The Damara orogeny was part of the
Pan-African orogeny
The Pan-African orogeny was a series of major Neoproterozoic orogenic events which related to the formation of the supercontinents Gondwana and Pannotia about 600 million years ago. This orogeny is also known as the Pan-Gondwanan or Saldanian Oro ...
. The Damara orogeny occurred late in the creation of
Gondwana, at the intersection of the
Congo and the
Kalahari
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa.
It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coasta ...
craton
A craton (, , or ; from grc-gre, κράτος "strength") is an old and stable part of the continental lithosphere, which consists of Earth's two topmost layers, the crust and the uppermost mantle. Having often survived cycles of merging an ...
s.
[; ; ; ; ]
The Damara orogeny involved the
suturing of the Congo–
São Francisco and
Río de la Plata
The Río de la Plata (, "river of silver"), also called the River Plate or La Plata River in English, is the estuary formed by the confluence of the Uruguay River and the Paraná River at Punta Gorda. It empties into the Atlantic Ocean and fo ...
cratons at 580–550 Ma (together with India forming northern Gondwana) before the amalgamation of the
Kalahari
The Kalahari Desert is a large semi-arid sandy savanna in Southern Africa extending for , covering much of Botswana, and parts of Namibia and South Africa.
It is not to be confused with the Angolan, Namibian, and South African Namib coasta ...
and
Mawson cratons in the
Kuunga–Damara orogeny at 530 Ma (southern Gondwana).
The
Adamastor Ocean
The Adamastor Ocean was a "proto-Atlantic" ocean that formed with the break-up of the Rodinia supercontinent 780-750 . It separated the Río de la Plata Craton from the Congo Craton. The inversion of the Adamastor Ocean began about 640  ...
closed southwards from the
Araçuaı́ Belt (São Francisco Craton, now in South America) to the
Kaoko Belt (Congo Craton, now in Africa) 580–550 Ma and 545–530 Ma Gariep Belt (Kalahari Craton, now in southern Africa). The Damara orogeny saw a peak in deformation and metamorphism at 530–500 Ma. Thrusting occurred onto the Kalahari Craton until 480 Ma.
Río de la Plata docked to Congo before the closure of the Damara Belt oceans (
Mozambique
Mozambique (), officially the Republic of Mozambique ( pt, Moçambique or , ; ny, Mozambiki; sw, Msumbiji; ts, Muzambhiki), is a country located in southeastern Africa bordered by the Indian Ocean to the east, Tanzania to the north, Malawi ...
and
Khomas
Khomas is one of the fourteen regions of Namibia. Its name refers to the Khomas Highland, a high plateau landscape that dominates this administrative unit. Khomas is centered on the capital city Windhoek and provides for this reason superior trans ...
) which made the Damara orogeny part of the Kuunga orogeny which stretched from Antarctica to India across Africa. All African cratons had been assembled by 550 Ma and the last stages of the Damara–Kuunga Orogeny (the final amalgamation of north and South Gondwana) were intra-cratonic.
The Damara orogeny created the
Naukluft Mountains
The Naukluft Mountains (Afrikaans and German: ''Naukluftberge'') are a mountain range in central Namibia. The southern part of the mountain range forms the easternmost part of the Namib-Naukluft National Park. The northern mountains are occupied ...
in central
Namibia
Namibia (, ), officially the Republic of Namibia, is a country in Southern Africa. Its western border is the Atlantic Ocean. It shares land borders with Zambia and Angola to the north, Botswana to the east and South Africa to the south and ea ...
between 550
Ma and 495 Ma.
See also
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References
Bibliography
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Paleozoic orogenies
Proterozoic orogenies
Orogenies of Africa
Orogenies of South America
Geology of Angola
Geology of Namibia
Geology of Argentina
Geology of Brazil
Geology of Uruguay
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