Mesozoic-Cenozoic landscape evolution of NW Mozambique recorded by apatite thermochronology

Abstract The southern African plate underwent significant stresses since the Permian attributed to orogenesis and to mantle upwelling during Gondwana break-up. Rift basins developed over ancient basement structures during Early Permian and since the Cretaceous along the passive margin. We investigated the exhumation history of Precambrian basement rocks of the Karoo rift flanks of NW Mozambique using apatite fission tracks (AFT). Twenty seven samples were collected from the northern, center and southern areas surrounding the E-W and NW-SE-oriented basins. The AFT ages range between 215 ± 15 and 80 ± 6 Ma and MTLs are of 9.67–13.13 μm in size from NW Mozambique, with standard deviations of 1.20–2.89 μm. Thermal history modelling indicates long-term cooling of most samples from the latest onset of cooling for samples with standard deviations ca.