Heat-producing Elements-enriched Continental Mantle Lithosphere and Proterozoic Intracontinental Orogens: Insights from Brasiliano/Pan-African Belts

Collisional and accretionary processes have been recognized in several Precambrian orogens, but the formation of intracontinental (ensialic) orogens has remained elusive. The recognition that modern orogenic belts (as, for example, the mountain belts of central Asia) may form in response to far-field stresses transmitted to the interior of continental plates removed much of the objection against Proterozoic intracontinental deformation. However, the causes responsible for the localization of contractional deformation are still uncertain. Due to the strong dependence of lithosphere rheology on temperature, lithospheric thermal weakening prior to contraction must be a required condition. Studies of dioritic rocks from Borborema Province, northeastern Brazil, and Damara belt, southern Africa, indicate that they are derived from ancient, incompatible elements-enriched subcontinental lithosphere. The concentrations of the heat-producing elements K (0.6 wt %), U (0.02–0.2 ppm) and Th (0.15–1.5 ppm) estimated for this source allow calculations of heat production between 0.09 and 0.25 mW m−3. These high values of heat generation may cause increases in temperature of several tens to three hundred degrees Celsius with respect to cratonic mantle lithosphere, leading to great reductions in lithosphere strength. Consequently, continental domains underlain by hot and weak continental mantle may thicken under the action of relatively feeble tectonic forces. High rheological contrasts between these domains and adjacent stiff and cold blocks provide an explanation for formation of intracontinental orogens.