Thermochronological insights into reactivation of a continental shear zone in response to Equatorial Atlantic rifting (northern Ghana).

ABSTRACT: West Africa was subjected to deformation and exhumation in response to Gondwana break-up. The timing and extent of these events are recorded in the thermal history of the margin. This study reports new apatite fission track (AFT) data from Palaeoproterozoic basement along the primary NE-SW structural trend of the Bole-Nangodi shear zone in northwestern Ghana. The results display bimodality in AFT age (populations of ~210-180 Ma and ~115-105 Ma) and length distributions (populations of 12.2 ± 1.6 and 13.1 ± 1.4 µm), supported by differences in apatite chemistry (U concentrations). The bimodal AFT results and associated QTQt thermal history models provide evidence for multiple cooling phases. Late Triassic - Early Jurassic cooling is interpreted to be related with thermal relaxation after th

SUBMITTER: Fernie N 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC6226541 | biostudies-literature | 2018 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature