The Damara MountainsLocated in the deserts of Namibia is a fold belt of mountains that records the f
The Damara MountainsLocated in the deserts of Namibia is a fold belt of mountains that records the final assembly of Gondwana some half a billion years ago in an event known as the Pan African orogeny (seehttps://bit.ly/1D548m8). Over 55 million years between 580 and 525 million years ago the final pieces ground into shape, with these old mountains being uplifted by the location of my current home docking in, the Rio de la Plata craton (seehttps://bit.ly/2n8hXhu). These rocks started off as marine sediments whose particles were eroded from the Congo craton during the Neoproterozoic era (the last phase of the Precambrian) before being squished and baked as the range grew and the crust stacked up into nappes (see https://bit.ly/2zgW1b3 ) like a tablecloth being pushed across a table. They have been bent by vast tectonic pressures into a magnificent set of chevron folds (see https://bit.ly/2Q0T481), picked out by the original bedding planes of the ex sediments, now transformed into high grade metamorphic rocks such as quartzite (see https://bit.ly/2PyTQtf).LozImage credit: Bernhard EdmaierBernhard’s website and Instagram:https://bit.ly/2C1XZy7 /https://bit.ly/2QvKTx4https://bit.ly/2OPFO1c -- source link
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