A collaborative team of scientists from the United States, Angola, England, Portugal and other nations has pinpointed the fault line that marked the separation of the African and South American continents. About 140 million years ago, the early Earth began breaking apart when the supercontinent Gondwana started to split. This breakthrough appears in a study published in a respected geology journal seasonally known as Geological Society Publications, which chronicles key advances in earth sciences and paleogeography.
During fieldwork along the southern coast of Angola, researchers recovered samples that reveal the clearest picture to date of how continents drifted apart and how the South Atlantic Ocean formed. The fossils and rock fragments date from roughly 130 million to 71 million years ago, a window that captures major phases of plate movement and ocean crust creation during this epic tectonic shift.
The breakup of Africa and South America began around 140 million years ago, initiating cracks in the crust. As the tectonic plates migrated away from each other, magma from deep within the mantle rose and cooled at the surface, generating new oceanic crust and pushing the continents further apart. The expanding ocean basin gradually filled the gap, giving birth to what is now the South Atlantic Ocean.
Angolan sites yielded evidence of every stage of this lengthy geological saga. Scientists found lava fields from volcanic eruptions, crustal fractures, salt deposits formed in evaporative zones of the nascent ocean, and remnants of marine reptiles that adapted to life after the continents separated. Together, these findings build a coherent narrative of a transformative era in Earth’s history with Angola playing a pivotal role in the record of plate tectonics.
Earlier work in related regions also informs how a tectonic fault line can influence coastal dynamics and even tsunami risk in nearby areas. While regional details vary, the broad lesson is clear: deep Earth processes leave lasting imprints on surface geology and the global oceanic architecture that follows.
[Source: Geological Society Publications] The new results integrate field observations with rock dating and paleontological evidence to illuminate a major chapter in Earth’s tectonic evolution. These insights enrich our understanding of how supercontinents fragment and how ocean basins emerge, contributing to a long-standing map of plate interactions that continue to shape the planet’s surface today.]