ASPECTS OF THE STRATIGRAPHY AND THE STRUCTURE OF THE UMKONDO SYSTEM

IN THE MANICA BELT OF SOUTHERN RHODESIA AND MOC;AMBIQUE, AND AN OUTLINE

OF THE REGIONAL GEOLOGY

by

J. R. VAIL

ABSTRACT
The Precambrian Umkondo System consisting of marginal shelf environment sediments and
dolerites overlies Archaean shield granites and Mo<;ambqiue Belt gneisses along the Southern
Rhodesian and Mo~ambique border. The Umkondo System includes the Frontier System and the
Gairezi Series. which were previously regarded as quite separate units. In the west. fiat-lying
limestones. sandstones, and shales are undefonned, while in the east they are folded and meta-
morphosed along a zone called the Manica Belt. Lithological. structural. and metamorphic
changes have taken place across the Belt. The last tectonism is Cambro-Ordovician in age,
but the time of deposition of the Umkondo sediments remains problematical.

CONTENTS
II INTRODUCTION 13
II GEOLOtiV 14
A. Physlugraphy 14
B. Geologlcal Subdivisions 14
1. Archaean schist belts dnd granites 15
2. Paragneisses 15
3. Umkondo System .. 16
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C. Regional Considerations 24
1. Sedimentation of the Umkondo System 25
2. Structure 25
3. Metamorphism 27
4. Correlations 27
III ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 28
IV REFERENCES 28

I. INTRODUCTION
Until quite recently little geological attention has been paid to that part of
eastern Central Africa which lies between the Buzi and Zambezi Rivers and extends
from the vicinity of the Southern Rhodesia-Mo~ambique frontier eastwards to
the coastal plains. A large part of the area was first examined prior to the 1914-18
World War by geologists working for the Companhia de Mo~ambique, and for the
next fifty years little new systematic work was carried out.
The earliest geological records are those of the Portuguese which date back to
the journeys of Freire de Andrade (1894), but it was not till Thiele and Wilson had
carried out their reconnaissances that the first reports on the area were published
in English (Thiele and Wilson, 1915; Thiele, 1915). Teale (1924) and Borges (in
Borges and Pinto Coelho, 1957) presented more detailed accounts of their early
investigations. A few reports on the petrology, metamorphism and economic
prospects of parts of the area have also been published (e.g. Bond, 1952; de Freitas,
 14 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

1959), but only recently has systematic mapping been carried out, principally by
the Geological Survey Departments of Mo<;ambique and Southern Rhodesia.
(Tyndale Biscoe, 1958; Gouveia and Araujo, 1962 and 1963; Watson, in prepara-
tion.)
In 1961 the author commenced geological mapping of the rocks of the Frontier-
Gairezi Series along the Southern Rhodesia-Mo<;ambique border, as part of a
programme of studies of Precambrian orogenic belts in Central Africa. The regional
geological setting of the frontier area was also studied as part of the wider aspects
of the investigation, and reconnaissance traverses were made across the gneisses
to the east. Karroo extrusive rocks were also examined briefly. This work has
resulted in the compilation of the regional geological map (Plate I), covering
approximately 35,000 square miles, and incorporates published and unpublished
maps, together with a preliminary geological interpretation of the 1 : 100,000
air-photograph mosaics of most of the eastern area.
The international border roughly follows the high land along the 33° East
meridian, and separates Manicaland Province of Southern Rhodesia from the
Province of Manica e Sofala in Mo<;ambique. This paper is intended to outline the
general geology of the area, and to describe in more detail certain aspects of the
stratigraphy and the structure of the Umkondo System which have been found to
be more complex than previously recognized.

II. GEOLOGY
A. Physiography
The area consists of two principal physiographic regions, namely the highland
plateau of Rhodesia in the west, and the central plains of Mo<;ambique in the east.
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

The junction between them extends roughly along the international border as a
well-marked eastward-facing escarpment, which gradually becomes less pro-
nounced northwards.
The plains of Mo<;ambique rise from a few hundred feet above sea-level in the
east, to an elevation of about 2000 feet in the west. For the most part the plains
are flat, monotonous, and bush-covered, with wide valleys formed by the major
rivers. Occasional inselbergs rise up hundreds or, in rare cases, a thousand or more
feet above the surrounding plains.
The Rhodesian highlands, on the other hand, are of the order of 3000-7000
feet above sea-level. The highest parts are along the eastern edge of the plateau,
and form the Chimanimani Ranges, the high Vumba south of Umtali, and the
Inyanga highlands. Inyangani (8514 feet) is the highest point in Southern Rhodesia.
In these regions relief is often very great, and the scenery spectacular.
Major rivers draining the area are the Zambezi in the north, with its tribu-
taries Mazoe, Luenha, and Pompue; the Pungue in the centre; and the Buzi, with
its tributaries Revue and Lucite, in the south. They all drain into the Indian Ocean.
The Sabi River valley forms the physiographic southwestern limit to the region.
Details of the physiography have been described by King (1952) and Thiele and
Wilson (1915).

B. Geological Subdivisions
Most of the groups indicated on the regional map (Plate I) are Precambrian in
age, but around the eastern margins a younger cover of Karroo and Cretaceous
 STRUCTURE OF THE UMKONDO SYSTEM AND REGIONAL GEOLOGY 15

rocks is present. The older rocks can be divided into: (a) rocks of the schist belts
and older granites which make up the Archaean Shield forming the nucleus of
Southern Rhodesia, (b) the crystalline gneisses of the Mozambique Belt, which
form a younger orogenic belt marginal to the shield, and (c) sediments of the
Umkondo System, which overlie the above two groups.
The younger, Mesozoic rocks consist of sandstones, conglomerates, shales,
rare coals, and extrusive volcanic rocks of basaltic and rhyolitic composition.
For convenience the principal Precambrian units are discussed under three
headings. They have been divided mainly on the basis of lithology into:
3. Umkondo System.
2. Paragneisses.
1. Archaean schist belts and granites.
In order to clarify the stratigraphic nomenclature used in this paper, definitions
of formational names are given in each section.

1. Archaean Schist Belts and Granites

The oldest rocks in the area indicated by the map belong to the Archaean
Shield of Southern Rhodesia (e.g. see Swift, 1961). They are made up of Basement
Schists which include metasediments, particularly quartzites and banded ironstones,
and "greenstones" consisting of basic schists, serpentines, and volcanic rocks.
In Southern Rhodesia these rocks have been subdivided on lithological grounds
into three systems (a) Sebakwian, (b) Bulawayan, (c) Shamvaian, which are usually
grouped together and referred to as the Primitive System (Du Toit, 1954).
Primitive System rocks are preserved in many places in Rhodesia as narrow
remnants ·between intrusive granite masses and frequently contain important
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

hydrothermal deposits of gold. These remnants are locally referred to as Schist

Belts or Gold Belts. "Taken together the granite and gold belts are called Basement
Complex" (Swift, 1961, p. 5).
On the map (Plate I) four gold belts are shown. From north to south they are:
(a) Makaha (Macgregor, 1935), (b) Inverness Farm, west of Ruangwe Range
(Tyndale-Biscoe, 1958), (c) Umtali (Phaup, 1937), (d) Cronley, south of Umtali
(Watson, in preparation).
It is of note that remnants of Basement Complex basic rocks also occur within
the gneisses near Mavita. Southwest of Vila Machado, in addition, patches of basic
rock are found (Rebolo and Ferro, 1962) but insufficient detailed work has been
done to establish their geological relationships.

2. Paragneisses
Between the Archaean Shield in the west and the cover of younger rocks
in the east, the central plains of Moc;:ambique are underlain almost entirely by a
complex group of crystalline gneisses. Although Teale (1924) first described these
rocks, it was the Moc;:ambique Geological Survey who grouped together the gneisses,
the basic complex of Tete, and the granites intrusive into the gneisses under the
general heading of Precambrian II (de Freitas, 1957). The gneisses are referred to
as the Sistema MOfambicano (Bettencourt Dias, 1956), a term which Cooper (1957)
has used in southern Nyasaland in describing similar rocks as the Mozambique
System. The use of this term is unfortunate as the gneisses result from a tectonic
and not a sedimer.tary event (de Freitas, 1957).
 16 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

The gneisses comprise a wide variety of banded rocks in which granitic types
and migmatites predominate. In some places quartzite horizons are well developed,
and limestone bands also occur. For the most part, however, the gneisses have the
appearance of highly injected and permeated metasedimentary rocks, which may
have originally been semipelitic. Granulites and charnockites have been reported
(Pinto Coelho, 1954). The proportion of orthogneiss is not known, but in some
areas, for example northwest of the Barue highlands, gneissose granite has been
recognized. Pegmatites, generally simple in composition, are frequently developed,
and strike roughly north-south.
Features of the gneisses, well seen on the air-photographs and shown on the
map (Plate I) are the trend lines. From examination of limited exposures in the
field and from geological mapping (Gouveia and Araujo, 1962; Rebolo and Ferro,
1962; and the author) it is apparent that these trends represent lithological bands
within the gneisses.
An examination of the trend directions on the map shows that while the
western margin of the gneiss belt is north-south, directions within the gneisses are
quite variable. The dip of the compositional banding is usually quite steep, but in
some places, notably to the north of the Barue, dips are shallow and to the east.
The variation and complexity of the trend directions suggests a complex tectonic
history. Several of the circular features may represent mantled gneiss domes.
A small part of the pre-Karroo basic complex of Tete is shown in Plate 1.
This anorthosite-gabbro-diorite complex has not been studied in detail but it is
considered (de Freitas, 1957) to belong to the Precambrian II Mozambiquian
System. Similar basic rocks appear at intervals along the Zambezi Valley over a
distance of more than 200 miles from Tete, to as far west as Feira, where they are
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

considered (Swift, 1961) to be comagmatic with the Great Dyke of Southern

Rhodesia.

3. The Umkondo System

Directly overlying the crystalline gneisses and Basement Complex rocks is a
widespread sedimentary sequence with associated intrusive dolerites and minor
amounts of volcanic rocks. Until the present investigation these sediments were
generally regarded as belonging to several quite different groups, 'of various ages,
namely the Gairezi Series and the Umkondo and Frontier Systems. Recent work,
however (Vail, 1962; Johnson, Slater and Vail, 1963; Slater, 1963) has shown them
to belong to the same sedimentary episode, the apparent differences being due to
sedimentary facies changes, and subsequent tectonic and metamorphic modi-
fication.
Four main outcrops of the system are now recognized:-the Frontier sequence,
the Gairezi sequence, the Melsetter sequence and the Inyanga sequence. They are
considered to belong to a single sedimentary period, for the rocks of which the name
Manica Series was tentatively proposed (Johnson, Slater and Vail, 1963) to avoid
confusion with the previous usage of formational names. However, it has now been
decided, after discussions with the Directors of the Geological Surveys of Southern
Rhodesia and Mo<;ambique, to call all these rocks the Umkondo System.
The Umkondo sediments lie on either side of the Mo<;ambique-Rhodesian
border from the vicinity of the Buzi River in the south to beyond the Mazoe in the
north (Plate I). They occur as a relatively flat-lying, undeformed sequence in the
 STRUCTURE OF THE UMKONDO SYSTEM AND REGIONAL GEOLOGY 17

west and as highly folded and metamorphosed rocks in the east. This zone of
deformation has been termed the Manica Belt (Vail, 1962).
In the west, at least in the area between the Buzi and Luenha Rivers, either a
short distance away or in fault-contact with the deformed parts of the System, is a
succession of relatively unaltered sediments in the type-area for the Umkondo
System. Brackenbury (1906) first referred to these rocks, at Umkondo Mine, as the
Umkondo Formation. Similar rocks in Portuguese East Africa were called the
Spungabera Series by Teale (1915 and 1924), who was the first to describe these
sediments. Mennell (1920, p. 79) named the Rhodesian sequence the Sabi System,
but this term has since been dropped. Swift (1953 and 1962) and Watson (in
preparation) have recently made detailed studies of the Umkondo rocks along the
Middle Sabi Valley and in the Melsetter and Chipinga Districts. An outlier of the
Umkondo System also occurs near Inyanga (Tyndale-Biscoe, 1958; Swift, 1961).
In the type-area the Umkondo succession has been described (Swift, 1962) as
consisting of a Calcareous Series (700 feet) of limestones and dolomites, usually
with a thin arkose at the base; followed by an Arenaceous Series (2000 feet) of
sandstones, grits and shales. At the top is the Volcanic Series of highly altered
basic lavas which gh'es way northwards to an Argillaceous Series (1500 feet) of
mudstones and sandstones.
Intrusive into the Frontier, Gairezi, Inyanga and Melsetter sequences, par-
ticularly the last two, are a large number of very thick sills, dykes, and irregular
masses of quartz dolerite. These basic rocks are known as the Umkondo Dolerites.
They extend as far north as Mtoko in Rhodesia but they are conspicuously absent
from beyond the eastern edge of the sedimentary formations. Recent palaeomag-
netic work suggests that the Umkondo Dolerites are different from other wide-
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spread dolerite instrnsives in eastern Southern Rhodesia and may themselves

include more than one igneous episode (McElhinny and Opdyke, 1964).
The deformed rocks occurring in the east have been given various formational
names. Geographically the Manica Belt, as known at the present time, is divisible
into four units, each approximately 60 miles long but only a few miles wide.
From south to north these divisions are: ia. the Statonga Ranges, and ib. the
Chimanimani Mountains, ii. the Bandula region, iii. the Barue-Gairezi highlands,
iv. the Rukori ranges.
The succession making up the Statonga and the Chimanimani Mountains in the
south (See Plate I) was referred to as the Frontier System by Mennell (1920), an
earlier Portuguese name, the Serie de Chimanimani (Freire de Andrade, 1894) in
Carvalho, 1955), never having been widely used.
Near Mavita a few miles north of the Chimanimani Mountains a narrow belt
of north-south striking, steeply-dipping and plunging, isoclinal folds continues
northwards through the vicinity of Bandula. To the north it links up with the
broader outcrops of the Barue-Gairezi highlands, where the beds have been termed
the Gairezi Series (Tyndale-Biscoe, 1958).
Similar rocks are encountered as outliers beyond the Luenha River, and as
far north as the Mazoe River, where they form the Rukori ranges. Plate I indicates
the areas where they are known to occur, but they are probably more widespread
than shown. Recent work by the author has revealed that the Chimanda Series
(Amm, 1962) which has been mapped by Swift farther to the west, is also made up
of Umkondo type sediments. Workman (1963) suggested a possible extension even
 18 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

farther along the Zambezi Valley to north of Mount Darwin, and this is now known
to be the case.
The main features of the stratigraphy and the structure of each of the geo-
graphic divisions of the Manica Belt are summarized below. They are illustrated
in the maps (Plates II, III, IV).

(ia). The Statonga Ranges

Between the Lucite and Buzi rivers a narrow south-striking ridge forms the
southern extension of the high Chimanimani Mountains of the frontier region.
This ridge increases in height from the level of the Moc;:ambique Plain at the southern
end to 2000 feet above the plain 2S miles to the north. It is about two or three
miles wide over most of its length.

A. Stratigraphy of the Statonga Ranges. The Statonga Ranges are made up

almost entirely of psammitic rocks of the Chimanimani type. White, crystalline
quartzites form the main part of the ranges, interbedded with narrow beds of mus-
covite-quartz schists, with nearly vertical dips. In places highly weathered quartz-
garnet-staurolite-mica schists appear. The contact with the undeformed Umkondo
shales and dolerite sills is not clearly exposed, but there is a sharp change from
garnet-bearing pelites in the ranges to gently-dipping chloritic shales in the west.
Along the centre a narrow trough between quartzite ridges contains dark soils
which may represent weathered schists, a situation very similar to the Bandula
part of the Manica Belt. The eastern limit of the Range, although marked by a low
escarpment, is not easy to define. This is partly because of poor exposure, and partly
due to the increase in metamorphic grade which makes the change between deformed
Umkondo sediments and basement granulites difficult to distinguish.
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

B. Structure of the Statonga Ranges. The structure of the Statonga Ranges

remains relatively unknown. The long, narrow, symmetrical ridges suggest a
synform. There is vague cross-bedding in the quartzites, and a well-developed
near-vertical cleavage which may correspond to the axial-plane cleavage recognized
farther north. Near-vertical east-west jointing is strongly developed; some of
these fractures continue into the undeformed Umkondo rocks in the west.

(ib). The Chimanimani Mountains

The Chimanimani Mountains extend from the Lucite River in the south to
the Mussapa Pequena and Rotanda Rivers in the north (Plate II). The mountains
are about 12 miles wide in their broadest part, with a maximum relief of over 5000
feet.

A. Stratigraphy of Chimanimani Mountains. The Chimanimani Mountains

are made up of three rock types, each of which is recognized in its unmetamor-
phosed state in the west. By far the most striking is the white quartzite which
forms much of the range. It is a sugary, fine- to coarse-grained quartzose rock;
little trace remains of original bedding, although current-bedding is sometimes
discernible. Quartz pebbles form conglomeratic bands of limited extent, in which
the cleavage is very nearly parallel to the bedding plane. Rare detrital zircons,
sericite, and magnetite grains are the only accessory minerals. Quartz-kyanite
rocks are present in the northeast.
 STRUCTURE OF THE UMKONDO SYSTEM AND REGIONAL GEOLOGY 19

Interbedded with the quartzites are a number of pelite bands, whose surface
expression contrasts strongly with that of the arenaceous rocks. The pelites are all
schistose although the grade of metamorphism is low. Sericite and chlorite are the
main minerals, with quartz, magnetite, occasional tourmaline, and rare detrital
zircon as accessories. At the south end of the range chloritoid is present. The
petites vary in composition becoming quite arenaceous in parts and minor sand-
stones develop in places. Bedding is no longer preserved and usually two cleavages
are present, one of which is close to the bedding direction, as indicated by the
sedimentary contact with the quartzites.
Due to tectonic complications within the Chimanimani Mountains It I!> not
possible to determine the stratigraphic sequence with certainty, nevertheless ctrtain
relationships are apparent. Quartzites, which form cliffs from about 300 tu 1000
feet high, rest directly on granitic basement-rocks around the Mussapa valley at
the north end of the mountains. The apparent variation in thickness may be due
partly to sedimentary changes, as can be seen in some places in the undisturbed
sediments to the west (personal communication, Newlands and Tyrwhitt), and
partly to tectonic activity. At the base of the quartzites a thin band of highly
sheared sericite schist is present in some places. It is probably a partial tectonite.
At least one pelitic or semi-pelitic band overlies the quartzite, which in turn is
overlain by beds identical with the lower quartzite. In the southern part of the
range the lowermost quartzite of the northern end overlies the pelite, while the
corresponding upper quartzite occurs below the pelitic rocks. It is not known if the
two main arenaceous beds belong to the same horizon or not. The threefold alterna-
tion of quartzite-pelite-quartzite probably represents original deposition, but
folding could also account for this sequence.
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

Intruded into the sediments are a number of thin, transgressive quartz dolerite
bodies, which have also been affected by subsequent metamorphism and tectonic
events. They are not nearly so well developed in number or thickness as are the
basic intrusives in the undeformed Umkondo rocks in the west, but they are
petrographically similar.

B. Structure oj the Chimanimani Mountains. An apparent contradiction occurs

in the northern Chimanimani Mountains. The rocks appear to be relatively flat-
lying, but the minor structures, particularly in the pelite band, suggest a high
degree of deformation and the possibility that the beds are overturned. When all
parts of the range are considered it can be seen that the main direction of dip of
the western pelite horizon alters from westwards in the north, to eastwards in the
centre of the range, then back to west near the Lucite River in the south. Further-
more, at least four roughly parallel pelite bands appear in the east, but they are
almost certainly the same band, repeated by folding and connected by fold cul-
minations. In the extreme north the pelite marker-horizon terminates between the
western and eastern quartzites, and beyond only occurs as outliers, apparently
overfolded on nearly horizontal axial planes.
Bedding in the quartzites is almost unrecognizable, but an examination of air-
photographs shows a complex folded pattern of lineaments, which, if bedding, is
behaving disharmonic ally near the contacts of the schist bands (Plate II).
Where the Mussapa River crosses the ranges there is a very strong cleavage
in the quartzites which strikes north-south and dips eastwards at about 50°-70°
in the west, but flattens eastwards. This cleavage gives rise to tabular sheets in
 20 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

the quartzites, but it is hardly developed in the pelites. It is easily mistaken for
the bedding, but it can be demonstrated that on the contacts with the pelite band
the dip of the cleavage is almost perpendicular to the dip of the sediments. Two
cleavages are recognizable in the pelites, the one roughly parallel to the bedding is
folded. The more massive and resistant quartzites only show axial-plane cleavages
which predominate, obliterating the bedding.
A number of E.N.E.-trending fractures which may be joints cut across all
the rocks of the ranges as well as across the un deformed Umkondo in the west.
They are best developed in the brittle quartzites. In places faulting occurs along
these fractures, the best examples of which are the Skeleton Gap Fault in the
north and the Lucite Fault in the south. On these the downthrow is to the south,
and at least on the Lucite Fault, from considerations outside the area (Vail,
1964 b), the last movements are thought to be post-Rarroo and pre-Cretaceous in
age.
It is clear that compressional forces have been active along the length of the
Chimanimani Mountains. The degree of movement and the nature of adjustment
of the Umkondo sediments above the basement remain to be studied. Basement
rocks have been folded into broad anticlines and synclines, at least in the north.
From the sheared basal contact of the Umkondo it is evident that the cover has
responded disharmonically, although it is essentially autochthonous. The western
limit of metamorphism and tectonic activity is marked by the Chimanimani Front,
which may be regarded as being delineated by the western contact of the white
quartzites of the ranges, beyond which there is an abrupt topographical and
structural change. However, it must be pointed out that the strata to the west
have been steeply folded; generally but not always, with dips to the west, and have
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

been raised to chlorite and sericite grade. In the north the front appears to be
marked by a high-angle reverse-fault, dipping eastwards. Farther south no
displacement is apparent. It is probable that the fault represents shearing along
the limb of a tight, overturned fold. The thrusting is likely to be of local impor-
tance only, dying out both along strike and down dip, as is found elsewhere along
the western parts of the Manica Belt.

(ii) The Bandula region

About six miles from the northern end of the Chimanimani Mountains the
first of a number of outliers of deformed Umkondo rocks occurs. These ridges
extend northwards in a narrow zone across the Revue River (Plate III); the main
Umtali-Beira railway crossing it near the siding of Bandula. The outliers con-
tinue northwards across the Pungue River until they merge with the main mass of
the Gairezi-Barue highlands between Inyanga and Vila Gouveia. Nowhere along
the belt do the gaps between the Umkondo outliers exceed four miles.

A. Stratigraphy of the Bandula region. The ridges are made up of thin quart-
zites, usually to be found at the base of the sequence, and pelitic schists. The
quartzites are typically white, sugary rocks in which sedimentary features are
obliterated by recrystallization of the quartz and the development of muscovite
along the cleavage planes. Cleavage is usually very close to the original bedding,
as indicated by the contacts with granitic gneiss below and pelite above. In some
places the porphyroblastic gneiss of the basement is highly foliated parallel to the
overlying rocks.
 STRUCTURE OF THE UMKONDO SYSTEM AND REGIONAL GEOLOGY 21

The pelites, which occur between the ridges of quartzite, are very soft-weather-
ing rocks. Muscovite, biotite, and garnet are present, but due to the degree of
decomposition it is almost impossible to see any sedimentary or small scale features
in the beds in the Bandula part of the Manica Belt. Metamorphism for the most
part is in the almandine grade, but kyanite and sillimanite are developed, and
staurolite is present near Bandula. In a few places the pelitic rocks rest directly
on basement-gneisss either due to stretching of the underlying thin quartzite or to
faulting. On the other hand, original sedimentary conditions may have been
such that sand beds were not formed, and silts and shales were deposited directly
on to the basement. Such conditions have been clearly seen elsewhere in the
Umkondo System.
In the Bandula region there is an obvious difference in the thickness of the
marker-horizons, compared with the Chimanimani area. The very thick quartzite
development of the southern region is absent, and although quartzites make up a
substantial portion of the outcrop, they are nowhere nearly as abundant as in the
south. Pelites, on the other hand, are thicker, although due to their soft-weathering
this is not at first obvious. As in the southern areas, a few basic, amphibolitized
dolerites are present.

B. Structure oj the Bandula region. On account of the metamorphism and

weathering little structural information has been obtained from the rocks them-
selves. The ridges of sediment are formed by synforms between antiforms of gneiss.
These ridges have sharp terminations due to inwards plunge at both ends, which
may be due in part to cross-folding. In most of the limbs dips are steeply to the
west. Despite cleavage relations not being clear, the axial planes of the folds
appear to dip westwards at about 60°.
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

Although the contact between basal quartzite and gneiss is sheared, it seems
most likely that the Umkondo cover is parautochthonous. The underlying base-
ment is highly foliated, generally parallel to the ridges, over the entire strike
length of the region, indicating that the basement and the sediments have been
folded together on a common north-south axis. Since in the higher structural
levels of the Chimanimani and Gairezi-Barue areas the sedimentary strata, and in
places the axial planes as well, are more nearly horizontal than vertical, it seems
that the Bandula region may represent a root-zone, or at least the lowest structural
level of the cover-rocks of the Manica Belt. It is in this part of the Belt that
post-tectonic granites cut the Umkondo rocks (Gouveia and Araujo, 1962). The
extent and nature of these granitic bodies have yet to be investigated.
Late fractures with east-west strike cut across all the rocks in the Bandula
region, in a similar way to those in the Chimanimani area. The amount of dis-
placement is not large and movement appears to be in a vertical, rather than
lateral direction.

(3) The Gairezi-Barue highlands

By far the greatest area of deformed Umkondo System rocks is to be found
along the international boundary between the highlands overlooking the Gairezi
River west of Vila Gouveia, and the Luenha River in the north. (Plate IV; also
Plate 1.) The Umkondo rocks form high ground rising to nearly 5700 feet above
sea level. There is a strongly marked eastern escarpment. exceeding 2000 feet
high in places, overlooking the Mo~ambique Plains. The western side also has an
 22 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

escarpment along much of its length, but it is less well developed than that on the
eastern side, and has been modified by the Gairezi River and its tributaries. In
the north and west the topographic change follows the contact between the Um-
kondo and underlying rocks.

A. Stratigraphy of the Gairezi-Barue highlands. The deformed rocks of the

Gairezi highlands are made up of four lithological types, which vary in composition
and degree of metamorphism. They can be matched exactly with similar undis-
turbed beds on the Inyanga Plateau, which in tum can be correlated to the Melsetter
succession. In the west the geology has been studied by D.I Slater (in preparation),
who has found (personal communication) the following sequence:-

Upper semipelites, with feldspathic quartzites +400 feet

Middle "cherts" and limestones .. 70
Basal siltstones, mudstones, and arkoses; with white quartzites developing
eastwards .. 50

Slater has traced these beds from the Inyanga Plateau, by way of the Ruangwe
Range into the main outcrop of the Gairezi highlands to the vicinity of the N yadowa
Ridge. East of Nyadowa there is an increase in metamorphic grade, and conse-
quently original lithologies together with sedimentary features become masked.
Dips are in general to the east at 20° to SO°, and because the beds are folded, true
thicknesses are unknown. Bedding is not readily seen and cleavages are the
dominant planar features in the rocks. The succession east of Nyadowa is one of
pelitic and semi-pelitic sediments, interbedded with white quartzites. The latter
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

form lenses up to about 20 feet in thickness, dying out laterally. A crystalline

limestone horizon with associated epidote-rich "chert" bands appears inter-
mittently along the Rhodesian side of the Gairezi River valley as far south as the
Marozi River. It is intruded by a dolerite sheet over several miles of strike, and
this sequence suggests a repetition of the strata found to the west of Nyadowa
Ridge.
On the Portuguese side of the Gairezi River the sediments consist of a mono-
tonous succession of micaceous schists, with occasional thin, white quartzite bands of
limited thickness and extent. Although structural and stratigraphic details are
lacking the quartzite lenses are probably localized sedimentary features, similar to
those occurring in the lowermost part of the sequence in the northwest. A persistent
quartzite occurs at the base of the succession around much of the deformed Um-
kondo outcrop. It is well developed in the northwest, but it is missing along most
of the western contact, except where it occurs as flat outliers above the Gairezi
River valley some miles from the main outcrop. Quartzite occurs again in the
south around the ridges protruding from the main outcrop. In these places it
forms the lower beds, similar to the quartzites in the narrow folds in the Bandula
region. Along much of the east side of the Barue highlands quartzite is not con-
spicuously developed, although it is present in a similar position as on the west
margin. Near the north of the main outcrop in the vicinity of Senga Senga (Vail,
1964 a) it is again well developed, and a second quartzite horizon is recognized.
The eastern limit of the Umkondo rocks is not clearly defined in the Barue area.
The reason for this is in part due to the deep weathering, and to the fact that the
 STRUCTURE OF THE UMKONDO SYSTEM AND REGIONAL GEOLOGY 23

escarpment has been cut backwards, so that the contact between the Umkondo
rocks and the gneisses is in the poorly exposed low ground to the east. Also the
eastern margin is not precisely defined owing to the difficulty in distinguishing
between highly metamorphosed sediments of the Umkondo System and the
metasomatized paragneisses in the east. It seems probable that some of the
Umkondo rocks may have been granitized and infolded with the basement-gneisses,
but the bulk of the gneisses of the Mo<;ambique Plains are not representatives of
the Umkondo sediments.
A number of sheets of quartz dolerite are intrusive into the western parts of
the deformed Umkondo System. They are found in the lowermost parts of the
succession, and in the basement beneath, and although they are sill-like they
transgress and bifurcate to such a degree that they cannot be used as stratigraphic
markers. These rocks have been subjected to metamorphism and folding along
with the sediments, with consequent shearing and alteration to amphibolite. East
of the Gairezi River doleritic intrusives are quite rare, and they are hardly present
at all in the gneisses.
The exact stratigraphic position of most of the deformed Umkondo sediments
has not yet been determined. The sporadic presence of the lower quartzite around
much of the Gairezi-Barue mass suggests that although the pelites have thickened
eastwards, away from the un deformed area, and the limestone-chert horizon appears
to be absent east of the Gairezi River, the sediments represent only the lowermost
part of the U mkondo succession.

B. Structure of the Gairezi-Barue highlands. As the flat-lying sediments of the

Inyanga plateau become deformed eastwards, bedding planes in the rocks become
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

subordinate to cleavages, which develop in the highly folded pelites in most of the
Gairezi-Barue region. The cleavage planes dip eastwards from the Nyadowa area
as far east as a line through Senga Senga, Barauro, and the Messambize valley.
East of this line the cleavage dips are vertical or steeply inclined to the west.
The pattern of folding, in common with the rest of the Manica Belt, is essen-
tially a compressional one, about north-south axes. In the northwestern part of
the Gairezi area there is a well-developed N.W. fold axis direction, seen in alterna-
ting synclines and anticlines. The Makori Hill outlier forms the centre of a S.E.-
plunging anticline, the extension of which is reflected in the N.W.-plunging anticline
in the Messambize valley in the south. Fold-planes are inclined eastwards at
moderate angles, with overturning of the lower limbs. In several places along the
western contact these limbs become sheared out in localized thrust planes, and as a
con·sequence part of the succession is missing. These breaks die out laterally, and
cannot be regarded as true thrust-planes. Deformation in the sediments appears
to be largely controlled by the relative competency of the various lithologies, with
the resultant intense small-scale crumpling in the pelites, the high degree of con-
tortion in the calcareous rocks, and little apparent deformation in the quartzites.
At the southern end of the main outcrop the structure is one of alternating
syn- and anticlines. This results in long ridges of Umkondo sediments with basal
quartzites forming cliffs over the deeply eroded anticlinal cores of basement rocks.
In the Nyanga Ridge, west of the Messambize valley, the folds are more open and
the basal contact dips west at about 45°. In the eastern Songulero Ridge the beds
dip at 70° or more. At the southern end of this ridge deflection on a N.E. trend is
evident.
 24 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

At the northern extremity another deflection across the main north-south strike
is connected with the Senga Senga dome. Locally the strike of the beds becomes
east-west on the northern and southern sides of the dome, exposing the granitic
core of this feature in a symmetrical amphitheatre. A preliminary account of the
area (Vail, 1964 a) suggests that Senga Senga is a mantled gneiss dome formed
at a relatively late stage in the tectonic history. The metamorphic grade in this
area is in the staurolite-kyanite facies.
The Gairezi-Barue highlands are formed by a synclinorium of deformed rocks
belonging to the Umkondo System. The western flank dips east at moderate angles,
whereas the eastern side has steep inward dips. There is a general plunge towards
the centre from north and south, which may be partly the result of late stage
folding. Minor cross-fractures are present, but they are not as well developed
as in the southern parts of the Manica Belt. A number of west-facing escarpments
within the sediments, particularly those west of )Jydowa Ridge, along the Gairezi
River, and along the east side of the Messambize valley, suggest low-angle faulting.
In the absence of any evidence they cannot as yet be regarded as thrust-planes,
although the presence of such features would not be incompatible with the general
tectonic pattern.

4. The Rukori ranges

A number of discontinuous ridges, rather similar to those of the Bandula
region, extend from the northern end of the Barue highlands to the Mazoe River
(Plate I). In the Rukori Range they take on a general east-west alignment parallel
to the main Zambezi escarpment, and continue into the Mvuradona Mountains of
the Darwin District of Rhodesia. The ridges have only recently been recognized as
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

forming the northern part of the Manica Belt.

A. Stratigraphy of the Rukori ranges. The general lithology appears to be the
same as in the other parts of the deformed Umkondo: white quartzites; pelitic
and semi-pelitic schists containing mica, garnet, and kyanite minerals, and more
rarely, crystalline limestones. Amphibolites resembling the metamorphosed Um-
kondo dolerites are also present. These sediments, which are in contact with granitic
gneisses, have not been examined in detail, and their distribution and relationship
is one of the outstanding problems in this part of the Manica Belt.
B. Structure of the Rukori ranges. All that can be said of the structure at the
present time is that some of the sediments form narrow ridges similar to the syn-
forms of the Bandula area. From a preliminary examination the axes of the ridges
are apparently not linear as in the south; this may be due to refolding. The are'a is
important in that it occurs at the intersection of the predominantly north-south
part of the Belt (parallel to the general Mozambique Belt trend) with the east-west
part (parallel to the Zambezi Belt trend). Detailed information on the metamor-
phism and the structure in this area would be helpful in the understanding of
these major tectonic features.

C. Regional Considerations
Apart from the stratigraphic subdivision of the various lithological units, broad-
er aspects of the geology may be considered for the area as a whole. These concern
(1) the sedimentation of the Umkondo System, (2) the structure of the area, (3)
the regional metamorphism of the pre-Karroo rocks, and (4) problems of correlation.
 STRUCTURE OF THE UMKONDO SYSTEM AND REGIONAL GEOLOGY 25

1. Sedimentation of the Umkondo System

From preliminary investigations in the Manica Belt, and of undisturbed
sediments to the west, a broad stratigraphic picture emerges, details of which
remain to be studied. The Umkondo System sediments were deposited on a
relatively flat, granitic plain, and are made up of material derived from the base-
ment-rocks. Judging by the purity of some of the quartzites it seems probable
that the material underwent more than one cycle of sedimentation. In the lower
parts of the Umkondo sequence calcareous rocks developed giving way upwards to
shales and sandstones. The limestones appear to have thinned out eastwards across
the area, whereas the lower shales have become thicker. The lowermost arenaceous
beds must have also thickened considerably to the east, if the quartzites in the
Chimanimani Mountains belong to the same basal horizon as in the west. A facies
change occurs northwards from the Chimanimani area towards the Bandula region,
and southwards into the Statonga Ranges, for the thick quartzites of the Chimani-
mani are represented by very much thinner beds away from the mountains. In
the north a change of lithology can be traced eastwards from the Inyanga Plateau,
where only the lowermost part of the succession is preserved, into the Gairezi
highlands. The limestones again are missing in the east, and the basal white
quartzite is several hundreds of feet thick in places, whereas it is almost entirely
absent in the west. The pelites thicken considerably eastwards.
There seems little doubt that, unless the tectonic effects are more severe than
so far envisaged, the basal arenaceous band is persistent over about 300 miles of
strike although fluctuating in thickness. The limestone-chert horizon of the Gairezi-
Inyanga area is well developed in the Melsetter-Sabi region, but is absent from the
Bandula and Chimanimani outcrops. It seems significant that the marked changes
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

in thickness and lithology took place across the boundary between the gneiss belt
of Moyambique and the granite shield of Rhodesia.
The fine banding of the shales, the presence of ripple-marks in the quartzites,
the finely laminated "cherts" and limestones are features suggesting a shallow-water
depositional environment. Conglomerates are very rare and pebble beds are
poorly developed in the arenaceous rocks, although cross-bedding is present in
many of the sandstones. Not enough information is as yet available to determine
current directions, but the deposits suggest a miogeosync1inal environment, which
was presumably being filled from the shelf area in the west.

2. Structure
The most important structural elements in the area are found in the Pre-
cambrian formations, but the Karroo and younger rocks also provide interesting
structural information.
The following points are worth noting:
(i) The Southern Rhodesia Basement Shield can be regarded as a cratonic
block, partially framed by the Zambezi gneiss belt in the north (Macgregor, 1952),
the Mozambique Belt in the east (Holmes, 1951), and the Limpopo Belt in the
south (Cox et al., 1965).
(ii) The gneisses, according to the concept of Holmes (1951), are considered
to represent the sites of ancient orogenic belts in which the original sediments are
now highly metamorphosed.
(iii) The Mozambique Belt borders the Archaean Basement Complex craton of
Southern Rhodesia, the margins of which have been deformed and metamorphosed
 26 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

by later events. Several of the gold belts, which strike roughly east-west, are cut
off by the Mozambique Belt, but the Mtoko Gold Belt farther to the west, for
example, roughly parallels the trend of the gneisses, and forms the southern margin
of the Zambezi gneiss belt (Hornung, 1961).
(iv) Only the western edge of the Mozambique Belt is exposed. It lies roughly
along 33°00' East longitude from the Buzi River to the vicinity of the Luenha
River, where it swings northwest wards into the Zambezi Belt. Internally the
structures are complicated, as can be seen from the variable trend directions.
(v) There is apparently no distinction, except in overall direction, between the
Zambezi Belt and the Mozambique Belt; the two appear to merge together.
(vi) The metamorphosed Umkondo System rocks constitute the Manica Belt,
which is sited along much of the cratonic edge. The sediments show changing
sedimentary facies across the Belt, and the eastwards lithologic change is accom-
panied by a rise in metamorphic grade.
(vii) The eastern edge of the Umkondo System coincides with Thiele and
Wilson's Portuguese East Africa Fracture Line (1915), which they considered to
represent a vertical fault. There is no evidence to support this view, although
the line is obviously of tectonic importance.
(viii) The nature of the contact between the Umkondo sediments and their
basement is open to debate, for in places it is. highly sheared, and appears to be
tectonic. Elsewhere, highly metamorphosed metasediments are difficult to dis-
tinguish from the paragneisses, and the change appears to be metasomatic. In
some localities the contact is seen to be an ordinary unconformity, with a frequent,
but not invariable, basal quartzite. In the light of present information the contact
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

between the deformed Umkondo sediments and the underlying granitic rocks is
regarded as a sedimentary one, modified in part by subsequent thermal and tectonic
events.
(ix) Within the Manica Belt, the basement is folded on north-south axes and
the overlying sediments have accommodated themselves according to their different
competencies. Wedges of basement-rocks appear along the cores of some of the
folds overturned to the west. In some places on the west side the lower limbs are
sheared out. It may be that farther to the east, within the thicker deposits of the
Barue and Chimanimani Mountains, thrust-faulting has taken place on a larger
scale, with the consequent overriding of the lower beds from the east. The eastern
margin of the sediments along much of the Belt is ill-defined. In the north and
centre it appears to be steeply inclined to the west. Near Bandula the west margin
is also inclined to the west. The major axes of the Belt are thus inclined to the
east in the south and north, and to the west in the centre.
(x) The Manica Belt can be considered to be a type of folded mountain chain
along the foreland of the Southern Rhodesian craton. The parts of the Belt
exposed at the present level are at the base of what was once undoubtedly a
much thicker cover, and may therefore represent the root-zone of this ancient
mountain chain. Planes of movement at this structural level are more vertical
than horizon tal.
{xi, The orogenic episode affecting the Umkondo rocks also affected extensive
areas of gneisses since age measurements on micas from each yield the same meta-
morphic age (Snelling et at., 1964).
 STRUCTURE OF THE UMKONDO SYSTEM AND REGIONAL GEOLOGY 27

3. Metamorphism
Of the lithologic subdivisions discussed above, the metamorphism of the schist
belts and the Archaean granites is a special problem, and except where they are
affected by younger events to the east and north, e.g. at Makaha (Johnson, 1963)
and Mtoko (Hornung, 1961)' they have not undergone regional metamorphism.
The crystalline gneisses of the Mozambique Belt are a complex group con-
sisting in their present metamorphic state mainly of banded granulitic rocks,
in which there has been widespread migmatitization and intrusion by pegmatites,
granites and granodiorites (Borges and Pinto Coelho, 1957). Reconnaissance visits
suggest a dense concentration of quartz-feldspar pegmatites east of a line through
Mungari-Macossa-Vila Paiva-Vila Pery.
The Umkondo System shows well-developed metamorphic zoning across the
outcrop from chlorite zones in the undisturbed and marginally deformed rocks,
passing through biotite, to garnet, staurolite, and kyanite grades; the garnet-
staurolite isograd being roughly down the centre of the Manica Belt. Migmatites
and pegmatites within the gneisses of Mo~ambique are in the highest grades of
regional metamorphism. Remobilization of the basement has resulted in intrusive
relationships in the higher grade areas; and minor late-stage boron metasorqatism
is also found in the Belt.

4. Correlations
Of interest from a regional point of view are the correlations of the Mozambique
Belt gneisses, and the Umkondo System sediments.
In the past the gneisses have generally been grouped together with the Base-
ment Complex, or referred to the "Mozambique System", of uncertain age and
doubtful stratigraphic usefulness. The original sedimentological features of the
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

rocks have been obliterated by granitization, and for the present the gneisses must
remain uncorrelated.
The different units of the Umkondo System, on the other hand, have been
variously correlated, for example: (a) the Umkondo with the Waterberg System
(Uu Toit, 1954). (b) the Frontier with the Muva and Witwatersrand Systems
(Tyndale-Biscoe and Bond. 1955). (c) the Gairezi with the Primitive System (Pinto
Coelho, 1954). (d) the Umkondo with the Transvaal System (Swift, 1962). These
and several other correlations of the Umkondo rocks were based on lithology only
and, with the exception of (d). the stratigraphic succession was not used.
Recent radiogenic age-determination work (Vail, 1963; Snelling, 1963; and
Snelling et al., 1964) on micas from the metamorphosed Gairezi schists and the
metamorphosed crystalline gneisses shows that there was a thermal episode 450 to
600 million years ago affecting these rocks. Ages of this order have been recorded
from rocks in southern Nyasaland, central Mo~ambique, the Middle Zambezi
Valley Katanga and elsewhere (See for example Cahen, 1961, and Nicolaysen,
1962) indicating the widespread nature of this event.
If it is assumed that the tectonism and metamorphism of the Umkondo
rocks is closely related to the cycle of deposition and mountain building, as is the
case in many of the well-known orogenic belts, the measured age is probably not
far off the actual age of the Umkondo sediments, which could thus be regarded as
late Precambrian or early Palaeozoic.
It is of interest that Umkondo sediments overlie gneisses at the northeastern
end of the Limpopo Belt. west of the Chipinga plateau. An age of 1950 million
 28 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

years has been ascribed to these gneisses at Beitbridge. Although no age deter-
minations are available for gneisses east of Chipinga, near Dombe, there is no reason
to suppose that they will not show the circa 500 million years impressed meta-
morphic age shown by the gneisses farther north. Nicolaysen (1962) equates the
Limpopo Belt gneisses (Messina Formation) with the Transvaal System and this
throws doubt on the Umkondo-Transvaal correlation of Swift (1962).
The author feels it is significant that the sedimentology, environment, meta-
morphism and age measurements of the Umkondo System have much in common
with the Lomagundi-Piriwiri of Southern Rhodesia and Katangan of Northern
Rhodesia. It is of more than passing interest that all three contain stratiform copper
deposits.

III. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The writer is particularly indebted to Mr. J. M. Trigo Mira, Director of the
Geological Survey of Mo<;ambique for the help and co-operation he has given at all
times, especially in allowing access to the air-photographs and unpublished maps
of the Servicos de Geologia e Minas in Louren<;o Marques; and to the geologists of
the Survey, especially Dr. A. Nunes, J. Gouveia, J. Renato Araujo, J. Rebolo and
B. Ferro for assistance and discussion in the field.
The Director of the Southern Rhodesia Geologial Survey, Mr. A. E. Phaup,
provided cordial co-operation on every occasion, and particular thanks are due to
Mr. R. L. Watson for his help in the field and for discussion.
The present work forms part of an investigation into various aspects of the
geology of Central Africa being undertaken by the University of Leeds Research
Institute of African Geology. The help and encouragement of the Director, Pro-
Reproduced by Sabinet Gateway under licence granted by the Publisher (dated 2009).

fessor W. Q. Kennedy, and in particular of my colleagues Dr. R. L. Johnson and

Dr. D. Slater is gratefully acknowledged. Dr. K. G. Cox and Miss J. M. Rooke very
kindly also read parts of the manuscript. The work was carried out during the
tenure of 'In Oppenheimer Geological Fellowship provided by the Anglo-American
Corporatiol, through the University of Leeds.

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 30 TRANSACTIONS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF SOUTH AFRICA

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