Year: 2002
Venue: Windhoek, Namibia
Travel report by Bert De Waele
I have been active in the IGCP 418 and 440 Programmes since their inception in 1998 and 1999, respectively. My work on the Irumide belt has been presented on all meetings held on IGCP 418, starting in 1998 in Gaborone, Botswana, followed by the second fieldmeeting of the Programme in July 1999, held in Lusaka and organised among others, by myself (at that time working in Zambia). As I had planned fieldwork in the Southern African subregion at the time of the 11th Quaddriennial IAGOD Symposium, and the Geocongress 2002 (biennial meeting of the Geological Society of South Africa), and as the joint IGCP 418/440 technical meeting were scheduled afterwards at the same venue, in Windhoek, Namibia, it was only logical to attend, and present further work on the Irumide belt on those meetings. The receipt of a JH Lord Travel Grant assisted my attendance from 22 July to 4 August 2002.
A total of 93 oral presentation and 55 posters were presented at the main meeting. I presented two papers during the main conference entitled: Geochronological constraints on granitoid magmatism and deformation in the SW Irumide Belt, Zambia (De Waele, B., Wingate, M.T.D. and Mapani, B.S.E.), and Petrochemistry of magmatic rocks in the Irumide belt: indications on the evolution and tectonic setting of the belt (De Waele, B. and Tembo F.). One additional paper was presented by Dr F. Tembo and co-authored by myself: Terrane mapping of the Irumide orogen in eastern Zambia: reconnaissance geochemistry of the meta-igneous rocks. (Tembo, F., Rivers, T., De Waele, B., Mapani, B. and Katongo, C.). All above papers are published in an extended abstract volume distributed at the meeting in CD-ROM format.
The main meeting was followed by the technical sessions of IGCP418/440 during which 13 further papers were presented. As the meeting had a slightly different audience then the preceding main conference, I was given a chance to present my paper on Irumide geochronology again.
In the technical meeting for IGCP 418 I was assigned the synthesis of the Irumide belt together with Dr Mapani (University of Zimbabwe) and Dr. Tembo (University of Zambia). The results of the programme are destined to appear in a special volume in which all the syntheses on Mesoproterozoic systems of Africa will be compiled. The deadline for papers is set at the end of September 2002.