Rapid long-wavelength uplift of the Angolan continental margin

Abstract:

Studies of offshore sedimentation have identified hiatuses interpreted as periods of uplift along the coast of Angola, SW Africa. However, these studies do not have sufficient temporal or spatial resolution to determine the rate and extent of these uplift events. The presence of a complicated uplift history on a ‘stable’ passive continental margin is surprising, and many different mechanisms have been proposed to explain it.

We quantify the late Quaternary rate and wavelength of uplift relative to sea-level from suites of coastal terraces along the coastline of Angola. Automated extraction and correlation of terrace remnants from digital topography uncovers a symmetrical uplift, with diameter ~1000 km, and centred near Benguela at latitude 13°S. We perform OSL and radiocarbon dating on sediments overlying a coastal terrace at 30 m at Benguela and show that it formed ~40-45 ka. At this time the sea surface was ~50 m lower than today, implying an uplift rate of ~2.3 mm/yr. This is an order of magnitude higher than previously obtained uplift rates (which are averaged over a longer period).

The ~1000 km wavelength and observed rapid uplift rates strongly suggest that the uplift is the surface expression of dynamic mantle processes. This rapid uplift rate cannot have persisted continuously over million year timescales, and we therefore suggest that the topography may be modulated by relatively short-lived pulses of uplift, possibly driven by the pulsing of an underlying plume.