Fig. 3: Geodynamic synthesis.

Snapshots of the different geodynamic stages that led to isotopic enrichment in the African mantle domain. a During the existence of the supercontinent Rodinia, the region that would become the African domain (the Mirovoi Super Ocean surrounding Rodinia) received little recycled material. After Rodinia break-up, the reversal of subduction polarity led to the formation of Gondwana (b) and Pangea (c), preferentially recycling crustal material into the African domain by means of subduction toward the future African domain, collisional orogenies and, later, circum-supercontinent subduction^12,13,16. After the break-up of Pangea (d), the new-born oceans (the Atlantic and Indian oceans) maintained the recycled signature obtained during the previous stages as well as during the earlier stage of the break-up, but gradually became less enriched after 100–90 Ma when the expanding subduction girdle gradually parting the LLSVPs and plume generation zones⁵⁰. The red circles represent the approximate locations of ophiolites within 50 Ma of the time depicted in each panel. EAO East African Orogen, WGO West Gondwana Orogen, OAO Ouachita-Alleghanian Orogen, TAO Terra Australis Orogen, C-LIP Continental Large Igneous Province, O-LIP Oceanic Large Igneous Province. The paleogeographical reconstructions in the figure are as in ref. ¹³.