Vestiges of the Mesoproterozoic Events in the Neoproterozoic Mozambique Belt: the East African Perspective in the Rodinia Puzzle

Most of the geological and palaeogeographical models consider the Neoproterozoic supercontinent Gondwana (∼650-550 Ma) as the direct offspring of the disintegrated Mesoproterozoic supercontinent Rodinia (∼1300-750 Ma). One of the main classical sutures along which the dispersing Rodinia fragments were fused into a new supercontinent (Godwana) is identified as the Mozambique belt of East Africa. The calc-alkaline magmatism (∼1200-950 Ma) in northern Mozambique, southern Malawi and southern Tanzania is regarded as the sole evidence for fragmentation of Rodinia, which is traced within this Neoproterozoic orogenic belt. There are no unequivocal Mesoproterozoic (Kibaran) sediments in this orogen. Concrete evidence for Kibaran metamorphism and deformation is missing. Thus, these solitary documented Kibaran magmatic vestiges in the belt do not ascribe to a true complete orogenesis, which involved the disintegration and dispersal of Rodinia. Consequently, the available sparse Mesoproterozoic (Kibaran) geological and isotopic data from the Mozambique belt of East Africa contentiously suggest its involvement in the aggregation of the supercontinent Rodinia at about 1300-1100 Ma ago.