Abstract

Lithospheric cusps occur where arcs are joined end to end. Where a subducting plate moves directly into a cusp, the slab experiences lateral constriction due to the cusp geometry. Buckled slabs of Cenozoic age occur at cusps (also known as ‘syntaxes’) in the Arabian, Indian, Pacific, Juan de Fuca and other plates. Here I report an Ediacaran example from the cusp of the Congo Craton where Pan-African collision zones meet at a right angle in NW Namibia. The craton was blanketed by syn- and post-rift Neoproterozoic marine carbonate, disconformably overlain by collision-related foredeep clastics. The disconformity has little stratigraphic relief in a 900 km-long fold belt rimming the craton, except within 60 km of the cusp apex where foredeep deposits bury a megakarst landscape floored by exhumed crystalline basement. Forebulge uplift, estimated from palaeokarst relief, was ≥1.85 km. This far exceeds characteristic forebulge heights of c. 0.5 km and matches the deepest part of the Grand Canyon of Arizona (USA). Coeval with megakarst development, map-scale mass slides moved coherently westwards and southwards towards the advancing accretionary prisms. Rapid burial by foredeep clastics preserved the megakarst palaeosurface and associated mass slides; folding them brought protection from complete destructive resurfacing for eons.