Abstract Orientated carbonate (calcite twinning strains; n = 78 with 2414 twin measurements) and quartzites (finite strains; n = 15) were collected around Gondwana to study the deformational history associated with the amalgamation of the supercontinent. The Buzios orogen (545–500 Ma), within interior Gondwana, records the high-grade collisional orogen between the São Francisco Craton (Brazil) and the Congo–Angola Craton (Angola and Namibia), and twinning strains in calc-silicates record a SE–NW shortening fabric parallel to the thrust transport. Along Gondwana's southern margin, the Saldanian–Ross–Delamerian orogen (590–480 Ma) is marked by a regional unconformity that cuts into deformed Neoproterozoic–Ordovician sedimentary rocks and associated intrusions. Cambrian carbonate is preserved in the central part of the southern Gondwana margin, namely in the Kango Inlier of the Cape Fold Belt and the Ellsworth, Pensacola and Transantarctic mountains. Paleozoic carbonate is not preserved in the Ventana Mountains in Argentina, in the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas or in Tasmania. Twinning strains in these Cambrian carbonate strata and synorogenic veins record a complex, overprinted deformation history with no stable foreland strain reference. The Kurgiakh orogen (490 Ma) along Gondwana's northern margin is also defined by a regional Ordovician unconformity throughout the Himalaya; these rocks record a mix of layer-parallel and layer-normal twinning strains with a likely Himalayan (40 Ma) strain overprint and no autochthonous foreland strain site. Conversely, the Gondwanide orogen (250 Ma) along Gondwana's southern margin has three foreland (autochthonous) sites for comparison with 59 allochthonous thrust-belt strain analyses. From west to east, these include: finite strains from Devonian quartzite preserve a layer-parallel shortening (LPS) strain rotated clockwise in the Ventana Mountains of Argentina; frontal (calcite twins) and internal (quartzite strains) samples in the Cape Fold Belt preserve a LPS fabric that is rotated clockwise from the autochthonous north–south horizontal shortening in the foreland strain site; Falkland Devonian quartzite shows the same clockwise rotation of the LPS fabric; and Permian limestone and veins in Tasmania record a thrust transport-parallel LPS fabric. Early amalgamation of Gondwana (Ordovician) is preserved by local layer-parallel and layer-normal strain without evidence of far-field deformation, whereas the Gondwanide orogen (Permian) is dominated by layer-parallel shortening, locally rotated by dextral shear along the margin, that propagated across the supercontinent.

Abstract This work presents research that we intended to publish jointly with Maarten de Wit on the importance of Hans Keidel in the definition of the Gondwanides and in his pioneering proposal of correlation between the Sierras de la Ventana mountain system in the province of Buenos Aires, Argentina, and its counterpart in the Cape System in South Africa. Keidel's proposals were used by Wegener in the 1920 second edition of his ‘Theory on Continental Drift’. Keidel's role and his ideas of correlation were recognized and strengthened by du Toit's fieldwork in 1923 in the Sierras de la Ventana and which he left behind in his field notebook. Du Toit has the credit of being the first to carry out fieldwork on both continents. His observations and his precise correlations confirmed Keidel's hypotheses through his 1927 publication and his book on the Wandering Continents. It is noteworthy that after Wegener's death in 1930, du Toit defended the Theory of Continental Drift for years almost alone. The work is documented with photographs from du Toit's trip to South America, the originals of which have been lost in the devastating 2021 fire at the Jagger Library at the University of Cape Town.

Abstract Following more than 25 years of exploration and research since the last regional appraisal, the number of known subaerially exposed volcanoes in the northern Antarctic Peninsula region has more than trebled, from less than 15 to more than 50, and that total must be increased at least three-fold if seamounts in Bransfield Strait are included. Several volcanoes remain unvisited and there are relatively few detailed studies. The region includes Deception Island, the most prolific active volcano in Antarctica, and Mount Haddington, the largest volcano in Antarctica. The tectonic environment of the volcanism is more variable than elsewhere in Antarctica. Most of the volcanism is related to subduction. It includes very young ensialic marginal basin volcanism (Bransfield Strait), back-arc alkaline volcanism (James Ross Island Volcanic Group) and slab-window-related volcanism (seamount offshore of Anvers Island), as well as volcanism of uncertain origin (Anvers and Brabant islands; small volcanic centres on Livingston and Greenwich islands). Only ‘normal’ arc volcanism is not clearly represented, possibly because active subduction virtually ceased at c. 4 Ma. The eruptive environment for the volcanism varied between subglacial, marine and subaerial but a subglacial setting is prominent, particularly in the James Ross Island Volcanic Group.