Limpopo Belt

Hoemes S, Van Reenen DC (1992) The oxygen isotopic composition of granuUtes and retrogressed granulites from the Limpopo Belt as a monitor of fluid-rock interaction. Precambrian Res 55 353-364... 

Smit C. A. and Van Reenen D. D. (1997) Deep crustal shear zones, high-grade tectonites, and associated metasomatic alteration in the Limpopo Belt, South Africa Implications for deep crustal processes. J. Geol. 105, 37 -58. 

Fig. 2. Schematic map showing mean redepletion model ages determined for peridotite nodules from kimberlite pipes erupted in southern Africa. Cratonic regions are outlined in yellow, the Limpopo Belt in brown. Solid coloured circles indicate individual kimberlite pipes from which several xenoliths have been analysed. Published in Carlson et al., GSA Today, 2000, February issue, fig. 4.

Within the resolution of the data, the mantle structure of the Archaean Limpopo Belt does not differ significantly from that of the adjacent cratons. The similarity with cratonic mantle structure contrasts sharply with the results of crustal structure determinations (Nguuri et al. 2001), which show the Central Zone of the Limpopo Belt to be characterized by thick crust and poorly developed Moho relative to the adjacent cratons. Interestingly, the SKS splitting results for the southern Africa array show that the Limpopo Belt exhibits a consistent east-west mantle fabric, presumably acquired at the time of craton collision (Silver et al. 2001). 

Fig. 11. Colour-coded contour map of depth to Moho beneath the southern Africa array based on phasing depth images of Figure 2 (from Nguuri et al. 2001). Crustal thickness colour scale is shown on right. Thin crust is associated with undisturbed areas of craton, particularly in the southern and eastern parts of the Kaapvaal Craton and in the Zimbabwe Craton north of the Limpopo Belt. Greater crustal thickness is associated with the Bushveld region and its westward extension into the Okwa and Magondi Belts and with the Central Zone of the Limpopo Belt and the Proterozoic Namaqua-Natal Mobile Belt.

Gore, J. 2002. Seismological structure of the crust and upper mantle of the Zimbabwe craton and Limpopo belt, southern Africa. PhD thesis. University of Zimbabwe, Harare. 

Gwavava, O., Swain, C. J., Podmore, F. Fairhead, J. D. 1992. Evidence of crustal thinning beneath the Limpopo Belt and Lebombo monocline of southern Africa based on regional gravity studies and implications for the reconstruction of Gondwana. In VON Frese, R. B. Taylor, P. (eds) Lithospheric Analysis of Magnetic and Related Geophysical Anomalies. Elsevier, Amsterdam, 1-20. 

Treloar, P. j.. Coward, M. P. Harris. N. B. W. 1992. Himalayan-Tibetan analogies for the evolution of the Zimbabwean Craton and Limpopo belt. Precambrian Research, 55, 571-587. 

VAN Reenen, D. D., Barton, J. M., Roering, C. A., Smith, C. A. van Schalkwyk, J. F. 1987. Deep crustal response to continental collision the Limpopo belt of southern Africa. Geology (Boulder), 15, 11-14. 

Blenkinsop, T. G. 1997. The Limpopo Belt in Zimbabwe a Field Guide. Conference on Intraplate Magmatism and Tectonics of Southern Africa (Geological Society of Zimbabwe), Excursion Guide, 1. 

Blenkinsop, T. G. Frei, R. 1997. Archaean and Proterozoic mineralization and tectonics at Renco mine (Northern marginal zone, Limpopo belt, Zimbabwe). Economic Geology, 91, 1225-1238. 

Fedo, C. M., Eriksson, K. A. Blenkinsop, T. G. 1995. Geologic history of the Archean Buhwa greenstone belt and surrounding granite-gneiss terrain, Zimbabwe, with implications for the evolution of the Limpopo Belt. Canadian Journal of Earth Sciences, 32 1977-1990. 

Frei, R., Blenkinsop, T. G. SchOnberg, R. 1999. Geochronology of the late Archaean Razi and Chilimanzi suites of granites in Zimbabwe implications for the late Archaean tectonics of the Limpopo belt and Zimbabwe craton. South African Journal of Geology, 102, 55-63. 

Kamber, B. S., Biino, G. G., Wubrans, J. R., Davies, G. R. Villa, I. M. 1996. Archaean granulites of the Limpopo belt, Zimbabwe one slow exhumation or two rapid events Tectonics, 15,1414-1430. 

Tsunogae, T., Miyano, T. Ridley, J. R. 1992. Metamorphic P-T profiles from the Zimbabwe Craton to the Limpopo Belt, Zimbabwe. Precambrian Research, 55, 259-278. 

Kreissig, K., Nagler, Th. F., Kramers, J. D., VAN Reenen, D. D. Smit, C. a. 2000. An isotopic and geochemical study of the northern Kaapvaal Craton and the Southern Marginal Zone of the Limpopo Belt are they juxtaposed terranes Lithos, 50, 1-25. 

Limpopo Belt Zimbabwe, Botswana, South Africa 2.7-2.9 The north and south marginal zones are the lower crustal sections of the Zimbabwe and Kaapvaal Cratons respectively, thrust onto their respective cratons... 

Here we explore the idea that the discrepancy between the average composition of the continental crust, which is andesitic, and the modern flux from the mantle to the continental crust, which is basaltic, can be explained in terms of a change in the composition of the crust-mantle flux over time. The hypothesis adopted here is that Archaean crust had a TI G composition, formed from a TTG melt, and was not fractionated into lower basaltic and upper felsic components. Modern crust on the other hand has a basaltic bulk composition but has been modified to andesitic through the fractionation and the removal of a mafic lower crustal component (Rudnick Taylor, 1987). Evidence for the absence of a mafic lower crust in the Archaean comes from Archaean lower crust preserved as granulite terrains, such as the Lewisian (Rollinson Tarney, 2005), the Limpopo Belt (Berger Rollinson, 1997), and the lower crust of the Kaapvaal Craton... 

Rollinson, H.R. and Blenkinsop, T.G., 1995. The magmatic, metamorphic and tectonic evolution of the northern marginal zone of the Limpopo belt in Zimbabwe. J. Geol. Soc. Lond., 151, 65-75. 

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