ABSTRACT
The geotectonic importance of the Precambrian basement complex of northern Malawi and neighbouring northeastern Zambia and southwestern Tanzania has been recognized since Cahen and Snelling demonstrated that this region lies at the junction of three linear belts of crustal mobility, namely the Ubendian, the Irumide and the Mozambique belts. These three belts are thought to represent three major orogenies: the Ubendian, the Irumide, and the Pan-African orogenies. This chapter analyses the structural history and its relation to sedimentary sequences and dated intrusives in order to correlate major deformation events with the formation of the different mobile belts. Rb-Sr whole rock data of granulites in northern Malawi provide ages of 2327±25 Ma and 1777±260 Ma, respectively. These ages are interpreted to date the time-span of granulite-facies metamorphism and basement remobilization during the Ubendian orogeny. Sparse age data of the syn- to post-tectonic intrusives fit into this time-range.
