Understanding the timing of deformation within Archaean cratons contributes greatly to our ability to interpret the dynamic evolution of continental lithosphere during the early part of Earth history. Detailed 1:10 000-scale field mapping within the Nsuze River gorge in central KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, shows that deformation events affecting the Mesoarchaean Pongola Supergroup, and spatially related Hlagothi Complex along the southeastern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton, predate intrusion of the 2 662 ± 2 Ma White Mfolozi Dyke Swarm. Within the Nkandla sub-basin undeformed northeast-southwest trending porphyritic dykes crosscut both folded Pongola Supergroup stratigraphy and the intrusive Hlagothi Complex, thereby providing a minimum age of deformation for the Mesoarchaean sequences. These geological relationships question the long-standing view that the southeastern margin of the Kaapvaal Craton was intensely deformed by north-verging structures associated with the Mesoproterozoic (ca. 1.1 Ga) Namaqua-Natal Orogeny. The results of this study indicate that the north-south compressional event that caused folding and thrusting of the Pongola Supergroup within the Southern Structural Domain of the Pongola basin occurred in the Meso- to Neoarchaean sometime between 2.86 and 2.66 Ga.

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