The post-Pan-African thermal and extensional history of crystalline basement rocks in eastern Tanzania

Abstract

Apatite fission track thermochronology from basement rocks in eastern Tanzania reveals a protracted history of denudation, uplift and extensional tectonism for the region after Carboniferous time. The data show that post-Pan-African development of eastern Tanzania was characterised by long periods of slow cooling punctuated by at least three relatively rapid cooling events, during the Early Cretaceous, Late Cretaceous-Early Palaeogene and Late Eocene-Early Oligocene. The relatively rapid cooling resulted from episodes of increased denudation rates related to the formation and reactivation of high-angle block faults that moved in response to intraplate stress. The episodes of denudation are m..