Archean crustal structure of the Kaapvaal craton, South Africa – evidence from the Vredefort dome

Crystalline Archean basement rocks in the core of the Vredefort dome present a profile through a substantial part of the middle and lower crust of the Kaapvaal craton. Previously, this profile has been subdivided into two terranes with allegedly distinct lithologies and tectonometamorphic histories that were juxtaposed along a crustal-scale Late Archean brittle–ductile thrust zone. Lithological and structural mapping across the dome indicates, however, that the basement lithologies share a common polyphase tectonic history culminating in high-grade metamorphism and melting at ∼3.1 Ga. No evidence was found of the postulated tectonic terrane boundary, but the alleged boundary does coincide with a 1–2 km wide transition zone between upper amphibolite facies migmatitic gneisses and more restitic granulite facies gneisses. The implications of these results for Archean regional tectonic models for the Kaapvaal craton are discussed.