• DOI:10.1086/515914
• Corpus ID: 140652348

Neoproterozoic Tectonics of Australia‐Antarctica and Laurentia and the 560 Ma Birth of the Pacific Ocean Reflect the 400 M.Y. Pangean Supercycle

@article{Veevers1997NeoproterozoicTO,
  title={Neoproterozoic Tectonics of Australia‐Antarctica and Laurentia and the 560 Ma Birth of the Pacific Ocean Reflect the 400 M.Y. Pangean Supercycle},
  author={John J. Veevers and Malcolm R. Walter and Erwin Scheibner},
  journal={The Journal of Geology},
  year={1997},
  volume={105},
  pages={225 - 242}
}

• J. Veevers, M. Walter, E. Scheibner
• Published 1 March 1997
• Geology
• The Journal of Geology

Unequivocal evidence for the Proterozoic reconstruction of Australia‐Antarctica and Laurentia remains elusive, although various authors have interpreted sedimentary and igneous events in terms of initial (Neoproterozoic) rifting, and final (Neoproterozoic/Cambrian) drifting. The synchronous rifting and drifting reflect the tectonics of a late Neoproterozoic Pangea (East Gondwanaland and Laurentia) that amalgamated along the Mozambiquean belt ∼720 Ma and broke up at 560 Ma by growth of the Paleo‐Pacific and lapetus oceans. In this paper these events are interpreted as part of a 400 m.y. supercycle comparable to the 320 Ma amalgamation of Pangea A and its 160 Ma breakup during Supercycle A (320 Ma to present). Events near the end of the Cambrian (500 Ma) in East Gondwanaland included epeirogenic uplift of cratons, shown by widespread K/Ar and apatite fission‐track dates, and the inception of quartz turbidite fans, intense deformation and intrusion by granite of the Antarctic and south‐eastern Australian margins, followed by a global sea‐level maximum. These events are comparable to the mid‐Cretaceous (100‐90 Ma) epeirogenic uplift of Australia, intrusion by granite of the western USA and elsewhere, followed by a second global sea‐level maximum. Both supercycles were driven by pulses of supercontinent‐induced heat that caused global rifting by extension, subsidence, and filling of sedimentary basins, followed by continental drifting and seafloor spreading. Our detailed compilation of the tectonic effects of Supercycle B (720‐320 Ma) suggests that Pangea‐induced heat has punctuated earth history since at least 720 Ma. The previous Pangean amalgamation, indicated by the global 1100 Ma (Grenvillian) deformation, suggests a third supercycle that introduced the modern regime of plate tectonics.