Zircon reconnaissance dating of Proterozoic gneisses along the Kunene River of northwestern Namibia

•Rocks along the Kunene River are predominantly granitoids and belong to the Epupa Metamorphic Complex.•These rocks are about 1750–1800 Ma old and formed during the Eburnean event.•Migmatization and deformation occurred shortly after granitoid emplacement.•The Epupa Metamorphiuc Complex is part of the southwestern Congo Craton.

The northern margin of the Epupa Metamorphic Complex (EMC) along the Kunene River in NW Namibia is one of the geologically least known terranes in Africa because of its remoteness and difficult accessibility. We report field relationships and reconnaissance zircon ages for granitoid gneisses from a 120 km foot-traverse along the Kunene River between the Ruacana Falls in the east and Marienfluss in the west. Most rocks are late Palaeoproterozoic in age and correlate well with similar rocks of the EMC farther south in Kaokoland (1757–1835 Ma, one sample 1861 Ma) and with granitoid rocks in the Kamanjab Inlier, some 400 km SE of the Kunene River (1801–1836 Ma). All these rocks constitute a large magmatic province on the southwestern margin of the Congo Craton, whose protoliths are possibly related to arc magmatism during the Africa-wide so-called Eburnian event (ca. 2000 ± 200 Ma). However, there are also Mesoproterozoic granitoids, 1520–1530 Ma in age, whose tectonic significance remains uncertain but which seem to document a thermal event also seen in high-grade metamorphism and isotopic resetting in this part of SW Africa.

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