The Trans Brazilian Lineament (TBL), or Transbrasiliano Lineament, is a major

shear zone In geology, a shear zone is a thin zone within the Earth's crust or upper mantle that has been strongly deformed, due to the walls of rock on either side of the zone slipping past each other. In the upper crust, where rock is brittle, the shear ...

that developed in the

Precambrian The Precambrian (or Pre-Cambrian, sometimes abbreviated pꞒ, or Cryptozoic) is the earliest part of Earth's history, set before the current Phanerozoic Eon. The Precambrian is so named because it preceded the Cambrian, the first period of the ...

period, and that has been reactivated several times since then, mostly recently during the

Mesozoic The Mesozoic Era ( ), also called the Age of Reptiles, the Age of Conifers, and colloquially as the Age of the Dinosaurs is the second-to-last era of Earth's geological history, lasting from about , comprising the Triassic, Jurassic and Cretaceo ...

. Movement along the shear zone helps explain how the

South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a relatively small portion in the Northern Hemisphere at the northern tip of the continent. It can also be described as the southe ...

n continent could have fitted tightly to the

Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent, after Asia in both cases. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of Earth's total surface area ...

n continent before the breakup of

Gondwana Gondwana () was a large landmass, often referred to as a supercontinent, that formed during the late Neoproterozoic (about 550 million years ago) and began to break up during the Jurassic period (about 180 million years ago). The final stages ...

Formation and location

The TBL was formed when the Goiás Ocean, lying between the

Amazonian craton The Amazonian Craton is a geologic province located in South America. It occupies a large portion of the central, north and eastern part of the continent and represents one of Earth's largest cratonic regions. The Guiana Shield and Central Brazi ...

and the Congo /

Sao Francisco craton SAO or Sao may refer to: Places * Sao civilisation, in Middle Africa from 6th century BC to 16th century AD * Sao, a town in Boussé Department, Burkina Faso * Saco Transportation Center (station code SAO), a train station in Saco, Maine, U. ...

, was closed during the formation of West Gondwana around 600 million years ago. The

lineament ''See also Line (geometry)'' A lineament is a linear feature in a landscape which is an expression of an underlying geological structure such as a fault. Typically a lineament will appear as a fault-aligned valley, a series of fault or fold-aligne ...

extends from the northeast coast of

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

in a southwesterly direction through

Paraguay Paraguay (; ), officially the Republic of Paraguay ( es, República del Paraguay, links=no; gn, Tavakuairetã Paraguái, links=si), is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the south and southwest, Brazil to th ...

and into

Argentina Argentina (), officially the Argentine Republic ( es, link=no, República Argentina), is a country in the southern half of South America. Argentina covers an area of , making it the second-largest country in South America after Brazil, th ...

, where it is dissipated in the Salado and Colorado extension basins. The Trans-Saharan Belt (TSB), running from

Algeria ) , image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Algiers , coordinates = , largest_city = capital , relig ...

Benin Benin ( , ; french: Bénin , ff, Benen), officially the Republic of Benin (french: République du Bénin), and formerly Dahomey, is a country in West Africa. It is bordered by Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east, Burkina Faso to the north ...

, was created in the same period. It marks the line where the

Pharusian Ocean The Pharusian Ocean is an ancient ocean that existed from 800 to 635 million years ago, between the break-up of the Rodinia supercontinent and the start of formation of the Gondwana supercontinent. Opening and closure The Pharusian Ocean opened ar ...

, linked to the Goiás Ocean, was closed as the

West African craton The West African Craton (WAC) is one of the five cratons of the Precambrian basement rock of Africa that make up the African Plate, the others being the Kalahari craton, Congo craton, Saharan Metacraton and Tanzania Craton.Jessell M.W., Liégeois ...

collided with the

Saharan Metacraton The Saharan Metacraton is a term used by some geologists to describe a large area of continental crust in the north-central part of Africa. Whereas a craton is an old and stable part of the lithosphere, the term "metacraton" is used to describe a ...

. The TSB includes the Hoggar belt, which splays into the

Kandi fault zone The Kandi fault zone is a southern extension of the Hoggar fault zone in West Africa, with splays in Benin, Togo and southeastern Ghana. It lies at the southern end of the Trans Saharan belt, a lineament that extends in a southwest direction from Al ...

in Benin, corresponding to the Sobral fault at the north of the TBL. Given the correspondence of faults, which is widely accepted, the TBL and TBS form perhaps the longest coherent shear zone on the Earth.

Gondwana breakup

Towards the north of the lineament in Brazil, a series of splay faults show where the crust has extended, and these faults match corresponding faults in Africa. Thus the Pernambuco fault in Brazil matches the

Foumban fault zone The Foumban Shear Zone, or Central Cameroon Shear Zone (CCSZ), is a fault zone in Cameroon that has been correlated with the Pernambuco fault in northeastern Brazil, which splays from the Trans-Brazilian Lineament. It is part of the Central Afri ...

Cameroon Cameroon (; french: Cameroun, ff, Kamerun), officially the Republic of Cameroon (french: République du Cameroun, links=no), is a country in west-central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west and north; Chad to the northeast; the C ...

, and other Brazilian faults match the

Benue Trough The Benue Trough is a major geological structure underlying a large part of Nigeria and extending about 1,000 km northeast from the Bight of Benin to Lake Chad. It is part of the broader West and Central African Rift System. Location The t ...

Nigeria Nigeria ( ), , ig, Naìjíríyà, yo, Nàìjíríà, pcm, Naijá , ff, Naajeeriya, kcg, Naijeriya officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf o ...

. The extension caused by these splay faults causes a poor fit between South America and Africa around the

Niger Delta The Niger Delta is the delta of the Niger River sitting directly on the Gulf of Guinea on the Atlantic Ocean in Nigeria. It is located within nine coastal southern Nigerian states, which include: all six states from the South South geopolitical ...

region. However, after allowing for a

sinistral Sinistral and dextral, in some scientific fields, are the two types of chirality ("handedness") or relative direction. The terms are derived from the Latin words for "left" (''sinister'') and "right" (''dexter''). Other disciplines use different ...

shear movement of about 100 km of the crust to the east of the TBL, there is an excellent fit between South America and Africa both to the south and the west of the Niger Delta.

References

{{Major South American geological formations Seismic faults of Brazil Geology of South America Precambrian South America