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ATLAS OF DEFORMED AND METAMORPHOSED
ROCKS FROM PROTEROZOIC OROGENS
This page intentionally left blank
 ATLAS OF
DEFORMED AND
METAMORPHOSED
ROCKS FROM
PROTEROZOIC
OROGENS
T.R.K. Chetty
CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute, Hyderabad, India

K.V. Wilbert Kehelpannala

Department of Geology, Faculty of Science, University of Botswana,
Private Bag UB 00704, Gaborone, Botswana
Elsevier
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 Contents

Preface vii 2.3.4 Mahanadi shear zone 99

2.3.5 Nagavali-Vamsadhara shear
Acknowledgements ix
zone 104
1. Proterozoic orogens: introduction 2.3.6 Khariar-Bolangir Terrane 112
1.1 Introduction 1
2.3.7 Kanigiri ophiolitic melange 118
1.2 Orogenic evolution 2
References 125
1.3 Proterozoic high-grade rocks 2
2.4 Central Indian Tectonic Zone 126
1.4 Gondwana orogens 3
2.4.1 Introduction 126
References 4
2.4.2 Shear zones 127
Further reading 4
2.4.3 Supracrustal belts 141
2.4.4 Chhotanagpur GraniteeGneiss
2. Proterozoic orogens of Indian Complex 145
shield References 150
2.1 Proterozoic orogens of India 5 Further reading 150
2.1.1 Introduction 5 2.5 Aravalli-Delhi Orogenic Belt 151
References 7 2.5.1 Introduction 151
2.2 Southern Granulite Terrane 8 2.5.2 South Delhi Terrane 153
2.2.1 Introduction 8 2.5.3 Sandmata Terrane 163
2.2.2 Northern Granulite Block 9 2.5.4 Sirohi Terrane 166
2.2.2.1 Salem 2.5.5 Udaipur Terrane 174
mafic-ultramafic 2.5.6 Phulad shear zone 181
complex 10 References 184
2.2.2.2 Mettur shear zone 13
2.2.3 Cauvery suture zone 18
3. Proterozoic orogens of Sri Lanka
2.2.3.1 Regional/general 19
3.1 Introduction 185
2.2.3.2 Kanjamalai hills 37
3.2 The Wanni Complex 187
2.2.3.3 Mahadevi hills 47
3.3 The Highland Complex 203
2.2.3.4 Devathur shear zone 50
3.4 The Vijayan Complex 214
2.2.3.5 Namakkal-Mohanur 3.5 The Wanni Complex-Highland
rail cutting section 55
Complex Boundary Shear Zone
2.2.4 Madurai Granulite Block 69
(WHBSZ) 222
2.2.4.1 Kadavur hills 70
3.6 The Highland Complex/Vijayan
2.2.4.2 NortheEastern part Complex Boundary Shear Zone 228
of Madurai Granulite References 233
Block 75 4. Proterozoic orogens of Southern Africa
2.2.5 Achankovil shear zone/suture 4.1 Introduction 237
zone 80 4.2 The Limpopo Belt 238
2.2.6 Trivandrum Granulite Block 83 4.3 The Central Zone of the Limpopo Belt 239
References 85 4.4 The Mahalapye Complex 240
2.3 Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt 88 4.4.1 The Mahalapye Granite 240
2.3.1 Introduction 88 4.4.2 The Mokgware Granite 251
2.3.2 Sileru shear zone 89 4.4.3 The Mahalapye Migmatite 259
2.3.3 Northern boundary shear zone 97 4.5 The Phikwe Complex 268

v
vi Contents

4.6 Beit Bridge Complex 282 5.8 The Bunger Hills 365
4.7 The Magogaphate Shear Zone 301 References 371
References 311
6. Proterozoic orogens of Western
5. East Antarctica Australia
5.1 Introduction 315 6.1 Introduction 373
5.2 The Sør Rondane Mountains 317 6.2 The AlbanyeFraser orogen 373
5.3 The Maud Belt 342 6.3 The Pinjarra orogen 392
5.4 The Muhlig-Hofmannfjella mountains 345 References 398
5.5 The Lützow-Holm Complex 347 Further reading 399
5.6 The Vestfold Hills 358
5.7 The Grove Mountains 361 Index 401
 Preface

In recent decades, there has been a significant shift of interest toward laboratory-centric research studies in
geosciences, neglecting the importance of field geology, which forms a crucial element to the understanding of our
planet Earth and its internal and external geological processes. Most of these processes are preserved in the form of
rock records in the field, which can be considered as “objects of beauty, kindling the imagination and stimulation of the
uninitiated and experts alike” and must be given their rightful place in geoscience education as well as in research
studies.
Basic geological information and knowledge can be obtained through reading and reviewing of published
geological maps and the available literature to understand the general geology, structural, metamorphic, and tectonic
evolution of an area, which is possible only to a limited extent. It always remains superficial and can never substitute
the personal experiences of field geologists on the nature and characteristics of rocks at outcrop scales in the field. It is
in this context a record of field observations, descriptions, and interpretations in the form of a collection of high-quality
field photographs will be of immense utility. These field photographs with brief and comprehensive description and
interpretation in the form of an Atlas will form an important fundamental and essential requirement of the Earth
Science community.
Almost all the rocks currently exposed in Proterozoic orogens have been deformed and metamorphosed under
amphibolite- to granulite-facies conditions with some of them obtaining either ultrahigh pressure or ultrahigh
temperature conditions. We have had the opportunity of studying such high-grade metamorphic rocks from several
Proterozoic orogenic belts of Gondwana supercontinent in the field for over three decades, making detailed sketches,
measuring various structural elements, and mapping detailed geology. We have also conducted and participated in
many international field workshops across some of the geologically important regions and had the benefit of inter-
action with many prominent earth scientists from all over the globe. During our long professional career with
structural geology, tectonics, and metamorphic petrology being the focus, we have compiled and preserved innu-
merable number of field photographs, captured from some of the well-exposed areas of key orogenic belts of
Gondwana supercontinent.
This Atlas forms a richly illustrated reference book with a long-lasting value that provides unique and compre-
hensive field images of a range of lithologies that were subjected to multiple events of magmatism, deformation,
metamorphism, and metasomatism. Each chapter in the book begins with a brief review of geology, including
deformation and metamorphic history, along with a regional geological map to help readers to visualize the field
observations in the relevant geological context. The Atlas focuses on amphibolite to granulite facies rocks and
associated maficeultramafic rocks from Proterozoic orogens of India, Sri Lanka, Botswana, South Africa, East
Antarctica, and Western Australia. All the photographs have been sequentially organized considering the
metamorphic complexes, tectonic divisions, and crustal units of respective individual orogens.
The present Atlas of selected photographs is an important source of information for a broad range of earth
scientists, graduate and undergraduate students, researchers, academicians, and other professionals. The Atlas would
be extremely useful, educative, and informative and would provide insights into the understanding of some of the
mysteries of the earth’s processes and its evolution. It will form a great treasure particularly to the younger generations
and to those geoscientists who never had an opportunity to visit any of the Proterozoic orogenic belts.
In view of the above, we present here an Atlas of field photographs of deformed and metamorphosed rocks of
varied rock compositions and structural geometry with a concise description providing location, lithology, structural
fabrics, possible deformational history, metamorphic features, late metasomatism, and other important geological
information. Its relevance and significance in understanding the geological and tectonic history and metamorphic
evolution of a region are highlighted by providing relevant key references.

T.R.K. Chetty
K.V. Wilbert Kehelpannala

vii
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 Acknowledgements

We are grateful to all our teachers, collaborators and students for their guidance, stimulating discussions and
support during our professional journey. We also thank all those contributors for sparing their valuable photo-
graphs along with brief descriptions to the present Atlas. We appreciate and thank all those authors whose pub-
lications aided us in compiling the photographs published in literature, especially for the chapters on East
Antarctica, Western Australia and some parts of the Limpopo Belt. We thank profusely the Geological Survey and
Resource Strategy, Department of Mines, Industry Regulation and Safety, State of Western Australia, 2019, for
permitting us to include some of the photographs from their field guides. We thank the following publishers and
organisations for granting permission to reproduce some of their figures: The Geological Society of Sri Lanka, The
Geological Society of London and the National Institute of Polar Research, Japan. We thank Prof. Yoshikuni Hiroi,
Chiba, Japan, for sharing some spectacular photographs from East Antarctica.
We are very grateful to Elsevier publishers for accepting our proposal for the Atlas and for working with us on
this project. We highly appreciate and wish to acknowledge the high quality and prompt support rendered by the
Elsevier team (Emerald, Sruthi and their team members) in transforming field photographs and the manuscript to
its present shape of the Atlas.
TRK owes gratitude and appreciation to the CSIR-National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI), for making
his entire four-decade scientific career fully satisfying, exciting and meaningful, by providing excellent infra-
structural facilities and a congenial atmosphere for his scientific pursuits. TRK owes a sense of gratitude to all the
directors of CSIR-NGRI for their encouragement and support throughout his career and after superannuation till
2020. TRK is thankful to Dr. P. Rama Rao (CSIR-NGRI) for sparing his valuable time in critically going through
Chapters 2 and 6. He appreciates and acknowledges Prof. T.K. Biswal (Mumbai); Prof. Dilip Saha (Kolkata);
Prof. J.K. Nanda (Bhubaneswar); Dr. Mahapatro (GSI); Dr.Sesha Sai (GSI) for sharing some of their valuable pictures
to Chapter 2. TRK thanks his former colleagues Drs. D.S.N. Murthy, Y.J. Bhaskar Rao, B.L.Narayana, and interna-
tional collaborators Profs. M. Santosh (China), Alan Collins (Australia), T. Tsunogae (Japan) for their valuable
discussions both in the field and laboratory. We also thank Prof. Larry Brown (USA), Dr. Chris Clark (Australia);
Dr. Teale (Australia) for sparing some of their pictures captured during the International Field workshop across the
Southern Granulite Terrane, organised by TRK, in 2004.
TRK is indebted to his late parents Sri. T. Chinnagangulaiah and Smt. T. Subbamma; his life partner Smt. Rama
Devi; and daughters (Sreesusudha, Sowmya and Sujani) and their families for their love and affection, and for
making his life exciting and enjoyable.
KVWK would like to thank his long-time collaborator late Prof. Alfred Kröner, for his valuable discussions in the
field and encouragement. He also acknowledges Dr. K. Laletsang, Head of the Geology Department, University of
Botswana, and Prof. Read Mapeo, the former Head, for their support in providing facilities. Most of the photo-
graphs from the Limpopo Belt in Botswana, published in this Atlas, were taken during field excursions and B.Sc.
final year field research projects funded by the Faculty of Science, University of Botswana. KVWK acknowledges
that the photographs from Sri Lanka included in this Atlas were taken by him during many of his field visits to his
home country and also during his time as a researcher at the former Institute of Fundamental Studies. KVWK
expresses his love and affection to his wife Benedicta and children (Thisura, Kithma and Gimhanie) for their
unstinted support in various ways during the compilation of this Atlas.

ix
This page intentionally left blank
 C H A P T E R

1
Proterozoic orogens: introduction
1.1 Introduction

Orogens in space and time are the potential sources of information in understanding the mechanism of episodic
global material circulation on a whole-mantle-scale. They represent the hallmarks of the interaction among litho-
spheric plates. The word “orogen” is derived from Greece (oros for “mountain,” genesis for origin). The term “oro-
gen” or “orogenic belt” has been traditionally described as a mountain belt composed of different types of rocks or
rock strata forming a complex of variable size, typically tens to hundreds of kilometres wide and several thousand
kilometre long, later fragmented during younger geological time due to various processes (e.g., Miashiro, 1961). In
modern terminology, an orogen can be defined as a major linear deformed zone, sandwiched between cratons with
prolonged deformational history, repeatedly reactivated and associated with different events of magmatic pulses
and metamorphic episodes in space and time (Dewey and Bird, 1970). An orogen or orogenic belt develops when
a continental plate crumples and is pushed upwards to form one or multiple mountain ranges. This involves a series
of geological processes called “orogenesis.”
The Proterozoic orogenic belts occur wrapping around Precambrian cratons and expose essentially high-grade
rocks metamorphosed under amphibolite to granulite facies conditions. They represent not only important loci of
mineral wealth but also manifest past convergent plate tectonics that provide insightful clues to the processes of
deep crustal evolution, such as subduction, obduction, accretion, magmatism, and collision. They occur as mountain
belts developed through crustal thickening, magmatism, and metamorphism during more than one tectonothermal
event (orogenies) through time. The orogens constitute pronounced linear structural forms displaying terranes or
blocks of deformed rocks, separated by suture/shear zones or dipping thrust faults. The thrust faults carry relatively
thin slices of rock (which are called nappes or thrust sheets and differ from tectonic plateaus) from the core of the
shortening orogen out toward the margins and are intimately associated with folds and development of metamor-
phism. Orogens are significant in revealing the processes of continental growth and deformation including terrane
accretion, ophiolite obduction, terrane amalgamation, terrane dispersal, and crustal reactivation.
The orogens can broadly be grouped into collisional and acccretional types (Windley, 1995). The orogens that
occur at plate margins with continuing subduction and accretion are known as accretionary orogens (also known
as Pacific type) and appear to have been active throughout much of Earth’s history and constitute major sites of
continental growth (Cawood et al., 2009). Examples include Cordilleran, Pacific, Andean, Miyashiro, and Altaid-
type orogens. Accretionary orogenic systems are formed through ongoing plate convergence during the period of
supercontinent break-up and continental dispersal. Collisional orogenic systems (Himalayan-type) are generated
when the ocean is closed during continental assembly and formation of supercontinents. Collisional orogenic
systems may be superimposed on accretionary systems, which can be described as subduction-to-collision orogen-
esis (e.g., Liou et al., 2004).
Plate tectonics has been considered as an active component of the Earth’s processes possibly since the formation of
the first continental crust at >4.3 Ga (Ernst, 2005). Several distinct lines of evidence, in concert, established that the
process of plate tectonics has been active since at least 3.1 Ga. At least four types of collisions are presently recognized:
continent-continent (Alpine/Himalayan), continent-arc (Andean), arc-arc (Alaskan) collisions, and the fourth is a spe-
cial category (Turkic-type) where there is a progressive accretion of small island arcs and migration of magmatic front
that may produce sutures (Sengör and Natal’in). Large strike-slip faults, which juxtapose assemblages formed in
distant regions and metamorphosed at different structural levels, can also be erroneously reckoned as sutures.
Absence or rarity of blue schist- and eclogite-facies (high-P) metamorphic rocks in Precambrian subduction-
accretion complexes may be attributed to elevated thermal gradients and shallow-angle subduction (Brown, 2009).

Atlas of Deformed and Metamorphosed Rocks from Proterozoic Orogens

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-817978-9.00001-9 1 © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
2 1. Proterozoic orogens: introduction

High-T metamorphism and slab melting would be significant during the subduction of hotter, less viscous, more
buoyant, thicker and faster movement of Precambrian oceanic crust (Polat and Kerrich, 2004).
While Alpine-Himalayan chain represents modern orogens, AppalachianseCaledonian, Grenville, Trans-
Hudson, Capricorn, and Limpopo are some of the well-known examples of ancient orogens. The present Atlas is
confined to Proterozoic orogens with special focus on east Gondwana. The Proterozoic period spans nearly 2 billion
years, which can be divided into three eras: Palaeoproterozoic (2500e1600 Ma); Mesoproterozoic (1600e1000 Ma);
and Neoproterozoic (1000e540 Ma). The Proterozoic is considered to be important because of great crustal
stabilization marked by the development of global-scale orogens.

1.2 Orogenic evolution

Tectonic evolution of orogenic systems is a fundamental research problem in understanding the Earth’s evolution,
which in turn helps in better comprehension of mineral resources, seismicity patterns, and various geological
hazards. There are primarily two types of orogenic systems in the Earth’s history from the Archaean through to mod-
ern Earth: accretionary orogenic systems and collisional systems. Some of the best studied orogenic systems in the
world such as Grenville orogen showed that the Greenville province resulted from a Mesoproterozoic continental
collision and consists of tectonically stacked slices of Archean, Paleozoic, Mesoproterozoic rocks that are exposed
at various crustal levels. Features such as deformation, metamorphism, and magmatism may vary in intensity along
and across the length and breadth of the orogens. In general, orogens are characterized by the presence of complex
zones of transpressive deformation displaying complex styles of structures and metamorphism.
Recent decades of research reveal that deeply eroded ancient orogens provide insights into the hidden roots of
modern orogens. Further advanced analytical techniques and modern concepts in fields like geodynamics, provided
fresh insights that led to the application of realistic modern analogies into the evolution of ancient orogenic belts.
Broadly, orogens also offer the realms of natural laboratory to address the nature of large Earth’s processes such
as the behavior of lithosphere, crust-mantle interaction, supercontinent formation, different geodynamic processes,
and ultimately the Earth’s history.
The orogens, on a whole-Earth scale, represent the surface manifestations of the motion of Earth’s lithosphere and
contribute to the generation of new continental crust through plate tectonics that is horizontally transported and
eventually destroyed at subduction zones prior to orogenic “suturing.” The subducted material accumulates at
660 km depth, being transformed from a curtain-like sheet to a large blob that drops vertically to the CoreeMantle
Boundary (CMB) (Maruyama et al., 1994). The involvement of plate tectonics through a variety of associated
processes like subduction zones after the consumption of oceanic crust produces volcanoes and builds island arcs
magmatism. The other important associated processes include magmatism, metamorphism, crustal melting, and
thickening. However, these are dependent on the strength and rheology of the continental lithosphere and the
change in their properties during orogenesis. The process of orogeny may take tens of millions of years to build
mountains from plains or the ocean floor, and the topography is related to the principle of isostasy.
In summary, the orogenic processes include continental rifting and ocean opening, oceanic and continental sub-
duction, late to post-orogenic extension, sedimentation, magmatism and metamorphism, exhumation of deep seated
rocks, back-arc opening and microcontinent rotation, etc. The interfering orogenic scale tectonics such as thrusting,
folding, and shearing processes and deformation histories within orogenic belts can be treated as second order
processes.

1.3 Proterozoic high-grade rocks

The Proterozoic orogenic belts constitute essentially high-grade rocks metamorphosed under amphibolite to
granulite facies conditions. The Precambrian high-grade rocks occur in the form of thick sequences of interlayered
and intercalated bands, layers, lenses, etc., with complex metamorphic histories and structures with different geom-
etries and interrelationships. These rocks are, in general, dominated by quartzo-feldspathic gneisses with varied
amounts of biotite, hornblende, both clino- and orthopyroxenes, garnet, opaque minerals, and accessory zircon.
In addition, metapelitic rocks with variable amount of biotite, garnet, Al-silicates, cordierite, sapphirine, and spinel
make an important lithology in orogenic belts. Enclaves of other rock types (both sedimentary and igneous origins)
are also common defining them more generally as migmatitic gneisses. The other dominant rocks include
 1.4 Gondwana orogens 3
metasedimentary rocks such as quartzite, marble, calc-silicate rocks, metaigneous rocks like metabasite and ultra-
mafic rocks. In some orogenic belts, the occurrence of metamorphosed and deformed layered igneous rocks is
also reported. In general, the rocks witness amphibolite-granulite facies metamorphic conditions.
The structures and their interrelationships preserved in high-grade rocks are usually complex, because of pro-
longed metamorphic recrystallization, mineral reactions, and polyphase deformation through multiple events,
which are often complicated and masked by different magmatic and metamorphic episodes. These rocks have
further been subjected to several phases of ductile deformational processes involving recrystallization and partial
melting, resulting in complex lithological associations and structural patterns. Identification of such complex rock
records and their geometries in the field is important and challenging to all geoscientists. This forms the first crucial
step for understanding the true geological relationships, protolith characteristics, structural features, deformational
history, metamorphism, and tectonic evolution. The difference in lithology and metamorphic grade among the rocks
in orogens has been commonly attributed to the difference in the level of exposure. In the light of above, field
observations are extremely important before selection and collection of rock samples for further laboratory studies.

1.4 Gondwana orogens

Gondwanaland or “Gondwana” is the name described for the southern half of the Pangaean supercontinent (~300
Ma) constituting major continental blocks of South America, Africa, Arabia, Madagascar, Sri Lanka, India,
Antarctica, and Australia (Fig. 1.1). The name “Gondwana” is derived from a tribe in India (Gonds) and “wana”
means “land of.” Gondwanaland is superficially divided into a west Gondwana (Africa and South America) and
an east Gondwana (India, Sri Lanka, Madagascar, Antarctica, and Australia). The orogens in the continents of
east Gondwana resulted from a complex series of orogenic events during the Proterozoic period (Yoshida, 1995).
Two main periods of orogenesis were identified within east Gondwana (see Fig. 1.1). The first episode resulted
from the amalgamation of arc-terranes in the Arabian-Nubian shield region and oblique continent-continent colli-
sion between eastern Africa and ill-defined collage of continental blocks including parts of Madagascar, Sri Lanka,
Seychelles, India, and East Antarctica (750e620 Ma). This is referred to as the East Africa Orogen (EAO) and the sec-
ond major episode of orogenesis is considered as Kuunga Orogeny that took place between 570 and 530 Ma (Meert
et al., 1995). This episode has resulted from the oblique collision between Australia and an unknown portion of East
Antarctica with the elements previously assembled during the EAO. This may also represent the final suturing of the
Australian and Antarctic segments of the Gondwana (Kusky et al., 2003). Further, the collision between East and
West Gondwana seems to have taken place after the closure of the Mozambique Ocean.
Field photographs presented in this Atlas are mainly from the regions of Proterozoic orogenic belts of east
Gondwana. Some parts in these belts are often covered by sediments, glacial deposits, or vegetation making
them inaccessible for scientific research. Further, crucial information may be lost forever from many critical outcrops,
which are being quarried, defaced, and erased. In the light of the above constraints, the current Atlas may help
geoscientific community indirectly by providing field photographs of a range of lithologies and associated structural
features that are captured from well-exposed sections of Proterozoic orogenic belts of India, Sri Lanka, southern
Africa, East Antarctica, and Western Australia.
4 1. Proterozoic orogens: introduction

FIGURE 1.1 Proterozoic orogenic belts of Gondwana. West Gondwana is shaded in light blue and East Gondwana is shaded yellow. Neo-
proterozoic orogenic belts criss-cross the supercontinent. Those associated with the final amalgamation of the supercontinent are the East African
orogen (red), the BrasilianoeDamara orogen (blue), and the Kuungan orogen (green). After Meert and Lieberman (2008).

References
Brown, M., 2009. Metamorphic patterns in orogenic systems and the geological record. In: Cawood, P.A., Kroner, A. (Eds.), Earth Accretionary
Systems in Space and Time, vol. 318. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, pp. 37e74.
Cawood, P.A., Kroner, A., Collins, W.J., Kusky, T.M., Mooney, W.D., Windley, B.F., 2009. Accretionary Orogens through Earth History, vol. 319.
Geological Society of London, Special Publications, pp. 1e36.
Dewey, J.F., Bird, J.M., 1970. Mountain belts and the new global tectonics. J. Geophys. Res. 75, 2625e2647.
Ernst, W.G., 2005. Alpine and Pacific styles of Phanerozoic mountain building: subduction-zone petrogenesis of continental crust. Terra. Nova 17,
165e188.
Kusky, T.M., Abdelsalam, M., Stern, R.J., Robert, D., Tucker, R.D., 2003. Evolution of the East African and related orogens, and the assembly of
Gondwana. Precambrian Res. 123, 81e85.
Liou, J.G., Tsujimori, T., Zhang, R.Y., Katayama, I., Maruyama, S., 2004. Global UHP metamorphism and continental subduction/collision: the
Himalayan model. Int. Geol. Rev. 46, 1e27.
Maruyama, S., Liou, J.G., Zhang, R.Y., 1994. Tectonic evolution of the ultrahigh-pressure (UHP) and high-pressure (HP) metamorphic belts from
central China. Isl. Arc 3, 112e121.
Meert, J.G., Lieberman, B.S., 2008. The Neoproterozoic assembly of Gondwana and its relationship to the Ediacaran-Cambrian radiation.
Gondwana Res. 14, 5e21.
Meert, J.G., Vander voo, R., Ayub, S., 1995. Paleomagnetic investigation of the late proterozoic Gagwe lavas and Mbozi complex, Tanzania and the
assembly of Gondwana. Precambrian Res. 74, 225e244.
Miyashiro, A., 1961. Evolution of metamorphic belts. J. Petrol. 2, 277e311.
Polat, A., Kerrich, R., 2004. Precambrian arc associations: Boninites, adakites, magnesian andesites, and Nb-enriched basalts. Dev. Precambrian
Geol. 13, 567e597.
Sengör, A.M., Natal’in, B.A., 1996. Turkic-type orogeny and its role in the making of the continental crust. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet Sci. 24, 263e337.
https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev.earth.24.1.263.
Windley, B.F., 1995. The Evolving Continents, third ed. Wiley, Chichester, p. 385.
Yoshida, M., 1995. Assembly of east Gondwanaland during mesoproterozoic and its rejuvenation during the Pan-African period. Mem. Geol. Soc.
India 34, 25e45.

Further reading
Gray, D.R., Foster, D.A., Meert, J.G., Goscombe, B.D., Armstrong, R., Truow, R.A.J., Passchier, C.W., 2008. In: A Damaran Perspective on the
Assembly of Southwestern Gondwana, vol. 294. Geological Society of London Special Publication, pp. 257e278.
 C H A P T E R

2
Proterozoic orogens of Indian shield

C H A P T E R

Chapter 2.1
Proterozoic orogens of India

2.1.1 Introduction

The Proterozoic orogens of India wrap around the four major Archaean cratons of the Precambrian Indian shield.
The Archaean cratons of India include Dharwar craton in the south, Bastar in the centre, Singhbhum craton in the
east, and Bundelkhand craton in the north, which got welded together by a system of Proterozoic orogens/suture
zones. The cratons remained tectonically fairly stable but for some epirogenic younger movements (Ramakrishnan
and Vaidyanadhan, 2008). The interface between cratons and orogens is invariably marked by crustal-scale ductile
shear zones.
The Proterozoic orogens of India (POI) are defined by curvilinear, high-grade granulite gneiss belts encompassing
the entire Indian continent from Kanyakumari in the south to New Delhi in the north (Fig. 2.1). The POI compises a
sinuous chain of four major orogens from south to north in a counter-clock-wise direction that include: the Southern
Granulite Terrane (SGT), the Eastern Ghats Mobile Belt (EGMB), the Central Indian Tectonic Zone (CITZ), and the
Aravalli-Delhi Orogenic Belt (ADOB) (Chetty, 2017). The SGT occurs at the southern margin of the Dharwar craton
and the EGMB is situated along the east coast wrapping around Dharwar and Bastar cratons. The CITZ in the central
India is sandwiched between Bundelkhand craton to the north and the Bastar and Singhbhum cratons to the south,
while the ADOB occurs to the west of Bundelkhand craton and extends upto the Himalayan orogenic belt in the
north. These orogens are also described as fold-thrust belts and their crustal evolution and mineral potential
were described recently by Sarkar and Gupta (2012).

Atlas of Deformed and Metamorphosed Rocks from Proterozoic Orogens

https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-12-817978-9.00009-3 5 © 2022 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
6 2. Proterozoic orogens of Indian shield

FIGURE 2.1 Map showing the Proterozoic orogens of India, wrapping around the Archaean cratons and showing major shear zones and
associated structural fabrics: ADOB, Aravalli Delhi Orogenic Belt; CB, Cuddapah Basin; CITZ, Central Indian Tectonic Zone; EGMB, Eastern Ghats
Mobile Belt; SGT, Southern Granulite Terrane; VB, Vindhyan Basin. Source: T.R.K. Chetty.

The SGT was not previously considered within the POI and the rest of the chain connecting EGMB-CITZ-ADOB
was described as the Great Indian Proterozoic Fold Belt (GIPFOB) or “Mid-Proterozoic mobile belt” (Radhakrishna
and Naqvi, 1986). However, recent studies extended this belt and included the SGT also to make it a comprehensive
architecture of the POI (Chetty and Santosh., 2013). The characteristics and similarities among the orogenic belts of
POI suggest that the crustal architecture of India developed during Proterozoic period possibly through stitching of
several microcontinents, although the geographical location where such amalgamation occurred remains uncertain
because of inadequate palaeomagnetic database (Li et al., 2008). The presently exposed lower structural levels of
some of the Precambrian orogens serve as potential examples of what the Himalayas might look like after they
have been deeply eroded to lower- or mid-crustal levels.
The application of plate tectonic paradigm has gained increasing acceptance to realize the comprehensive deep
crustal processes that were involved in the evolution models of POI. Different segments of POI have dissimilar
geological histories, uncorrelatable lithologic packages, unconformable structural fabrics, and disparate “time
tables” of events. Tectonic evolution of the POI bears significance not only in understanding the geology of India
but also much relevant to the formation and break-up of the three supercontinentsdColumbia, Rodinia, and
Gondwana (Rogers and Santosh, 2004).
 References 7
All the orogens of POI show the following common characteristics: (i) occurrence of high-grade granulite facies
rocks, (ii) subjected to subduction-accretion-collisional processes, (iii) fold-thrust tectonics and the presence of
regional recumbent fold structures, (iv) presence of dismembered ophiolite complexes, (v) association of manganese
formations, (vi) emplacement of anorthositic rocks, (vii) geochronological ages ranging between 2500 Ma and 500
Ma, and (viii) the interface between orogens and the cratons is marked by thrust-ductile shear system. The other
striking common feature of POI is the association of Proterozoic sedimentary basins along their margins implying
that the development of the basins may be genetically related to Proterozoic orogens. The variations in the geometry
of structural features and the vergence of thrusts in different orogens in space and time are defined by the current
disposition of orogens, pointing to the larger-scale geodynamics responsible for the development of POI.
The development of POI involved the closure of the intervening oceans and the destruction of oceanic lithosphere
in a prolonged subductioneaccretion history culminating in final continentecontinent collision. The Peninsular
India thus preserves an unbroken record of a plate tectonic cycle from Pacific-type accretionary tectonics along
the margins of the Columbia supercontinent to a Himalayan-style collisional assembly within the Neoproterozoic
Rodinia supercontinent (Santosh, 2012). The Atlas presented here summarizes the main elements of all POI and
highlights major advances through field photographs in the form of new knowledge providing pathways for new
researches. In order to provide the contextual geological background of each Field photograph, an important and
relevant reference is also given at the end of explanation of the figure for the benefit of readers. If the reference is
mentioned as ‘source’ then it implies that the figures are borrowed from the reference.

References
Chetty, T.R.K., 2017. Proterozoic Orogens of India: A Critical Window to Gondwana. Elsevier, 426pp.
Chetty, T.R.K., Santosh, M., 2013. Proterozoic orogens in southern Peninsular India: Contiguities and complexities. J. Asian Earth Sci. 78, 39e53.
Li, Z.X., Bogdanova, S.V., Collins, A.S., Davidson, A., De Waele, B., Ernst, R.E., Fitzsimons, I.C.W., Fuck, R.A., Gladkochub, D.P., Jacobs, J.,
Karlstrom, K.E., Lu, S., Natapov, L.M., Pease, V., Pisarevsky, S.A., Thrane, K., Vernikovsky, V., 2008. Assembly, configuration, and break-up
history of Rodinia: a synthesis. Precambrian Research 160, 179e210.
Radhakrishna, B.P., Naqvi, S.M., 1986. Precambrian continentalcrust of India and its evolution. J. Geol. 94, 145e166.
Ramakrishnan, M., Vaidyanadhan, R., 2008. Geology of India, 1. Geological Society of India, 556pp.
Rogers, J.J.W., Santosh, M., 2004. Continents and Supercontinents. Oxford University Press, New York, 289pp.
Santosh, M., 2012. India’s Paleoproterozoic legacy. Geol. Soc. Lond. 365, 263e288. https://doi.org/10.1144/SP365.14. Special Publications.
Sarkar, S.C., Gupta, A., 2012. Crustal Evolution and Metallogeny of India. Cambridge.
8 2. Proterozoic orogens of Indian shield

C H A P T E R

Chapter 2.2
Southern Granulite Terrane

2.2.1 Introduction

The Southern Granulite Terrane (SGT), an important part of the Proterozoic orogens of India, occurs at the south-
ern tip of the Indian shield as well as at the intersection of two global orogenies of East African orogeny and the
Kuunga orogeny (Chetty, 2017). The extensions of the SGT to the northwest into Madagascar, East Africa, and further
north to Arabian shield in the form of East African orogen can probably be correlated with Himalayan scale orogen
(Collins et al., 2014). The SGT also extends to southeast and northeast through Sri Lanka and Antarctica and
witnessed 570e500 Ma old Kuunga orogeny (Meert and Lieberman, 2008). The SGT is one of the largest exposed
Precambrian deep continental crust consisting of multiply deformed Archaean and Neoproterozoic high-grade
metamorphic and magmatic rocks (Fig. 2.2). The major rock types are high-grade granulite facies rocks that include
essentially Neoarchaean charnockites and their variably retrograded assemblages, pyroxene granulites, metasedi-
mentary assemblages, which were subsequently intruded by Cryogenic anorthositic rocks, alkaline plutons, granit-
oids, and mafic-ultramafic rocks including ophiolites. The metasedimentary assemblages include Banded Iron
Formations (BIF), calc-silicates, and metapelites. Intense shearing and migmatization gave rise to a variety of
amphibole-biotite bearing migmatitic gneisses. In order to have a comprehensive understanding of the SGT, the
following are some of the recent regional reviews for further reading (Drury et al., 1984; Gopalakrishnan, 1996;
Chetty, 1996, 2017; Braun and Kreigsman, 2003; Ghosh et al., 2004; Chetty et al., 2006, 2016; Ramakrishnan
and Vaidyanadhan, 2008; Santosh et al., 2009; Collins et al., 2014; Kroner et al., 2015; Plavsa et al., 2015; Vijayakumar
et al., 2017).
The SGT can be divided into five distinct crustal/tectonic units based on lithological assemblages, structural
styles, geochronological characteristics, and geophysical signatures. From north to south, they include: (i) Northern
Granulite Block (NGB), (ii) Cauvery Suture/Shear Zone (CSZ), (iii) Madurai Granulite Block (MGB), (iv) Achankovil
Suture/Shear Zone (AKSZ), and (v) Trivandrum Granulite Block (TGB) (see Fig. 2.2). The details of geological,
geochronological, and geophysical characteristics of each tectonic unit are well described recently (Chetty, 2017).
Based on geochemical and isotopic systematics, a possible petrogenetic model would be asthenospheric upwell-
ing in an extensional setting, melting of enriched lithosphere and intersection of magmas with lower crustal domains
with subduction-related components of various ages (Santosh et al., 2014). All the above studies confirm a
Neoarchaean-Early Paleoproterozoic subduction system at the southern margin of the Dharwar craton, the remnants
of which were incorporated within a chaotic mélange of the Neoproterozoic suture of CSZ (Chetty et al., 2016). Euhe-
dral zircons with magmatic cores from the Banded Iron Formations of the CSZ yielded 206Pb/238U age of 760
16Ma
probably marking the turning point from passive margin to active margin in the Wilson Cycle and the construction
of an arc-trench system with a southward subduction polarity (Sato et al., 2011). The timing of the HP-UHT
metamorphism in the CSZ and the MGB is constrained to be during 550e500 Ma (Plavsa et al., 2015). According
to Ghosh et al. (2004), the SGT, in general, has experienced at least seven thermotectonic events at 2.5 Ga, 2.0 Ga,
1.6 Ga, 1.0 Ga, 800 Ma, 600 Ma, and 550 Ma.
There has been growing evidence in recent years that the SGT has been evolved through subduction-accretion and
collisional processes. Based on the synthesis of available structural, petrological, geochemical, geochronological, and
geophysical datasets, the following composite schematic tectonic model proposed by Santosh et al. (2009) seems to
be very appropriate in explaining the tectonic evolutionary history of the SGT. The model envisages an early rifting
stage with the development of Mozambique Ocean, followed by the southward subduction of the oceanic plate. The
tectonic history of the SGT reveals a progressive sequence from Pacific-type to collision-type orogeny, which finally
gave rise to a Himalayan-type Cambrian Orogeny with characteristic magmatic, metasomatic, and metamorphic
factors operating in subduction and collision setting.
 2.2.2 Northern Granulite Block 9

FIGURE 2.2 Geological map of Southern Granulite Terrane (SGT) showing major rock types and tectonic features along with the digital
elevation model of the southern granulite terrane: AKSZ, Achankovil Shear Zone; BSZ, Bhavani Shear Zone; CG, Closepet Granite; CNSZ,
Chennimalai Noil Shear Zone; CSZ, Cauvery Shear Zone; CTSZ, Cauvery-Tiruchirapalli Shear Zone; DKSZ, Devathur-Kallimandayam Shear
Zone; DSZ, Dharapuram Shear Zone; EDC, Eastern Dharwar Craton; FL, Fermor’s Line; KMSZ, Kasargod-Mercara Shear Zone; KOSZ, Kodaikanal
Oddanchathram Shear Zone; MGB, Madurai Granulite Block; MSZ, Moyar Shear Zone; MTSZ, Mettur Shear Zone; NGB, Northern Granulite
Block; SASZ, Salem-Attur Shear Zone; SSZ, Suruli Shear Zone; TGB, Trivandrum Granulite Block; TMSZ, Theni-Madurai Shear Zones; WDC,
Western Dharwar Craton. Source: Chetty (2017).

The evolution of the SGT involves accretion processes of island arc magmatic suites, thrust stacking with duplex
structures and deformed sheath fold geometries, granitic emplacements, obduction of ophiolite complexes: a
complete range of processes like transpression associated with extrusion and exhumation, typical of modern
orogenic belts (Chetty, 2017). The following field photographs representing different lithologies and structural styles
are compiled from various tectonic blocks of SGT such as NGB, CSZ, MGB, AKSZ and TGB (Figs. 2.3e2.144).

2.2.2 Northern Granulite Block

The Northern Granulite Block (NGB), also described as “Salem Block,” occurs to the north of Moyar-Bhavani
Shear Zone (MBSZ) and Salem-Attur Shear Zone (SASZ), together defining the northern boundary of the Cauvery
Suture Zone (CSZ). Orthogneisses and charnockite massifs, together with minor mafic granulites and high-grade
metasedimentary rocks, dominate the NGB (Chetty et al., 2003). Several NNE-SSW trending parallel shear zones
occur in the NGB which deflect and merge with the northern boundary of the CSZ suggesting dextral kinematics.
Another random document with
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 Although busy during the winter in Parliament, Lincoln worked
very hard at his business. He knew that no one can succeed in
anything without hard work, and he saw that to become a really good
lawyer would help him in politics, and make him a more useful citizen
of the State. Moreover, he understood, more clearly than most men
have done, that every deed in life is connected to every other; no
man can escape the consequences of what he is and does. Every
act and every speech is important.
Lincoln was four times elected to the Illinois Parliament—that is,
he sat in it for eight years. For four years—between 1845-49—he
was member for Illinois in Congress. In Congress he spoke and
voted against the war that was being waged against Mexico. The
aim of the war was the conquest of Texas and California. The South
urged this because they wanted the number of slave-owning States
to be equal to the number of free States. They were always afraid
that new States would be created out of the undeveloped territory in
the North-West; and, if this were to happen, the slave States would
be in a minority in Congress. If Texas were added as a slave State,
the slave States would have a majority of one: there would be
fourteen free and fifteen slave States. The Northern members, for
the most part, did not see the point; they did not unite against the
Southern demands; and consequently the South succeeded. In the
war Mexico was defeated, and Texas was added to the Union.
At the end of his last year of membership, 1849, Lincoln applied
for a post in the Government office. Why he did so it is difficult to
understand, for it would have put an end to his political career, as
officials may not sit in the House. Fortunately his request was
refused.
He returned to his home in Springfield, where he lived in a big,
plain house, painted a dirty yellow, with a big piece of untidy garden
behind, and a small field at the side. He had married seven years
before, and had now three sons. He was devoted to these boys, and
used to play all sorts of games with them, as they grew bigger.
 For the next five years he devoted himself mainly to his work as a
lawyer. He was now forty years of age. In Springfield and
everywhere in Illinois he was admired, respected, and loved. But the
high opinion of other people never made him easily satisfied with
himself. To the end of his life he never stopped working and learning.
He now resolved to become a really good lawyer. He knew that in
law he could learn the art of persuading people, and of expressing
clearly what he wanted to say. To help in this he took up the study of
mathematics with extraordinary energy. Examining his own
speeches, he seemed to find in them some confusion of thought. To
make his own ideas clear, and to be sure that he expressed them
clearly and truly, and never conveyed to others an impression that
was not true, he bought a text-book of Euclid. The first six books of
this he learnt by heart. He said “I wanted to know what was the
meaning of the word ‘demonstrate.’ Euclid taught me what
demonstration was.”
After a year or two Lincoln was regarded as the equal of any
lawyer in Springfield. He had one weakness, however. If he did not
believe in the justice of his case, or if he thought the man for whom
he had to speak was not quite honest, he did not defend well. His
friend Judge Davis says, “A wrong cause was poorly defended by
him.”
A story is told of a man who came to Lincoln’s office and asked
his help in getting six hundred dollars from a poor widow. Lincoln
listened to the man and then said, “Yes, there is no reasonable doubt
but I can gain your case for you. I can set a whole neighbourhood at
loggerheads. I can distress a widowed mother and her six fatherless
children, and thereby get for you six hundred dollars which rightfully
belong, as it appears to me, as much to them as it does to you. I
advise you to try your hand at making six hundred dollars some
other way.”
Every one in Springfield valued “Honest Abe’s” opinion. All sorts
of people brought their troubles to him. His sympathy and his
tenderness of heart made them trust him. He was one of the people;
he never felt himself above them. To the end of his life he did not
grow proud, and he was never ashamed of his early poverty. When
he was President he told some of his friends of a dream he had had,
which might very well have been true. He dreamt that at some big
public meeting he was walking through the hall up to the platform,
from which he was going to speak. As he passed, a lady sitting at
the end of one of the rows of seats said to another sitting next her,
so loudly that he could hear: “Is that Mr. Lincoln? Why, he looks a
very common sort of person!” “I thought to myself in my dream,” said
Lincoln, “that it was true, but that God Almighty seemed to prefer
common people, for He had made so many of them.”
Nothing in Lincoln is more truly great than his power of seeing the
value of common things and common people. He knew that the
things which appeal to men as men, which are common to humanity,
are the most valuable of all. He counted on this when he abolished
slavery. Freedom is a right common to all men; and there is
somewhere in every one an instinct which knows that it is wrong to
make other people do things which are too disagreeable to do
yourself.
During these years at Springfield, Abraham read a great deal.
Shakespeare and Burns were his favourite poets: he knew
Shakespeare better than any other book except the Bible. He read
and thought unceasingly about politics, and he talked about them
with his friends. The history of America he studied until he knew
everything there was to know. Above all, he thought about slavery.
Events were taking place which made it plain that the question of
slavery could not be left where it was. It was no longer possible to
act as if the difference between North and South did not exist.
As years went on the difference became more and more plain.
The North, which had been poor and barren, only half cultivated by
ignorant and uneducated settlers, was growing richer than the
prosperous lazy South. Workmen came to the North from all parts of
the world: poor men with good brains and strong arms, ready and
able to work intelligently, to improve the land, to make wheat grow
where stones and bushes had been. None of these men went to the
South, for there work was done by slaves so cheaply that no paid
worker had a chance. But the difference between the intelligent
labour of free men working for themselves, and the mechanical
labour of slaves working for their masters, soon began to tell.
In the North schools sprang up everywhere: the people became
better and better educated. Men who had grown up in the
backwoods, like Abraham Lincoln, taught themselves, and rose to be
lawyers and statesmen by their own efforts; others who had had the
chance of being taught, did the same. It was possible for any man of
brains to rise from the bottom to the top. Inventions were made
which enabled all kinds of new work to be done and new wealth
produced. The North was rich in material: richer in the men she had
to work it, who were helped and encouraged by the freedom which
threw every career open to real talent.
In the South all power was in the hands of the aristocratic
families, who had had it always. The work was done by slaves:
owners did not want to educate their slaves, for then they were afraid
that they would want their freedom. The coal mines of the South
were not discovered; they could not have been worked by slaves.
The South began to be very jealous of the North, and the North
began to disapprove of the South. More and more people began to
see that slavery was wrong: people were not yet ready to say that
slavery ought to cease to be, but they were ready to say that it must
not be extended.
At the time of the Mexican war the South had shown that it
wanted to extend slavery. This frightened the North. In 1850 an
agreement was made, known as the Missouri Compromise. By this a
line (36°30’), called Mason and Dixon’s line, was drawn across the
map of America. North of this line, slavery was never to exist.
Speakers on both sides declared that the Missouri Compromise was
as fixed as the Constitution itself. Stephen Arnold Douglas was the
loudest in expressing this opinion. “It is eternal and fundamental,” he
declared.
 Douglas was a trader of the great party known as the Democrats.
He held that the people of every State had a right to decide
questions affecting that State, and not the Central American
Government.
Douglas had one great aim, which was to him far more important
than any question of political right or wrong: he wanted to be made
President. To secure this, he saw that he must get the support of the
South. To win the support of the South, he took a most dangerous
and important step: one which was the immediate cause of the war
which broke out six years later. He declared that the people of any
state or territory could decide whether or not they would have slavery
in their State: they could establish it or prohibit it.
He went further than this. Two new territories had been organised
in the north-west—Nebraska and Kansas. They claimed to be
admitted to the Union as States. Both States were, of course, north
of Mason and Dixon’s line, and therefore by the Missouri
Compromise they must be free States. But the South was bent on
creating new slave States as fast as the North could create free
States: they wanted to make Kansas a slave State. Stephen Douglas
therefore introduced, in 1854, the famous Kansas-Nebraska Bill. It
declared that Kansas might be slave-holding or free, as the people of
the territory should decide.
The result of this Bill was for the first time to unite together a
strong party in the North in opposition to the Democrats, who were
allied to the South. This new party called itself Republican. Lincoln
was a spokesman of their views. They declared, firstly, that
Congress, which is the Parliament representing all the States which
together formed the Union, has the right to decide whether slavery
shall be lawful in any particular State or not, and not the people of
that State alone. Secondly, they declared that, in the case of Kansas,
Congress had already, four years ago, decided that Kansas could
not have slavery, because it lay beyond the line, north of which
slavery could not exist. Resolutions were passed in many of the
Northern State Parliaments against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill. The
Parliament of Illinois sent one.
Now it was quite clear to keen-sighted politicians that, while
Douglas and his party pretended that they wanted to give the people
of Kansas the choice between owning slaves and not doing so, what
they really wanted was to force Kansas to have slaves. Those who
supported the Missouri Congress declared that it was illegal to give
Kansas the choice however she used it.
Events soon proved that Kansas was not to have any choice at
all. Kansas had few inhabitants; but the opinion of the people of the
State was against slavery. Next door to Kansas, however, on the
east, was the slave-holding State of Missouri. From Missouri bands
of armed men came into Kansas in order to vote for slavery at the
election and to prevent the real voters from using their votes against
it. Free fighting went on in the State. An election was held at which
armed men kept away those who would have voted for freedom, and
a pro-slavery man was chosen. But few of the people of Kansas had
been allowed to vote. The free party met at another place
afterwards, and a genuine popular vote elected an anti-slavery man.
Civil war went on in Kansas for two years.
Now the importance of these events is this. Up till now most
people in the North had believed that slavery ought to be left alone,
because it would gradually die out. The Kansas-Nebraska Bill and
the Kansas election made it perfectly clear that the South was not
going to let slavery die out; on the contrary, they wanted to spread it
to strengthen themselves against the North.
Douglas was member for Chicago, in the north of Illinois. He
came down to Illinois to win the State to his views, and made a
series of speeches there. This at once called Lincoln to the fore. He
saw more clearly, perhaps, than any man in America what the
Kansas Bill meant. It meant that either North and South must
separate, as the Abolitionists—that is, the party which held that
slavery ought to cease to be—and some people in the South hoped;
or that the North would have to force the South to abandon the
attempt to spread slavery. He made a series of great speeches in
Illinois, in which he made it quite clear that Douglas and his
followers, and the men of the South, might say that they wanted to
leave States free to have slavery or not as they chose, but what they
really desired was to force them to have slavery whether they chose
or not. “This declared indifference, but, as I must think, covert real
zeal for the spread of slavery, I cannot but hate: I hate it because of
the monstrous injustice of slavery itself ... I say that no man is good
enough to govern another man without that man’s consent. Slavery
is founded upon the selfishness of man’s nature; opposition to it, on
his love of justice.”
 CHAPTER V
DEFEAT OF THE LITTLE GIANT

Lincoln had worked very hard in Illinois. All this year he was
making speeches; educating the people of the State; helping them
to understand the big questions before them; making things clear in
his own mind by putting them into the clear and simple words that
would carry their importance to the minds of others.
A great meeting was held, summoned by the editors of the
newspapers that were against the Kansas Bill; they invited prominent
men from different parts of the country to come and address them.
Lincoln was among those who went, and his speech was by far
the most important of all that were delivered there. He had not,
indeed, intended to say anything; but he was roused by the
weakness of those who did address the meeting. Springing to his
feet, he poured out what was in his mind, and could not be kept
back, in such burning and eloquent words that the reporters dropped
their pencils and listened spellbound. The whole audience was
carried away by excitement: it was one of the greatest speeches that
Lincoln ever made, we are told by all who heard it, but there is no
record of it. Lincoln himself spoke in a transport of enthusiasm: the
words came, how he hardly knew; he could not afterwards write
down what he had said. The reporters were so deeply moved that
they only took down a sentence here and there. The speech was a
warning to the growing Republican party: sentences were quoted
and remembered.
The North was indeed beginning to awaken to the need of uniting
against slavery; but it took four years before it fully awoke. And as
long as the North was divided the South was irresistible. When the
presidential election came, in 1856, the votes of the South carried
the day.

Springing to his feet, he poured out what was in his mind

Had a strong man, with definite and wise views, been elected,
had Lincoln been elected, the war between North and South that
came four years later might have been prevented. But Lincoln’s fame
had not yet travelled far beyond Illinois; he was not even nominated.
Mr. Buchanan, the new President, called himself a Democrat: he
believed in Douglas’s policy of State rights; but he was a tool in the
hands of the South. Weak and undecided, his stupid administration
made war inevitable. He did not satisfy the South; and he showed
the North how great a danger they were in, so that when the next
election came they were ready to act.
The Republican party gradually grew strong. More and more
Northern voters came to see that its policy, no extension of slavery,
was the only right one. The pro-slavery party in Kansas continued to
behave in the most violent way; civil war continued.
In Congress, Charles Sumner made a number of eloquent
speeches on what he called the “crime against Kansas”; and in them
he openly attacked slavery. One day, as he was sitting in the
members’ reading-room, a Southern member called Brookes came
in. Although there were several other people in the room, Brookes
fell upon Sumner, and with his heavy walking-stick, which was
weighted with lead at the end, beat him within an inch of his life. For
the next four years Sumner was an invalid, and unable to take part in
politics. This incident caused great indignation in the North; their
indignation was heightened by the attempt to force slavery on
Kansas, till it grew in very many cases to a real hatred of slavery
itself.
But there was still a large party in the North which did not
disapprove of slavery. This party was led, of course, by Douglas.
Douglas had been successful up till now, because he represented
the ordinary man of the North, whose conscience was not yet awake,
who did not see that slavery, in itself, was wrong. Lincoln had never
really succeeded until now, because his conscience had always
been awake, and the ordinary Northerner was not ready to follow
him.
The whole question of slavery was brought under discussion in
the next year—1857—by the famous case of a negro called Dred
Scott. Dred Scott claimed his freedom before the United States
courts, because his master, a doctor, had taken him to live in the free
State of Illinois. The chief-justice—Taney—was an extreme pro-
slavery man. He was not satisfied with deciding the case against
Dred Scott; he went much further, and declared that since a negro is
property and not a person in the legal sense, he could not bring a
case before an American court. A negro, he declared, has no rights
which a white man is bound to respect.
The South, of course, was delighted with this verdict. What it
meant was this. When the Declaration of Independence declared
that all men are equal, and possess right to life and liberty, what was
intended was not all men, but all white men, since black men are not
legally men. And yet free negroes had fought in the War of
Independence, and signed the Declaration.
To the North such reasoning was hateful. People like Mr. Seward
of New York began to say, If slavery is part of the Constitution of
America, there is a law that is higher than the Constitution—the
moral law. Abraham Lincoln in a noble speech declared: “In some
respects the black woman is certainly not my equal, but in her
natural right to eat the bread she earns with her own hands she is
my equal, and the equal of all others.” The point was, could a negro
have rights? The Dred Scott decision declared “no,” the South
shouted “no.” The Republican party said “yes.” In this same year a
free election at last took place in Kansas; and a huge majority
decided that the State should not hold slaves.
All these events showed that troublous times were coming.
In the next year a set of speeches was made which showed
people how things stood. In 1858 Lincoln stood against Douglas as
candidate for the State of Illinois. Douglas was one of the most
famous and popular men then living in America. He was far the
cleverest man and the best speaker of his party; he stood for all
those who, though they might not want to have slaves themselves,
thought that slavery was not wrong; that black men were intended by
a kind Providence to be useful to white men. If any State wanted
slaves, let them have them—why not?
 As Lincoln said, “Douglas is so put up by nature, that a lash upon
his back would hurt him, but a lash upon anybody else’s back does
not hurt him.”
Those who did not know Lincoln thought it absurd that he, an
unknown man from the country, should dare to stand against
Douglas, the “Little Giant.” But Lincoln was not afraid; he did not
think of himself; he wanted people to hear what he had to say. He
arranged with Douglas that they should hold a number of meetings
together in Illinois. They arranged it in this way. At half the meetings
Douglas spoke first for an hour; then Lincoln replied, speaking for an
hour and a half, and Douglas answered him in half-an-hour’s
speech. At the other half, Lincoln began and Douglas followed,
Lincoln ending.
You can imagine one of these meetings. A large hall, roughly built
for the most part, the seats often made of planks laid on top of
unhewn logs, packed with two or three thousand people, intensely
eager to hear and learn. Some of them were already followers of
Douglas, the most popular man in America: all of them had heard of
the “Little Giant,” the cleverest speaker in the States. Immense
cheering as Douglas rose to his feet. A small man with a big head: a
handsome face with quickly moving, keen, dark eyes; faultlessly
dressed. A well-bred gentleman, secure of himself—a lawyer with all
his art at the end of his tongue: able to persuade any one that black
was white, to wrap up anything in so many charming words that only
the cleverest could see when one statement did not follow from
another, when an argument was not a proof: quick to see and stab
the weak points in any one else. A voice rich and mellow, various
and well trained, pleased all who heard it.
For an hour he spoke, amid complete silence, only broken by
outbursts of applause. When he ended, there were deafening cheers
—then a pause, and “Lincoln,” “Lincoln,” from all parts of the hall.
Lincoln seemed an awkward countryman beside the senator. His
tall body seemed too big for the platform, and his ill-fitting black
clothes hung loosely upon it, as if they had been made for some one
else. When he began to speak his voice was harsh and shrill. His
huge hands, the hands of a labourer, with the big knuckles and red,
ugly wrists, got knotted together as if nothing could unfix them. Soon,
however, he became absorbed in what he was saying; he ceased to
be nervous; everything seemed to change. As he forgot himself, his
body seemed to expand and straighten itself, so that every one else
looked small and mean beside him; his voice became deep and
clear, reaching to the farthest end of the hall, and his face, that had
appeared ugly, was lit up with an inner light that made it more than
beautiful. The deep grey eyes seemed to each man in the hall to be
looking at him and piercing his soul. The language was so simple
that the most ignorant man in the hall could follow it and understand.
Everything was clear. There was no hiding under fine words; nothing
was left out, nothing unnecessary was said. No one could doubt
what Lincoln meant; and he was not going to let any one doubt what
Douglas meant.
The greatest debate of all was that at the meeting at Freeport. At
Freeport Lincoln asked Douglas a question, against the advice of all
his friends. He asked whether, if a State wanted not to have slavery,
it could so decide? Lincoln knew that if Douglas said “No. A state
which had slavery must keep it,” the people of Illinois would not vote
for him, and he would lose this election. If he said “yes” he would be
elected, and not Lincoln. Lincoln knew this; he knew that if Douglas
said “yes,” he was safe, and he would say “yes.”
“Where do you come in, then?” his friends asked him. “Why do
you ask him this? If you do, Douglas is sure to get in. You are ruining
your own chances.”
“I do not come in anywhere,” said Lincoln; “but that does not
matter. What does matter is this. If Douglas says ‘yes,’ as he will, he
will get into the Senate now; but two years after this he will stand for
election as President. If he says ‘yes’ now, the South will vote
against him then, and he will not be elected. He must not be elected.
No one who believes in spreading slavery must be elected. It does
not matter about me.”
 Lincoln was quite right. He saw further than any one else.
Douglas said “yes,” and he was elected for Illinois. But the
Democratic party in the South, whose support had made him strong,
began to distrust him. “Douglas,” said Lincoln, “is followed by a
crowd of blind men; I want to make some of these blind men see.”
Lincoln was defeated, but he did not think of himself. His
speeches against Douglas were printed and read all over America.
He was invited to speak in Ohio; and in the next year, in the
beginning of 1860, a society in New York asked him to come and
give them an address on politics.
A huge audience, in which were all the best known and most
brilliant men of the day, gathered to hear him; an audience very
much unlike any that he had addressed before. They were all
anxious to see what he was like—this backwoodsman and farm-
labourer, who had met the great Stephen Arnold Douglas and proved
a match for him in argument; whose speeches had been printed to
express the views of a whole party.
His appearance was strange and impressive. When he stood up
his height was astonishing, because his legs were very long, and
when sitting he did not appear tall. His face, thin and marked by
deep lines, was very sad. A mass of black hair was pushed back
from his high forehead: his eyebrows were black too, and stood out
in his pale face: his dark-grey eyes were set deep in his head. The
mouth could smile, but now it was stern and sad. The face was
unlike other faces: when he spoke it was beautiful, for he felt
everything he said. Abraham Lincoln was a common man: he had
had no advantages of birth, of training: he had known extreme
poverty: for years he had struggled without success in mean and
small occupations: he had no knowledge but what he had taught
himself. But no one who heard him speak could think him common.
Speaking now to an audience in which were the cleverest people
in New York, people who had read everything and seen everything
and been everywhere, who had had every opportunity that he had
not, he impressed them as much as he had impressed the people of
Illinois. He was one of the greatest orators that ever lived. His words
went straight to the people to whom they were spoken. What he said
was as straightforward and as certain as a sum in arithmetic, as
easy to follow: and behind it all you felt that the man believed every
word of what he said, and spoke because he must. The truth was in
him.
Lincoln’s address in New York convinced the Republican party
that here was the man they wanted.
In 1860 there came the presidential election, always the most
important event in American politics; this year more important than
ever before.
For the last half-century almost the Democratic party had been in
power. They had been strong because they were united: they united
the people of the South and those people in the North who thought
that it was waste of time to discuss slavery, since slavery was part of
the Constitution. Their policy on slavery had been to leave it alone.
As long as they did this there was nothing to create another party in
the North strong enough to oppose them. But when Douglas, in
order to make his own position strong in the South, made slavery
practical politics by bringing in a bill to allow Kansas to have slaves;
and when the judges in the Dred Scott case roused sympathy with
the negroes by declaring that slaves were not men but property, then
the question united the divided North into a strong Republican party
in which all were agreed. There was to be no slavery north of Mason
and Dixon’s line. The attempt to force slavery on Kansas split the
Democratic party. One section was led by Douglas, who had gone as
far as he could: he was not ready to force Kansas to have slaves, if
she did not want them, because people from Missouri wanted her to
have them. He saw that to force slavery on the North in this way
would mean division and war, and therefore he refused to go any
further. By this refusal Douglas lost his supporters in the South. They
joined the section led by Jefferson Davis—the Southern candidate
for the presidentship.
 Jefferson Davis was the true leader of the South. Douglas as well
as Lincoln had begun life as the child of a poor pioneer: each had
risen by his own abilities and by constant hard work. Jefferson Davis
was a true aristocrat. He was the son of rich and educated parents.
All his life he had been waited on by slaves and surrounded by every
comfort. While Lincoln was ploughing or hewing wood, while
Douglas was working hard at the bar, Davis went first to the
university at Kentucky and then to the military academy at West
Point, from which he passed to the army. He served as a lieutenant
at the time of the Black Hawk war, and it is very likely that he came
across Lincoln, who was serving as a volunteer. After serving seven
years in the army he married and settled down as a cotton planter in
Mississippi. His estates were worked by slaves, of course. To him
the negro was an animal, quite different from the white man, meant
by nature to be under him and to serve him. Black men, unlike white,
did not exist for themselves, with the equal right to live possessed by
a man, an insect, or a tree, but had been created solely to be useful
to white men.
No two men could be more unlike than Lincoln and Davis. The
groundwork of Davis’ nature was an intense pride. A friend described
him as “as ambitious as Lucifer and as cold as a lizard.” He was cold
in manner and seldom laughed. Lincoln was entirely humble-minded,
full of passionate longing to help the weak. To Lincoln what was
common was therefore precious. Jefferson Davis said the minority,
and not the majority, ought to rule. And their looks were as unlike as
their minds. Jefferson Davis, with his beautiful proud face, as cold
and as handsome as a statue, expressed the utter contempt and
scorn of the aristocrat for everything and every one beneath him.
When the Democratic party met at Charleston to nominate their
candidate for the presidentship, they were hopelessly divided.
Douglas’s Freeport speech had set the South against him. For the
last four years there had been a growing section which said that, as
long as the South was fastened to the North, slavery was not safe.
Now seven states, led by South Carolina, left the Democratic
meeting and nominated Davis as their candidate.
 The Republican party met at Chicago. There was only one man
strong, reasonable, and sane enough for every section of the party
to accept. This was Abraham Lincoln. At the time of his nomination,
Lincoln was playing barnball with his children in the field behind his
house. When told that he had been chosen, he said, “You must be
able to find some better man than me.” But he was ready to take up
the difficult task. He knew that he could serve his country, and he
was not afraid. He had a clear ideal before him—to preserve
America as one united whole. He saw that war might come. As he
had said, five years before, America could not endure for ever half
slave and half free—it must be all free: and the South would not let
slavery go without war.
The election came in November. The result was that Lincoln was
elected President. For four years the destiny of his country was in his
hands.
 CHAPTER VI
THE NEW PRESIDENT AND SECESSION

Lincoln’s election was a thunderbolt to the South. It meant that the

great question of slavery would have to be decided one way or
another. Lincoln was a man who had opinions, and opinions in which
he believed, for which he would fight; he would not let things drift as
Buchanan did. Buchanan’s policy would have ended in allowing the
South to separate itself from the North; the Southern politicians knew
this, and they wanted Buchanan’s policy carried on, so as to make
that separation possible.
Few men in the North, although many in the South, understood
as clearly as Lincoln did the position of affairs. He saw that the time
had come when active measures must be taken, a strong and
decided policy maintained, if the Union was to be held together. He
was a true patriot. He believed in the Union; he thought it a great and
glorious thing. That North and South should be separated was to him
like separating husband and wife; their strength and happiness lay in
each other; they had grown together for eighty-four years; if they
parted now, each must lose something it could never regain. He
loved his country. He loved the South as well as the North. He
believed that if the South tried to separate, the North would be
justified, in the true interests of the American nation, in compelling
her to remain.
The great problem was now, as he saw: Could America hold
together as one nation, half slave and half free? Could the Union be
a real Union while there was this deep division, a division which it
was now clear could not be got rid of, as the Northerners had hoped
for so long, by the slow passage of time? Time alone would not
induce the South to give up slavery. Slavery was a barbarous
institution, degrading to the slaves and to those who owned them;
the North could not accept it. If North and South were to hold
together slavery must go. The great thing was to keep North and
South united. This and this only was Lincoln’s great purpose. He
hated slavery, but he would not have compelled the South to give up
slavery if he had believed that the Union could have been
maintained without that. North and South must hold together
whatever it cost; only so could each part of the nation, and the nation
as a whole, attain the best that was possible for it.
Lincoln’s great difficulty was this. The South saw that the nation
could not hold together for ever half slave and half free. Two years
before Lincoln’s election, one of the members for South Carolina had
written what was afterwards known as the Scarlet Letter. In it he
declared, “We can make a revolution in the cotton States,” and there
were many, even at that time, who shared his views. The South saw
that, if they were to remain united to the North, slavery must go, and
they were ready to separate from the North in order to keep slavery.
But, while the South understood the position, the North did not. It
did not understand it fully at the time of Lincoln’s election, or, indeed,
until the end of the second year of the war. And because they did not
understand they could not appreciate Lincoln’s policy, or support it
as they ought to have done. All the time they criticised, blamed, and
abused him, making his hard task harder.
Not until after his death did all the Northerners see how great and
how right he had been. Not until his death did Americans realise that
had it not been for Lincoln the United States might have ceased to
be.
Lincoln’s speeches had been plain and outspoken enough; the
South was terrified by his election. They resolved on separation.
Lincoln, though elected in November 1860, did not actually
become President until February 1861. During these three months
he remained in the plain, yellow house at Springfield, his little office
crowded every day with visitors who came to consult him, to advise
him, or often merely to shake his hand. “Honest old Abe,” as they
called him, had a joke or a kindly word for all of them. He was
presented with many quaint gifts. An old woman came one day, and,
after shaking hands with Lincoln, produced from under her huge
cloak a vast pair of knitted stockings for the President to wear in
winter. Lincoln thanked her graciously and led her out; then
returning, he lifted up the stockings, and showing the enormous feet,
said to his secretary, “The old lady seems to have guessed the
latitude and longitude about right!”
Lincoln spent the time reading and writing, drawing up
memoranda, choosing his Cabinet, learning the difficult ins and outs
of the new work before him. All these months he was thinking hard.
His purpose was already clear: but the presidentship, always a
heavy burden, had never been so heavy as it was to be for Lincoln.
Things grew more serious every day. The weakness of
Buchanan, who had no plan or purpose, allowed the South to do as
it chose. The only chance of avoiding war lay in firm action now; but
it was not in Buchanan’s nature to be firm. He had been made
President by the votes of the South because he was not firm,
because he would allow them to do as they chose. They dreaded
Lincoln because he was firm, and therefore acted while there was
yet time.
On December 20, 1860, the chief men of South Carolina met
together and declared the Union to be dissolved. Posters appeared
all over the State: the South was in a state of feverish excitement.
Within the month the States of Missouri, Alabama, Florida, Georgia,
Louisiana, and Texas—the chief cotton-growing, slave-owning States
—also declared themselves to be separated from the Union; and
these six States joined with South Carolina to form what they called
the Southern Confederation, independent of the North. They chose
for their first President Jefferson Davis.
Buchanan did not know what to do. The question was: Has a
State any right to leave the Union? America, of course, is a
Federation: at the time of the Declaration of Independence the
thirteen States that then existed joined themselves together for ever,