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Archaean Crystalline Rocks of the Eastern Kaapvaal Craton

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The Archaean Geology of the Kaapvaal Craton, Southern Africa

Part of the book series: Regional Geology Reviews ((RGR))

Abstract

The eastern part of the Kaapvaal Craton represents a classical granitoid-greenstone terrain and contains the oldest rocks of the African continent, exhibiting about 1000 Ma of crustal evolution from 3.66 to 2.67 Ga. The granitoid rocks predominantly consist of the tonalite–trondhjemite–granodiorite (TTG) association with true granites becoming abundant at about 3 Ga. Greenstones are represented by the well-preserved and well-studied 3.54–3.2 Ga Barberton Greenstone Belt and smaller ca. 3.45 Ga greenstone belt remnants infolded in TTG gneisses around the BGB as well as in the Ancient Gneiss Complex in Swaziland. The origin of both the TTGs and greenstone units is still debated as strong deformation and medium- to high-grade metamorphism have obliterated most of the original rock relationships. This is largely due to an extensive tectono-magmato-metamorphic event at ca. 3.2 Ga that affected virtually the entire eastern part of the craton. Heat provided by mantle-derived melts during this event led to extensive intracrustal melting, with melt migration resulting in depletion of the lower crust in radioactive and other mobile elements. Long-lived extraction of granitoid magmas up to about 2.67 Ga increased the rigidity of the lower crust, causing tectonic stabilization of the Kaapvaal Craton.

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Acknowledgements

We thank Martin Van Kranendonk, Axel Hofmann, Carl Anhaeusser, Gary Stevens and members of an international field workshop at Badplaas in 2016 for discussions. Guangshen Nie and Baoying Zheng of the Beijing SHRIMP Centre prepared most of the zircon concentrates, Liqin Zhou and Xiao-Chao Che provided the zircon CL images, Chun Yang prepared perfect zircon mounts, and Jianhui Liu and Zhiqing Yang made sure that SHRIMP II was in excellent operating conditions. Dieter Garbe-Schönberg, Anja Schleicher, Ernst Hegner and Axel Hofmann kindly provided some chemical or isotopic analyses listed in Tables S1 and S3. Jianfeng Gao of the Institute of Geochemistry, Chinese Academy of Sciences, provided an unpublished Excel-based program to construct the Hf evolution diagrams of Figs. 10, 12, S3 and S6. Gary Stevens and Alex Kisters kindly supplied Table 1.4. Comments of Tim Johnson, Laurence Robb and Axel Hofmann improved the manuscript. This study was supported by grants of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft to AK (KR590/92-1, 92-2, 94-1, 97-1, 98-1) and grant HO4794/1-1 to JEH.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institut für Geowissenschaften, Universität Mainz, 55099, Mainz, Germany

    Alfred Kröner

  2. Beijing SHRIMP Centre, Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences, Beijing, China

    Alfred Kröner & Hangqiang Xie

  3. Institut für Geologische Wissenschaften, Geochemie, Freie Universität Berlin, 12249, Berlin, Germany

    J. Elis Hoffmann & Kathrin P. Schneider

  4. Department of Earth Sciences, University of Hong Kong, Pokfulam Road, Hong Kong, China

    Jean M. Wong & Hong-Yan Geng

  5. University Research Facility in Chemical and Environmental Analysis, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Hong Hum, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China

    Hong-Yan Geng

  6. State Key Laboratory of Lithospheric Evolution, Institute of Geology & Geophysics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, P.O. Box 9825, Beijing, China

    Jin-Hui Yang

  7. Geological Survey and Mines Department, Mbabane, Swaziland

    Noah Nhleko

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    Axel Hofmann

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Kröner, A. et al. (2019). Archaean Crystalline Rocks of the Eastern Kaapvaal Craton. In: Kröner, A., Hofmann, A. (eds) The Archaean Geology of the Kaapvaal Craton, Southern Africa. Regional Geology Reviews. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-78652-0_1

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