Gondwana breakup: messages from the North Natal Valley

• Autor(a) principal: Moulin, Maryline
• Data de Publicação: 2020
• Outros Autores: Aslanian, Daniel, Evain, Mikael, Lepretre, Angelique, Schnurle, Philippe, Verrier, Fanny, Thompson, Joseph, De Clarens, Philippe, LEROY, Sylvie, Dias, Nuno, Afilhado, Alexandra, Apprioul, R., Bronner, A., Castilla, R., Corela, Carlos, Crozon, J., Davy, C., D'acremont, E., Droz, Laurence, Duarte, J. L., Fernagu, P., Ferrant, A., Fischer, M., Franke, D., Inguane, H., Jorry, Stephan, Jouet, G., Loureiro, Afonso, Le Bouteiller, P., Le Bihan, C., Mahanjane, S., Moocroft, D., Pelleau, P., Picot, M., Pierre, D., Pitel, M., Rabineau, M., Rombe, C., Roudaut, M., Senkans, A., Toucanne, Samuel
• Tipo de documento: Artigo
• Idioma: eng
• Título da fonte: Repositório Científico de Acesso Aberto de Portugal (Repositórios Cientìficos)
• Texto Completo: http://hdl.handle.net/10400.21/12724
• topic: Natal Valley; East Gondwana

The Natal Valley, offshore Mozambique, is a key area for understanding the evolution of East Gondwana. Within the scope of the integrated multidisciplinary PAMELA project, we present new wide-angle seismic data and interpretations, which considerably alter Geoscience paradigms. These data reveal the presence of a 30-km-thick crust that we argue to be of continental nature. This falsifies all the most recent palaeo-reconstructions of the Gondwana. This 30-km-thick continental crust 1,000 m below sea level implies a complex history with probable intrusions of mantle-derived melts in the lower crust, connected to several occurrences of magmatism, which seems to evidence the crucial role of the lower continental crust in passive margin genesis.