Geochemical and isotopic composition of Pan-African metabasalts from southwestern Gondwana: Evidence of Cretaceous South Atlantic opening along a Neoproterozoic back-arc

Abstract A lithogeochemical and Sr–Nd–Pb isotope study of former oceanic crustal rocks from the Cuchilla Dionisio Terrane in the southern Dom Feliciano Belt, Uruguay (La Tuna amphibolites) and metabasites in the Chameis Subterrane of the Marmora Terrane in the Gariep Belt, Namibia/South Africa shows that these rocks are compositionally very similar and probably represent the same unit on opposite sides of the modern South Atlantic. The mafic rocks from both terranes are tholeiitic metabasalts and -andesites and have depleted rare earth element patterns, generally low TiO 2 ( Nd 630 Ma  = 6.7–9.4), superchondritic 147 Sm/ 144 Nd ratios, and low 206 Pb/ 204 Pb and 207 Pb/ 204 Pb initial ratios. The 87 Sr/ 86 Sr initial ratios of the La Tuna mafic rocks are low, whereas the Chameis metagabbro samples have higher, possibly alteration-related ratios. The geochemical and isotopic signatures are consistent with the formation of both rock suites in the same mature Neoproterozoic back-arc basin (Marmora Basin), supporting conclusions drawn from earlier provenance studies of metasedimentary units from these terranes. Other mafic rocks from the Marmora Terrane are interpreted as ocean island basalts that formed in a within-plate setting. A corollary of the conclusion that the mafic rocks in the Cuchilla Dionisio and Marmora Terranes formed in the same back-arc basin is (1) that the main Pan-African suture between the Rio de la Plata Craton and the Kalahari Craton lies to the west of the Dom Feliciano Belt in South America, and (2) that the opening of the modern South Atlantic did not occur along that suture but along the axis of the Neoproterozoic Marmora back-arc basin.