Pongola Rift
Quick Summary
The Pongola Rift, located on the border of Swaziland and South Africa, is the world's oldest known continental rift, dating back 2.95 billion years. This geological feature formed after the upper crust became stable enough to develop a rift, likely due to the collapse of an overthickened crust. The rift is 30 km wide and 130 km long, containing a thick sequence of lavas and sediments.1
While the Pongola Rift is an ancient geological feature, it is distinct from the much younger East African Rift System, which began forming approximately 30 million years ago. The East African Rift System stretches from Asia into Africa and is characterized by its significant length and width, with two main branches.2
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PrecambrianSedimentary basins, basic dikes, and layered complexes…and South Africa is the Pongola Rift, which is the oldest such continental trough in the world; it is 2.95 billion years old, having formed only 50 million years after the thrusting of adjacent greenstone-granite belts. If there were earlier rifts, they have not survived, or, more likely, this was…
Read More…and South Africa is the Pongola Rift, which is the oldest such continental trough in the world; it is 2.95 billion years old, having formed only 50 million years after the thrusting of adjacent greenstone-granite belts. If there were earlier rifts, they have not survived, or, more likely, this was…
Read More- PrecambrianArchean crustal growth
…known in the world, the Pongola Rift, emerged along the border of present-day Swaziland and South Africa; the intrusion of the first major basic dikes (such as the Great Dyke, which transects the entire Zimbabwe craton) and the first large stratiform layered igneous complexes (such as the Stillwater in Montana)…
Read More…known in the world, the Pongola Rift, emerged along the border of present-day Swaziland and South Africa; the intrusion of the first major basic dikes (such as the Great Dyke, which transects the entire Zimbabwe craton) and the first large stratiform layered igneous complexes (such as the Stillwater in Montana)…
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