Objectives, approach and related projects

The project aims at:
  1. Correlation of Neoproterozoic to Ordovician sedimentary successions and tectonomagmatic events within SW-Gondwana.
  2. Establishing a valid Neoproterozoic to Cambrian bio- and chemostratigraphic scheme (including stratotypes) for the region
  3. Reconstructing the palaeogeographic evolution and assembly of SW-Gondwana.
  4. Study the causes of climatic changes of the Neoproterozoic-Early Palaeozoic and their relationship to changes in ocean chemistry (e.g. C, O, Sr, S-isotopes).
  5. Study the preludes and factors controlling the Cambrian “explosion” of life.
  6. Contribute towards understanding of the factors that determined the advent of the Vendobionta, Metazoa and skeletal organisms, as well as the Neoproterozoic evolution of oceanic plankton.
  7. Reappraisal of the mineral-economic potential of the region considering the assembly of SW-Gondwana and related events.

Considering the wide thematic amplitude of the mentioned objectives, the approach of the project will be multidisciplinary, combining specialists in Sedimentology, Palaeontology, Geochemistry, Petrology, Palaeomagnetics, Remote Sensing, Structural Geology and Tectonics. Specifically, a series of five joint field workshops have been planned, covering the most important units. These field works will allow researchers to collect data and samples, directly compare the different geologic units involved and exchange ideas.
The laboratory facilities available to the proposers and working group ensure the application of the most advanced geochemical, geochronological, micropalaeontological and isotopic techniques.

The main geological units to be considered are:

ARGENTINA
-Tandilia, Buenos Aires Province (Sierras Bayas Group/Cerro Negro Formation)
-NW-Argentina (Puncoviscana Formation and equivalents, Mesón Group, Cordillera Frontal Metamorphic Belt)

BOLIVIA
-E-Bolivia (Tucavaca and Boquí Groups)

BRAZIL
-Río Grande do Sul (Camaqu? Group, Dom Feliciano Belt)
-Paraná/Santa Catarina (Itajaí and Camarinha Groups, Dom Feliciano Belt).
-S?o Paulo/Minas Gerais (Eleutério, Pouso Alegre and Pico de Itapeva basins, A?unguí Group, Ribeira Belt)
-Mato Grosso do Sul/Mato Grosso (Cuiabá, Corumbá and Jacadigo Groups, Puga and Araras Formations).

PARAGUAY
-N-Paraguay (Itapucumí Group)
-Southern Precambrian Complex (Paso Pindó Group, Caapucú Magmatic Suite)

URUGUAY
-Nico Pérez Terrane (Arroyo del Soldado Group, Cambrian Granites)
-Cuchilla Dionisio/Punta del Este Terranes (Fuente del Puma and Rocha Groups, Las Ventanas, Playa Hermosa and Cerros de Aguirre Formations)
-Piedra Alta Terrane (Piedras de Afilar Formation)

NAMIBIA
-Nama and Witvlei Basins
-Gariep and Damara Belts

SOUTH AFRICA
-Western Cape (Vanrhynsdorp Group, Saldania Belt)

Five IGCP projects are related to the current proposal, namely IGCP 419 (Foreland basins of the Neoproterozoic belts in Central to Southern Africa and South America. Proposers: M. Wendorff and P.Binda), IGCP 436 (Pacific Gondwana Margins. Proposers: L.A. Spalletti, R.J. Pankhurst and J. Bradshaw), IGCP 450 (Proterozoic sediment-hosted base metal deposits of Western Gondwana. Proposers: S.S. Iyer, A. Misi, A.F. Kamona and J. Cailteux), IGCP 470 (The 600 Ma Pan-African belt of Central Africa: sedimentation, deformation, history, magmatism, metamorphism and geotectonic evolution. Proposer: S. Félix Toteu) and IGCP 471 (Evolution of Western Gondwana during the Late Palaeozoic. Proposers: C.O. Limarino and L.A. Buatois). A close communication with these working groups is assured by the fact that most of the proposers of the current project are members of one or more of the mentioned IGCP projects. Finally, the project will profit from technical as well as scientific results currently worked out in an international cooperation project, funded by German DFG and Chinese NSFC entitled “From Snowball earth to the Cambrian bioradiation: an interdisciplinary study of the Yangtze Platform, China (H. Bahlburg, Münster; A. Braun, Bonn; D. Waloszek, Ulm).