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Reorienting the West African craton in Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic supercontinent Nuna

Gong, Zheng ; Evans, David A.D. ; Youbi, Nasrrddine ; Lahna, Abdelhak Ait LU ; Söderlund, Ulf LU ; Malek, Malika Ait ; Wen, Bin ; Jing, Xianqing ; Ding, Jikai and Boumehdi, Moulay A. , et al. (2021) In Geology 49(10). p.1171-1176
Abstract

The location of the West African craton (WAC) has been poorly constrained in the Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic supercontinent Nuna (also known as Columbia). Previous Nuna reconstruction models suggested that the WAC was connected to Amazonia in a way similar to their relative position in Gondwana. By an integrated paleomagnetic and geochronological study of the Proterozoic mafic dikes in the Anti-Atlas Belt, Morocco, we provide two reliable paleomagnetic poles to test this connection. Incorporating our new poles with quality-filtered poles from the neighboring cratons of the WAC, we propose an inverted WAC-Amazonia connection, with the northern WAC attached to northeastern Amazonia, as well as a refined configuration of Nuna. Global... (More)

The location of the West African craton (WAC) has been poorly constrained in the Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic supercontinent Nuna (also known as Columbia). Previous Nuna reconstruction models suggested that the WAC was connected to Amazonia in a way similar to their relative position in Gondwana. By an integrated paleomagnetic and geochronological study of the Proterozoic mafic dikes in the Anti-Atlas Belt, Morocco, we provide two reliable paleomagnetic poles to test this connection. Incorporating our new poles with quality-filtered poles from the neighboring cratons of the WAC, we propose an inverted WAC-Amazonia connection, with the northern WAC attached to northeastern Amazonia, as well as a refined configuration of Nuna. Global large igneous province records also conform to our new reconstruction. The inverted WAC-Amazonia connection suggests a substantial change in their relative orientation from Nuna to Gondwana, providing an additional example of large-magnitude cumulative azimuthal rotations between adjacent continental blocks over supercontinental cycles.

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organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to journal
publication status
published
subject
in
Geology
volume
49
issue
10
pages
6 pages
publisher
Geological Society of America
external identifiers
  • scopus:85116847612
ISSN
0091-7613
DOI
10.1130/G48855.1
language
English
LU publication?
yes
additional info
Publisher Copyright: © 2021. Geological Society of America.
id
ab6b5e71-4660-43c4-8b54-350d58e66af7
date added to LUP
2021-10-26 14:03:47
date last changed
2022-04-27 05:16:10
@article{ab6b5e71-4660-43c4-8b54-350d58e66af7,
  abstract     = {{<p>The location of the West African craton (WAC) has been poorly constrained in the Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic supercontinent Nuna (also known as Columbia). Previous Nuna reconstruction models suggested that the WAC was connected to Amazonia in a way similar to their relative position in Gondwana. By an integrated paleomagnetic and geochronological study of the Proterozoic mafic dikes in the Anti-Atlas Belt, Morocco, we provide two reliable paleomagnetic poles to test this connection. Incorporating our new poles with quality-filtered poles from the neighboring cratons of the WAC, we propose an inverted WAC-Amazonia connection, with the northern WAC attached to northeastern Amazonia, as well as a refined configuration of Nuna. Global large igneous province records also conform to our new reconstruction. The inverted WAC-Amazonia connection suggests a substantial change in their relative orientation from Nuna to Gondwana, providing an additional example of large-magnitude cumulative azimuthal rotations between adjacent continental blocks over supercontinental cycles.</p>}},
  author       = {{Gong, Zheng and Evans, David A.D. and Youbi, Nasrrddine and Lahna, Abdelhak Ait and Söderlund, Ulf and Malek, Malika Ait and Wen, Bin and Jing, Xianqing and Ding, Jikai and Boumehdi, Moulay A. and Ernst, Richard E.}},
  issn         = {{0091-7613}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  number       = {{10}},
  pages        = {{1171--1176}},
  publisher    = {{Geological Society of America}},
  series       = {{Geology}},
  title        = {{Reorienting the West African craton in Paleoproterozoic–Mesoproterozoic supercontinent Nuna}},
  url          = {{http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/G48855.1}},
  doi          = {{10.1130/G48855.1}},
  volume       = {{49}},
  year         = {{2021}},
}