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Age differences between Archaean cratons of eastern and southern Africa

Abstract

ARCHAEAN greenstone belts have commonly been correlated on the basis of similarities in their stratigraphic successions1. Conclusive radiometric tests of these correlations have rarely been made, because of the difficulty of dating the rocks of the greenstone belts themselves, and because of uncertainties in their relationships to the more easily dated granitoid rocks with which they are normally associated. We report here radiometric evidence from eastern Africa, which clearly contradicts previous lithostratigraphic correlations between the Tanzanian and Kaapvaal Cratons by establishing a minimum age difference between the uppermost parts of their respective greenstone belt successions.

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DODSON, M., GLEDHILL, A., SHACKLETON, R. et al. Age differences between Archaean cratons of eastern and southern Africa. Nature 254, 315–318 (1975). https://doi.org/10.1038/254315a0

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