Crustal structure of the East African Limpopo margin, a strike-slip rifted corridor along the continental Mozambique Coastal Plain and North Natal Valley

Evain, Mikael; Schnürle, Philippe; Leprêtre, Angélique; Verrier, Fanny; Watremez, Louise; Thompson, Joseph Offei; de Clarens, Philippe; Aslanian, Daniel; Moulin, Maryline

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1865-2021

Articles | Volume 12, issue 8

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1865-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1865-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 12, issue 8

Research article

|

20 Aug 2021

Research article |

| 20 Aug 2021

Crustal structure of the East African Limpopo margin, a strike-slip rifted corridor along the continental Mozambique Coastal Plain and North Natal Valley

Mikael Evain, Philippe Schnürle, Angélique Leprêtre, Fanny Verrier, Louise Watremez, Joseph Offei Thompson, Philippe de Clarens, Daniel Aslanian, and Maryline Moulin

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/se-12-1865-2021-supplement

Data sets

PAMELA-MOZ05 cruise, RV Pourquoi pas ? Moulin, Maryline and Evain, Mikael https://doi.org/10.17600/16009500

PAMELA-MOZ03 cruise, RV Pourquoi pas ? Moulin, Maryline and Aslanian, Daniel https://doi.org/10.17600/16001600

PAMELA-MOZ3-5 MZ3 velocity profile Evain, Mikael et al. https://doi.org/10.17882/80287

Short summary

This study analyses recently acquired marine seismic data offshore of southeastern Mozambique. It aims to better constrain the early history and formation of southeastern African margins. The crustal structure and segmentation of the Limpopo margin provide evidence of strike-slip rifting along the eastern North Natal Valley. This has profound consequences on our understanding of the East Gondwana breakup, challenging kinematic models based on an overlap between the Antarctic and African plates.