ABSTRACT
The continental crust of East Africa was formed during the late Proterozoic 'Pan-African' orogenic cycle. This comprises predominantly remobilized older crust in the Mozambique belt (MB) in the south and predominantly juvenile crust of the Arabian-Nubian shield (ANS) in the north. Together these make up the 'East African Orogen' (EAO). The MB is flanked by the Kalahari, Congo, and Tanzanian cratons, whereas the ANS is flanked by the enigmatic crust of the 'Nile craton'. The early stages of crustal accretion are well-preserved in the ANS, where juvenile arc terranes were welded together along ophiolite-decorated sutures beginning about 760 Ma ago in the south and continuing until about 700 Ma ago in the north. These sutures characteristically trend NE-SW to E-W, at high angles to the EAO itself. The collision between East and West Gondwanaland was most intense along the MB, where complexly interleaved ophiolitic scraps, granulites, and amphibolite-facies metasediments and metavolcanics are concentrated in the most intense zone of deformation.
