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Emplacement of the giant Kunene AMCG complex into a contractional ductile shear zone and implications for the Mesoproterozoic tectonic evolution of SW Angola

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Abstract

Massif-type anorthosites are voluminous, plagioclase-dominated batholiths that occur worldwide, but only during the Proterozoic Eon. Granitoids are closely associated with the anorthosites, and they collectively may form an AMCG suite (i.e., anorthosite, mangerite, charnockite, granite). Many fundamental questions regarding the origin of the AMCG complexes remain unresolved, including their tectonic setting and mode of emplacement. Here, we present new data from reconnaissance structural mapping, U–Pb LA-ICP-MS zircon dating, and 40Ar/39Ar amphibole and mica dating from a 500 km2 area straddling the western margin of one of the world’s largest (≥ 15,000 km2), but also least studied AMCG suites, the Kunene Complex (KC) in Angola. The oldest recognized (pre-Kunene) deformation event D1 produced a steep WNW–ESE-striking S1 fabric in supracrustal rocks, migmatite and Paleoproterozoic (1800–1780 Ma) granodiorite before ~ 1680 Ma. This was folded by the D2 event, resulting in steep, N–S-striking S2 leucosomes and gneissosity in the rocks surrounding the KC. Concordant magmatic layering and lamination, and high- to low-temperature gneissic foliation in the marginal Kunene anorthosite and coeval megacrystic granite are parallel with S2 fabrics in the Paleoproterozoic country rocks. Mineral stretching lineations L2 in all rock types across intrusive contacts are steep and associated with west-side-up (thrust) shearing. Overlapping U–Pb zircon/baddeleyite ages from the Kunene megacrystic granite and Kunene anorthosite, with 40Ar/39Ar mica ages from the mantling Paleoproterozoic country rocks, attest to progressive contraction, thrusting and exhumation of the Paleoproterozoic country rocks onto the Kunene anorthosite in the interval 1410–1380 Ma. We suggest that thermal softening of the country rocks caused by heat dissipation from the earliest phase (1500–1410 Ma) of ponding of hot anorthositic magma in the deep crust localized D2 deformation at the margin of the KC. Our data point to a tectonic model whereby anorthosite sheets were emplaced at a high angle to the shortening direction and along host-rock S2 anisotropy deep in the crust and cooled during progressive ductile thrusting and exhumation of the country rocks. These results question the current view that Proterozoic AMCG suites are emplaced in extensional environments as large diapiric bodies and favor formation in a continental arc setting.

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Acknowledgements

The authors are grateful to Alfred Kröner and Pablo González Cuadra for providing the detailed geological maps of SW Angola. Katie Hill, Alan Brower and Daniel Kwayisi are thanked for their assistance in the field and Lew Ashwal for discussions on anorthosite geology. Martin le Roux is thanked for guiding us in the field in 2015 and for part of 2016. LA-MC-ICP-MS equipment at UJ was funded by an NRF-NEP grant (No. 93208). This work is supported by a National Research Foundation (NRF) Thuthuka Grant (TTK14052367805) awarded to GMB, and by the DSI-NRF Centre of Excellence for Integrated Mineral and Energy Resource Analysis (DSI-NRF CIMERA). We thank J. Žák and an anonymous reviewer for constructive comments and P. Hasalová for her editorial work.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Geology, University of Johannesburg, Auckland Park, P.O. Box 524, Johannesburg, 2006, South Africa

    Jeremie Lehmann, Ben Hayes, Trishya Margaret Owen-Smith & Georgy Belyanin

  2. School of Geosciences, University of the Witwatersrand, 1 Jan Smuts Avenue, Braamfontein, Johannesburg, 2000, South Africa

    Grant Michael Bybee & Ben Hayes

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  4. Trishya Margaret Owen-Smith
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  5. Georgy Belyanin
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Correspondence to Jeremie Lehmann.

Electronic supplementary material

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Supplementary file 1 (DOCX 28 kb)

Figure S1: Additional U-Pb diagrams for samples KAC35-38A and KAC35-38B. Supplementary file 2 (PDF 917 kb)

531_2020_1837_MOESM3_ESM.pdf

Figure S2: Additional 40Ar/39Ar geochronology data. Associated Ca/K ratio spectra are presented for the amphiboles (d) to (f). (g) Inverse isochron diagram for subsample KAC27-31 amphibole duplicate with the three first and last heating steps removed. (h) Recalculated laser ablation age spectrum for subsample KAC27-31 amphibole duplicate using 40Ar/39Ar value of 1650.17, corresponding to the value at the intersection between the 36Ar/40Ar axis and the regression line in the 36Ar/40Ar vs 39Ar/40Ar plot of (g). Supplementary file 3 (PDF 153 kb)

207Pb/206Pb weighted mean age for secondary reference material. Supplementary file 4 (PDF 140 kb)

531_2020_1837_MOESM5_ESM.xlsx

Summary of LA-MC-ICP-MS U–Pb zircon geochronology data at University of Johannesburg, including zircon reference material values for the LA–MC–ICP–MS (this table has been formatted according to the guidelines laid out in Horstwood et al. 2016); and U–Pb CA–ID–TIMS analysis at University of Oslo. Supplementary file 5 (XLSX 109 kb)

Supplementary file 6 (XLSX 66 kb)

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Lehmann, J., Bybee, G.M., Hayes, B. et al. Emplacement of the giant Kunene AMCG complex into a contractional ductile shear zone and implications for the Mesoproterozoic tectonic evolution of SW Angola. Int J Earth Sci (Geol Rundsch) 109, 1463–1485 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-020-01837-5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00531-020-01837-5

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