East African Orogeny

The East African Orogeny (EAO) is the

main stage in the Neoproterozoic assembly of
East and West Gondwana (Australia–India–
Antarctica and Africa–South America) along
the Mozambique Belt.[2]

Contents
Gondwana assembly
Erosion and Cambrian explosion
Cenozoic reopening
References
Sources
The East African and Kuungan orogens[1]

Gondwana assembly
The notion that Gondwana was assembled during the Late Precambrian from two older fragments along the
Pan-African Mozambique Belt was first proposed in the early 1980s.[3] A decade later this continental
collision was named the East African Orogeny, but it was also realised that this was not the simple bringing
together of two halves. Rather, it was the piecemeal assembly of several much smaller cratonic elements
that once formed an earlier supercontinent (today known as Rodinia), a process that eventually culminated
in the relatively short-lived Gondwanan supercontinent.[2]

Two partly incomparable scenarios have been proposed for this assembly.[4] In one model, the EAO
evolved from an accretionary orogeny involving the amalgamation of arcs and evolved into a collisional
orogeny when the Neoproterozoic continent Azania collided with the Congo-Tanzania-Bangweulu Block
at c. 640 Ma.[5] In another model, the assembly of East Gondwana c. 750  to  530 Ma was a multiphase
process which included two main periods of orogenesis: the older EAO (c. 750  to  620 Ma) and the
younger Kuunga Orogeny (c. 570 to 530 Ma).[6] In the former scenario the Kuunga Orogeny of the latter
scenario are two coeval events: the collisions between India and Australia-East Antarctica and Azania and
India. Furthermore, the two orogens of the latter scenario intersect in Madagascar, the proposed location of
the Azania-India collision, and this part of the Kuunga Orogeny should be renamed the Malagasy
Orogeny.[7]

Erosion and Cambrian explosion

The East African orogeny resulted in the formation of an enormous mountain chain, known as the
Transgondwanan Supermountain, which was more than 8,000 km (5,000 mi)-long and 1,000 km (620 mi)-
wide. The sedimentary deposition from this mountain chain, known as the Gondwana Super-fan, exceeded
100 million cubic kilometres (24 million cubic miles) or the equivalent to covering the United States with c.
10 km (6.2 mi) of sediment, lasted for 260 million years and coincided with the Cambrian explosion, the
sudden radiation of animal (Metazoan) life c. 550 Ma. These unprecedented sedimentary depositions
probably made the diversification of early animal life possible.[8]

The orogen was eroded to such extent that by the Ordovician epoch it had been leveled to a planation
surface in Ethiopia.[9][10]

Cenozoic reopening
The Cenozoic East African Rift System mostly evolved along the complex pattern of Proterozoic prerift
systems in eastern Africa.[11] It passes through the Mozambique Belt east of the Tanzania Craton.[12]

References
1. Meert 2003, Fig. 10, p. 19
2. Stern 1994, pp. 320–321, 324
3. McWilliams 1981, Abstract
4. For a discussion see Meert 2003, Discussion, p. 31; Collins & Pisarevsky 2005,
Comparisons with other models, pp. 256–257; Meert & Lieberman 2008, Assembling
Gondwana: polyphase or simple?, pp. 9–11; Nance, Murphy & Santosh 2014, Pannotia
(Gondwana), pp. 12, 14
5. Azania was defined by Collins & Windley 2002, Discussion, pp. 334–335 and named by
Collins & Pisarevsky 2005, p. 244
6. Meert 2003, Abstract
7. Collins & Pisarevsky 2005, Comparisons with other models, pp. 256–257
8. Squire et al. 2006
9. Abbate, Ernesto; Bruni, Piero; Sagri, Mario (2015). "Geology of Ethiopia: A Review and
Geomorphological Perspectives". In Billi, Paolo (ed.). Landscapes and Landforms of
Ethiopia. World Geomorphological Landscapes. pp. 33–64. doi:10.1007/978-94-017-8026-
1_2 (https://doi.org/10.1007%2F978-94-017-8026-1_2). ISBN 978-94-017-8026-1.
10. Coltorti, M.; Dramis, F.; Ollier, C.D. (2007). "Planation surfaces in Northern Ethiopia".
Geomorphology. 89 (3–4): 287–296. doi:10.1016/j.geomorph.2006.12.007 (https://doi.org/10.
1016%2Fj.geomorph.2006.12.007).
11. Ring 1994, Conclusions, p. 325
12. Aulbach, Rudnick & McDonough 2011, Geology and samples, pp. 106–108

Sources
Aulbach, S.; Rudnick, R. L.; McDonough, W. F. (2011). Evolution of the lithospheric mantle
beneath the East African Rift in Tanzania and its potential signatures in rift magmas (https://
www.researchgate.net/publication/277679969). Geological Society of America Special
Papers. Vol. 478. pp. 105–125. doi:10.1130/2011.2478(06) (https://doi.org/10.1130%2F201
1.2478%2806%29). ISBN 978-0-8137-2478-2. Retrieved 6 January 2018.
Collins, A. S.; Pisarevsky, S. A. (2005). "Amalgamating eastern Gondwana: The evolution of
the Circum-Indian Orogens". Earth-Science Reviews. 71 (3–4): 229–270.
Bibcode:2005ESRv...71..229C (https://ui.adsabs.harvard.edu/abs/2005ESRv...71..229C).
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 Collins, A. S.; Windley, B. F. (2002). "The tectonic evolution of central and northern
Madagascar and its place in the final assembly of Gondwana" (https://digital.library.adelaide.
edu.au/dspace/bitstream/2440/34282/1/hdl_34282.pdf) (PDF). The Journal of Geology. 110
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doi:10.1016/S0166-2635(08)70031-8 (https://doi.org/10.1016%2FS0166-2635%2808%2970
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