The Coastline Fit of a F R I C a a N D South America

MESERVEY, R., 1971. The coastline fit of Africa and South America. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatol., Palaeoecol., 9: 233-243. It has become axiomatic that the pre-drift reconstruction of Africa and South America is to be made by fitting together the continental shelves. Although this procedure is very plausible, actually the detailed fit of the coastlines is better than that of the shelves and the overall fit is remarkable, provided the angle of the Gulf of Guinea is decreased by 16 °. A past increase in this angle is implied by the rift valleys in the vicinity of the Niger and Benue rivers. A comparison with the Red Sea shows a striking similarity in the nature of the fracture and gives some clues as to the significance of the coastline fit in both of these cases. This method of fitting (which may correspond to the early stages of the pre-separation rifting) is consistent with, but does not prove, the hypothesis of earth expansion.