Quick Search:    advanced search

GSW Home   GeoRef Home   My GSW Alerts   Contact GSW   About GSW   Journals List   Help

This Article Figures Only Full Text Full Text (PDF) Alert me when this article is cited Alert me if a correction is posted Citation Map Services Email this article to a friend Similar articles in this journal Similar articles in Web of Science Alert me to new issues of the journal Download to citation manager Citing Articles Citing Articles via HighWire Citing Articles via Web of Science (8) Citing Articles via Google Scholar Google Scholar Articles by Moore, A. Articles by Blenkinsop, T. Search for Related Content GeoRef GeoRef Citation

The role of mantle plumes in the development of continental-scale drainage patterns: The southern African example revisited

Somabula Explorations (Pvt.) Ltd, Box CH 399, Chisipite, Harare, Zimbabwe, email: andymoor{at}africaonline.co.zw

Tom Blenkinsop

Department of Geology, University of Zimbabwe, P.O. Box MP 167, Mount Pleasant, Harare, Zimbabwe

Mantle plumes that precede continental break-up have been postulated to exert a major influence on continental drainage patterns. In this model, a radial drainage develops away from the centre of the plumes, while failed arms of the associated rift system provide conduits for rivers from the continental interior towards the newly formed ocean. This paper summarises drainage evolution in southern Africa from the Permo-Carboniferous to the lower Cretaceous in order to test this model. A major reorganisation of the river system occurred at the time of eruption of the Karoo volcanics, or during subsequent fragmentation of Gondwana. The Karoo and Paraná Plumes imposed a first-order imprint on the drainage pattern. The superimposition of the Paraná plume pattern on the earlier Karoo plume drainage is responsible for the dominant eastward drainage system from the Early Cretaceous to the present-day. The post-Gondwana river network has been modified by at least three other major factors: structural controls, exhumed ancient land surfaces, and post-Gondwana epeirogenic flexing of the sub-continent and resulting river capture. Understanding the factors responsible for initiation and evolution of continental–scale drainage patterns has important economic implications - for example, the identification of primary sources of diamond placers.

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A.E. Moore, F.P.D. Cotterill, T. Broderick, and D. Plowes Landscape evolution in Zimbabwe from the Permian to present, with implications for kimberlite prospecting South African Journal of Geology, March 1, 2009; 112(1): 65 - 88. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				A. Moore and T. Blenkinsop Scarp retreat versus pinned drainage divide in the formation of the Drakensberg escarpment, southern Africa South African Journal of Geology, December 1, 2006; 109(4): 599 - 610. [Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]

				E. S.J. Dollar Fluvial geomorphology Progress in Physical Geography, September 1, 2004; 28(3): 405 - 450. [PDF]