
crust formation with substantial production of continental crust.
We first classify the continents into five Groups, according to
the distribution of the Grenvillian and Pan-African orogens
shown in Fig. 10.
Group (1) cratons are North America and Baltica. North
America has grown predominantly during the Paleo- and
Mesoproterozoic with subordinate growth in the late Archean.
However, the Grenvillian has contributed to significant amount
with only minor growth in the Pan-African.
Group (2) Amazonia and West African cratons, both
characterized by considerable growth through the Grenvillian
and Pan-Africa events with a major growth in the Paleoproter-
ozoic and late Archean.
Group (3) South Africa, India, South America, West
Australia and Antarctica, all showing predominant Grenvillian
and Pan-African ages. Subordinate growth in the Paleo- and
Mesoproterozoic and in the late Archean are also recognized.
Group (4) Central-North Africa, Saudi Arabia, NE Australia,
and presumably Pakistan, all dominated by the Pan-African
ages with minor Grenvillian ages, and by intra-oceanic arcs and
ophiolites.
Group (5) Siberia, North China, Tarim craton, South China
and Indochina, all dominated by Grenvillian and Pan-African
ages with subordinate Paleo- and Mesoproterozoic ages with
minor late Archean ages.
Thus, we note the common occurrence of both Grenvillian
and Pan-African orogenies over the world, including within
major parts of Asia, a region long considered as the world's
largest and youngest, cemented by late Paleozoic and early
Mesozoic orogeny (e.g. Maruyama et al., 1989). The distribution
pattern of the above five types of cratonic assemblage are shown
in bottom figure in Fig. 10. The most predominated Pan-African
orogens are Group 3, 4 and 5, and occur at the center, south and
east on the global map (Fig. 10, bottom). On the other hand, the
Groups 1 and 2 are characterized by lesser amounts of Grenville
and Pan-African orogens which are present in the central, west
and northwest regions. Thus, the distribution pattern of the five
(Group 1 to 5) defines an anti-clockwise sense on the world map.
This pattern is nearly identical to that of Gondwana paleogeo-
graphy at 540 Ma as shown Fig. 11. It is notably different from
the configuration of Rodinia shown in Fig. 12.
5.2. Paleogeographic reconstruction of Gondwana and Rodinia
The configuration of the Gondwana supercontinent at
540 Ma is now more or less well defined from geologic,
geochronologic and paleomagnetic constraints (Collins and
Pisarevsky, 2005 and references therein). While North America
is known to have been far separated from Gondwana, the
paleogeographic position of Siberia, N. China, S. China, Tarim,
Indochina, Kazakhstan, and small continental fragments now
trapped in the Tethyan orogenic belts at 540 Ma is not fully
defined yet. In the following section, we make an attempt to
define the configuration of the global paleogeography at
540 Ma and also at 1.0 Ga.
5.2.1. Gondwana reconstruction (540 Ma)
A Gondwana reconstruction with Grenvillian orogenic belts
as inferred from the present study is shown in Fig. 11, with the
following groups: (a) Asian Grenville (Group 5), (b) African
Grenville (Groups 3 and 4), (c) Russian Grenville (Group 4),
and (d) North American Grenville (Group 1).
The final assembly of Gondwana involved the collision of a
number of blocks that finally sutured the East and West Gondwana
 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72 65

Fig. 11. Distribution of Pan-African and Grenville orogenic belts on the paleogeographic map at 540 Ma. Note the concentric distribution of Pan-African belts in the
central part of paleogeographic reconstruction. Distribution of intra-oceanic juvenile arcs is schematically shown as a red line particularly in northern Africa to Saudi
Arabia. The inset diagram below shows the distribution pattern of 5 groups of craton assemblages. Compare it with those in Fig. 10; the position of Group 2 is different
from that in Fig. 8, and the rest is nearly same as in Fig. 10.

with the Mozambique belt sandwiched in between. Slightly before
540 Ma, a series of collision of cratonic continents within East and
West Gondwana preceded to amalgamate a number of small
continents. Along the northern margin of Gondwana, EW-
trending subduction zones developed, in addition to the NS-
trending subduction zone along the western margin of Gondwana.
To the north, Laurentia was another large continent which has
rifted Baltica to form a small ocean called Iapetus, and to the south,
intra-oceanic arcs called Avalonia were present. Further to the
east, Siberia, North China, South China, Tarim, Indochina, and
presumably more fragments, though small in size, were present
without any convergent boundaries, and which moved into the
final assembly of Laurasia (Paleoasia) by 300 Ma. After the
completion of the Gondwana assembly, its northern margin started
rifting and the separated blocks moved northwards. Paleogeo-
graphic constraints in the middle Cambrian at ca.500 Ma come
from the Trilobite faunal provinces of (1) Euroamerica, (2)
Angara, (3) Cathaysia, and (4) Gondwana (see review by
Maruyama et al., 1989, and references therein). These demonstrate
that Siberia, N. China, and S. China were far enough to be isolated
from Gondwana at 500 Ma. The formation of Paleoasia was
completed by the end of Paleozoic, ca 250 Ma, followed by the
66 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72

Fig. 12. Distribution of Grenvillian orogenic belts within the Rodinia configuration at around 750 Ma. Note the ubiquitous occurrence of Grenvillian orogens (blue)
cementing more than 8 cratons. Inset diagram (left bottom) shows the distribution pattern of different group of craton assemblages. Group 4 is characterized by
predominant occurrence of juvenile intra-oceanic island arcs, but may include older continental fragments than 1.3 Ga as suggested by Abdelsalam et al. (2002).
Distribution pattern of intra-oceanic arcs in Group 4 is highly schematic, illustrated by the modern analog of the Western Pacific.

assembly of the eastern end between Siberia and North China,
North China vs. South China (ca. 240 Ma) and Indochina against
S. China (ca 230 Ma).
The time period between 0.6 Ga and 0.8 Ga marked the
climax of crust production prior to the assembly of Gondwana in
the late Pan-African. Continental crust formed in this period is
concentrated in the Pan-African orogenic belts, specifically in
the central-north Africa and Saudi Arabia. Moreover, as
documented in this work, Kazakhstan, eastern Baltica and
Pakistan Block, are also prominent examples. These regions
were widespread over half of the hemisphere of the globe, and
were reduced in size after they moved to form Laurasia. One of
the major problems that remain unresolved is whether or not
S. China, Tarim, North China and Siberia formed at the northern
margin of Gondwana. By Cambrian time, these terrains must
have been separated from Gondwana, and also from among each
other, as documented well by the Cambrian paleogeography.
The distribution pattern of above-defined Group 1 to 5 on the
reconstructed paleogeographic map at 540 Ma (Fig. 11) is
slightly different from the present pattern in Fig. 10. Group 5
and 1 are same as in Fig. 10, but Group 2 moved to the north
above 3, and between 1 and 4. In other words, the difference is
 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72
minor, but the position of Group 2 apparently affects a quite
different image of distribution (see the inset figure in Fig. 11).
This configuration is important to consider the dispersion
pattern of Rodinia supercontinent as mentioned below. Am
alternate position of Group 5 (Asia) is to the north of India and
Australia (e.g. Li et al., 2007).
5.2.2. Rodinia reconstruction
Before the Gondwana assembly at 540 Ma and after the final
breakup of Rodinia by ca. 600 Ma, a transient state of continental
dispersion was present as shown above. Prior to the 600 Ma, the
configuration of the assembly of the Rodinia at ca. 1.0 Ga has
long been debated. One of the difficulties comes from the
unknown distribution of the Grenville orogenic belts. Since the
pioneering work of Rodinia reconstruction by Hoffman (1991),
a number of models have been proposed. It was Hoffman (1991)
who has first recognized the “inside-out” concept of Rodinia to
form Gondwana at 540 Ma, based on the regional distribution of
Pan-African belts, in relation to Grenvillian orogenic belts. At
nearly the same time, Dalziel (1991) proposed the configuration
wherein the S. American Grenville belt was considered as the
rifted half of the North American Grenville, and that these
Grenville belts were formed by the collision of S. America
against N. America. This paleogeographic reconstruction seems
to be still valid, except for the lack of consensus regarding the
position of blocks now present in central and east Asia such as
Siberia, N. China, S. China, Kazakhstan, Tarim, and Indochina
(Maruyama, 1994; Condie and Sloan, 1997).
An evaluation of the pattern of the failed rifts, distribution of
sedimentary basins and vergency of orogenic belts also provides
important clues on the reconstruction of Rodinia. Failed rift is a
narrow and deep basin which is quite different from cold basins.
Failed rifts associated with the breakup Rodinia since 750 Ma
until 600 Ma must be present around the Pacific Ocean. Failed
rifts for the breakup of Gondwana have been documented better
than those for Rodinia — the one in West Africa is a represen-
tative example, extending along the eastern margin of Rio de La
Plata in South America, Benue trough in Africa, the EW-
trending Amazonian rift, and presumably into India and
Australia. Moreover, the Jurassic and the Tertiary rifts in East
African Rift are also representative examples. The failed rifts for
the Rodinia breakup are those in Siberia, Baltica, and Laurentia
(see summary by Condie, 2002). But the geologic and tectonic
features in both Siberia and Baltica suggest the presence of cold
basins rather than the failed rifts. S. China and North China are
also similar examples.
The ubiquitous occurrence of the Grenvillian orogenic belts in
all of the above continental fragments as revealed from our study
furthers the Rodinia concept as proposed by Hoffman (1991). The
recent works on both Grenvillian and Pan-African belts in major
parts of Asia and our present work in river-mouth zircons support
this concept. Thus, we attempt a reconstruction of the
paleogeography of Rodinia based on the key bed distribution of
Grenvillian and Pan-African belts, cold basin chain, and
continuation of the orogens. The site of Grenvillian orogeny
was consuming plate boundaries, particularly at the collisional
site, which led to the formation of Rodinia. The protoliths are the
67
key to differentiate between collision and Pacific-type orogen; if it
is collision, then the protoliths are of A-type, characterized by
platform-type without oceanic materials such as bedded cherts,
ocean island basalt (OIB) fragments and ophiolites in general. On
the other hand, if it is Pacific type, the origin of protoliths must be
related to accretionary complex (Maruyama et al., 1996). One of
the examples is the Shibao orogen (Grenvillian equivalent) in
central S. China Block, and corresponds to the suture between
N. America against Australia and E. Antarctica (Li et al., 2004).
The surface exposure of Shibao orogen is very poor due to the
extensive development of post-Grenvillian sedimentary basins,
but predominates in the river-mouth zircon ages supporting the
speculation by the Chinese geologists (Fig. 10).
Although details are not yet fully available, we compile the
Grenvillian orogenic belts with ages of ca.1.2–0.9 Ga to
reconstruct Rodinia (Fig. 12). Rodinia started rifting since
0.75 Ga, and finally rifted away to open the Pacific Ocean at
0.60 Ga. Therefore, it took about 400 Ma from the completion
of the assembly of Rodinia (1.0 Ga) to its complete separation
(0.6 Ga). This time period is relatively longer than other
examples such as Gondwana and Pangea. In the case of
Gondwana, the time gap between the formation (540 Ma) and
the breakup (200 Ma) was around 340 Ma.
The sequence of collision of various terrains to form the
Rodinia supercontinent is summarized below: (1) North
American Grenvillian assembly (ca.1.2–1.0 Ga) was achieved
by the collision of Amazonia (S. America with West Africa); (2)
the Alaskan Grenville was probably formed by the collision of
Eastern Australia, (3) W. Australia collided against Gawler
craton to yield Albany–Fraser Grenvillian orogen; and (4) India
collided against East Antarctica when the Eastern Ghats Belt was
formed. Further north, other fold belts might have also formed
by the collision of unknown continents (Greater India), although
geochronological data are scarce. Siberia collided against
Laurentia on the northern side. The extension of this collision
orogen may have been connected with N. China as well as the
Tarim–Kazakhstan block. The S. China block and Indochina
may have been fragments of a collisional orogen formed by the
amalgamation of Laurentia and East Antarctica or Australia.
The distribution pattern of Group 1 to 5 cratons exhibits quite
different pattern as compared to Gondwana (Fig. 11) on the
reconstructed paleogeographic map of Rodinia (Fig. 12). Group
5 occurs on the north, similar to its position in Gondwana. On
the contrary, Group 1, 2, 4 and 3 occur in the clockwise sense,
roughly opposite to that on the modern world map (see inset
map in Fig. 10).
5.2.3. Inside-out continental configuration from Rodinia to
Gondwana
In the following section, we attempt to evaluate the
mechanism of continental breakup, dispersion and amalgama-
tion from Rodinia to Gondwana through the Wilson cycle.
Groups of cratons from 1 to 5 are schematically shown on the
paleogeographic maps from Rodinia to Gondwana (Fig. 13). Ca.
750 Ma Rodinia was composed of G1, G5, G2 and G3 shown in
the figure, then rifted by a propagating spreading center,
separated into two blocks (G1 + G5) and (G3 + G2) to rotate
68 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72
Fig. 13. Schematic cartoon illustrating the breakup of Rodinia at 750 Ma, and the
dispersion and the amalgamation of continents to form Gondwana by the
‘inside-out’ theory. Also shown is the distribution of each group of craton,
Group 1 to 5. The G4 continents dominated by juvenile island arcs were
sandwiched by the inside-out process proposed by Hoffman (1991). Note the
distribution pattern of continents in Gondwana at 540 Ma is similar to that on the
present day distribution shown in Fig. 10.
differentially as shown by arrows, facing intra-oceanic juvenile
arc domains (Group 4). The Group 4 domain with fragmented
continental blocks was finally incorporated inside the amalga-
mated Gondwana at 540 Ma (Fig. 13). Thus, a sandwiched G4
structure surrounded by G5 + G1 and G2 + G3 was completed.
The simplified pattern of the breakup of Rodinia, and
continental dispersion and amalgamation of Gondwana, clearly
support the original “inside-out’ model of Hoffman (1991),
although minor difference may be present, i.e., the position of G1
and G5 on Gondwana is still controversial, suggesting a complex
pattern of ridge-transform system of oceanic-continental plates
developed in the ocean with N. America and East Asian
continental fragments. Hoffman (1991) named the process as
inside-out. This proposed faced criticism afterwards, because of
rather poor distribution of Grenvillian orogens particularly in the
largest continent Eurasia (Fig. 10). In our present study, we have
discovered a number of Grenvillian and Pan-African orogens over
the world through the geochronology of river-mouth zircons,
which lend strong support to the “ inside-out” theory.
The breakup of Rodinia and its rotation as well as inversion
was followed by the development of a chain of more than 100
island arcs (Gass, 1981), which was later sandwiched by the
East and West Rodinia fragments. The largest among these is
now seen in North Africa and Saudi Arabia. The distribution
pattern of these is shown schematically in Fig. 12 by analogy
with the modern western Pacific where about 60–70% of arcs
are concentrated to produce the juvenile continental crust.
6. Relationship of Rodinia and Gondwana orogens to the
origin of superplume
Chronology of magmatic zircons in sediments from the mouths
of major rivers across the world suggests that the Grenville and
Pan-African orogens are perhaps the world's largest orogenic
belts carrying extensive continental crust through geologic time.
This indicates that the amount of subducted lithosphere must have
been the largest during these periods. Hence, this, as a mirror
image, must have had significant impact on the mantle under-
neath, including processes such as refrigeration, metasomatism,
and transportation of the largest amounts of recycled Mid Oceanic
Ridge Basalt (MORB) to the core–mantle boundary (CMB). Such
an event would be reflected in the history of the mantle afterwards,
such as through the birth of superplumes (cf. Maruyama et al.,
2007). Not only the worldwide distribution of these orogenic
belts, but also their strongest peak among the various orogenic
belts through time suggest most extensive subduction and hence
accumulation of recycled slabs underneath on the CMB. This
must have controlled the dynamics of superplumes in the Pacific
and African regions, as discussed in the next section.
6.1. Birth of African and Pacific superplume
P-wave and S-wave tomographic images on a global scale
(Zhao et al., 2007; Zhao, 2007; Maruyama et al., 2007) clearly
demonstrate the presence of superplumes in both Africa and the
mid-Pacific ocean (Fig. 14). The sites for both plumes must be
related to the history of subduction. Tomographic images through
mantle transition zones to the mid-mantle clearly demonstrate that
the high-V anomaly is consistently present around the expected
regions for the selective subduction zones during the last 200 Ma,
i.e., circum-Pacific and Tethyan belts with widths of 2000–
3000 km. On the other hand, the S- and P-wave tomographic
images for the CMB do not represent a consistent distribution of
recycled slabs or slab graveyards around the circum-Pacific and
Tethyan domains. Instead, the images reflect the much older slab
graveyards, presumably the Rodinia slab graveyards for the
Pacific domain and Gondwana slab graveyard for the Africa and
Indian Ocean (Maruyama et al., 2007).
The paleogeographic reconstruction of Rodinia is poorly
constrained in terms of absolute position on the Earth.
Therefore, at this moment, we have no way to constrain the
absolute positions for those two superplumes. The other way
around is to assume the slab graveyards to represent the site of
old supercontinents above in order to fix the absolute positions.
If we follow this assumption, then a conclusion can be arrived at
on the position for Rodinia above the Pacific superplume, and
the position of Gondwana above the African superplume.
6.2. Slab graveyards and superplumes
The mechanism to generate a superplume is an important
aspect to be considered, particularly because of the enigma that
the coldest mantle right above the CMB turns to the hottest one
over a period of several hundreds of million years. The
mechanism was explained by Maruyama et al. (2007), citing
the key role of post-perovskite. The stability field of post-
perovskite at the CMB pressure is very close to that of the stability
perovskite. The lower temperature at the CMB pressure,
(135Gpa) is appropriate for the stability field of post-perovskite,
because of positive Clapeyron slope with 9–10 MPa/K (see
summary in Maruyama et al., 2007). Hence, the colder mantle at
the CMB pressure, formed by the selective refrigeration by
subduction underneath the supercontinents can create the thickest
slab graveyard, and in turn, the thickest post-perovskite layer.
 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72
Fig. 14. Cross section of the Earth showing the sites and shapes of two superplumes (Maruyama et al., 2007). Note the ongoing formation of huge cold basin in Asia by
the collapse of once-stagnant slabs underneath Asia.
With time, post-perovskite transforms to perovskite by heating
from the underlying liquid core. This phase transformation raises
the temperature and generates small-scale plumes with time.
Moreover, if temperature rises up to the solidus temperature
ca. 4000 K, 200 K lower than the solidus of peridotite,
the partial melting of recycled MORB begins to generate an
anti-crust (cf. Maruyama et al., 2007). An ultra-low velocity
zone b 10 km thick is present under the African and Pacific
superplume right above the CMB (Garnero et al., in press; Lay
et al., 1998). The melt which is denser than the surrounding
mantle, would accumulate on the CMB to grow the chemically
distinct anti-crust with time. The restite of MORB would be
buoyant to promote the chemical plume, presumably of
andesitic composition. With time, the rising small-scale
chemical plumes would collide and amalgamate to form a
bigger plume. Superplume will finally develop as a cluster of
several small plumes. Thus, the amount of recycled MORB is a
fuel of superplume, spending first in the central portion of slab
graveyard underneath the supercontinent. The concentric
structure at the CMB of the Pacific superplume suggests that
the central part of the superplume had already lost the recycled
MORBs, shifting to the marginal part now, but the outermost
portion still remaining as fuel for the next site of small-scale
plumes. The outermost region was named as cold donut which
was traced from P-wave tomography (Maruyama et al., 2007).
6.3. Gondwana slab graveyard and its effect on mantle dynamics
Slab graveyard formed by the Pan-African subduction can be
imaged through P-wave tomography (Maruyama et al., 2007).
69
The high-velocity anomaly in the D” layer underneath Gondwana
has now transformed to the low-V regions to generate a
superplume. However, the site is not so simple as that of Pacific
superplume, but the shape of the African superplume has been
well defined by the steep velocity change on the outer margin of
superplume (cf. Maruyama et al., 2007).
In Fig. 15, the Gondwana slab graveyard is shown projected
from Antarctica (after Zhao, 2004). The figure shows that the
largest size of high-velocity P-wave anomaly remains under-
neath Antarctica, although underneath Africa, such cold
anomaly may have turned into low velocity anomaly, which is
the present day African superplume (Fig. 15). The Gondwana
slab graveyard seems to be heterogeneous as compared to the
Pacific superplume. The expected region within Gondwana is
the Antarctica + Australia + India + Africa + S. America ensem-
ble, where Antarctica is fixed at the deep mantle. The position
of the slab graveyard is defined at the site at 180 Ma using the
two hotspots in both Pacific and African plates fixed as the deep
mantle (Engeberston et al., 1985; Harada and Hamano, 2000).
The major subduction zones around the Gondwana are the
one trending EW from the north, and the other trending NS from
the western margin. Both of these might have transported large
amounts of slabs even after completion of the assembly
of Gondwana. In addition to the slab graveyards beneath
Gondwana, these would have contributed to the high-V
anomalies on the CMB. Along the northern margin of
Gondwana paleo-position, there is a chain of high-V anomaly,
running underneath W. Africa, off S. America, northern
Antarctica, off India, and Saudi Arabia. Compared to this
chain, the several high-V anomalies underneath S. Indian Ocean
70 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72

Fig. 15. P-wave tomography of D” prime layer. Note the presence of high-velocity anomaly centered on Antarctica. Top figure is centered at Indonesia. Bottom figure
is centered at Antarctica. This reflects the slab graveyard formed under the Gondwana semi-supercontinent centered near the southern pole.

and central Africa are different, and are presumably of slab-
graveyard origin.
There are no more constraints to assume that the Gondwana
assembly was stationary and did not move from 540 Ma to
180 Ma. To evaluate the movement of the Gondwana amalgam
from its completion at 540 Ma until 180 Ma, a comparison of
the slab graveyard (high-V anomaly in the D” layer under the
Gondwana) with the position at 180 Ma as calculated by
Engeberston et al. (1985), suggests a northward shift since
540 Ma. Assuming the original site of Gondwana at 540 Ma by
the high-V anomaly on the CMB, the site of Gondwana
dispersion by mantle upwelling and the site of subduction zone
as estimated from on-land geology can be delineated.
6.4. A new concept of Cold Basins
Plate tectonics re-interpreted the formation of huge sedi-
mentary basins mainly by the initiation of continental rifting
like the modern example of African rift valley and more
developed basins in the Red Sea. A new term aulacogen is a
failed rift as exemplified by the Cretaceous Benou Rift in
Africa, initiated first at Ridge–Ridge–Ridge (RRR) triple
junction that created the Mid Atlantic Ridge and a failed rift
now buried by huge sedimentary package. On the other hand, in
much smaller scale, a series of sedimentary basins several
hundred km across are present in eastern Asia as cold marginal
basins or intracontinental sedimentary basins such as the Baikal
rift and Shan-Xi basins.
Burke (2000) first pointed out the presence of abnormally
huge sedimentary basins formed during the Pan-African events
in northern Africa to Saudi Arabia and presumably the eastern
extension to Australia, and that all of these were connected. The
size of these basins was one order of magnitude bigger than the
sedimentary basins mentioned above. However, Burke (2000)
did not interpret its origin in terms of modern plate tectonic
viewpoint. Here we speculate that the origin of these huge
sedimentary basins were related to the down flow of once-
stagnant slab graveyard in the mantle transition zone and their
 S. Rino et al. / Gondwana Research 14 (2008) 51–72
subsequent flushing to the Core–Mantle Boundary underneath
the Rodinia supercontinent. These sedimentary basins presently
occur as a chain along the northern margin of the Gondwana,
but were originally formed during the formation of Rodinia and
its subsequent breakup.
Acknowledgements
We thank to Prof. T. Hirata (ICP-MS) and Mr. T. Iizuka for
assistance in the acquisition of analytical data and with high-
pressure experiments. The large number of samples was kindly
supplied by Dr. T. Iizuka, Prof. A. Motoki, Dr. I. Katayama, Dr. I.
Sofanova, Dr. N. Q. Hammond, and Mr. W. Sato. This work was
partly supported by grants from the Ministry of Education,
Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, Japan (No. 04302021
and 07238105) and by a project on Whole Earth Dynamics from
the Science and Technology Agency of Japan. Prof. Robert Stern
and Dr. H.M. Rajesh are thanked for detailed and insightful
reviews which greatly helped in improving this manuscript.
Appendix A. Supplementary data
Supplementary data associated with this article can be found,
in the online version, at doi:10.1016/j.gr.2008.01.001.
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