Tectonic overview of the West Gondwana margin

The oceanic southern margin of Gondwana, from southern South America through South Africa, West Antarctica, New Zealand (in its pre break-up position), and Victoria Land to Eastern Australia is one of the longest and longest-lived active continental margins known. It was the site of the 18,000 kin Terra Australis orogen, which was initiated in Neoproterozoic times with the break-up of Rodinia, and evolved into the Mesozoic Australides. The Gondwana margin was completed, in Late Cambrian times, by closure of the Adamastor Ocean (between Brazilian and southwest African components) and the Mozambique Ocean (between East and West Gondwana), forming the Brasiliano-Pan-African mobile belts. During the Early Palaeozoic much of the southern margin was dominated by successive episodes of subduction-accretion. Eastern Australia, Northern Victoria Land and the Transantarctic Mountains were affected by one of the first of these events - the Late Cambrian Ross/Delamerian orogeny, remnants of which may be found in the Antarctic Peninsula - but also contain two accreted terranes of unknown age and origin. Similar events are recognized at the South American end of the margin, where the Cambrian Pampean orogeny occur-red with dextral strike-slip along the western edge of the Rio de la Plata craton, followed by an Ordovician active margin (Famatinian) associated with the collision of the Precordillera. terrane. However, the central part of the margin (the Sierra de la Ventana of eastern Argentina, the Cape Fold Belt of South Africa and the Ellsworth Mountains of West Antarctica) seem to represent a passive margin during the Early Palaeozoic, with the accumulation of predominantly reworked continental sedimentary deposits (Du Toit's 'Samfrau Geosyncline'). In many of the outer areas, accretion and intense granitic/rhyolitic magmatism continued during the Late Palaeozoic, with collision of several small continental terranes, many of which are nevertheless of Gondwana origin: e.g., southern Patagonia and (possibly) 'Chilenia' in the South American-South African sectors, and the Western Province and Median Batholith terranes of New Zealand. The rhyolitic Permo-Triassic LIP of southern South America represents a Permo-Triassic switch to extensional tectonics, which continued into the Early Jurassic, and was followed by the establishment of the Andean subduction margin. Elsewhere at this time the margin largely became passive, with terrane accretion continuing in New Zealand. In the Mesozoic, the Terra Australis Orogen evolved into the accretionary Australides, with episodic orogenesis in the New Zealand, West Antarctic and South American sectors in Late Triassic-Early Jurassic and mid-Cretaceous times, even as Gondwana was breaking up. (C) 2007 International Association for Gondwana Research. Published by Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.