Erosion patterns and mantle sources of topographic change across the southern A frican P lateau derived from the shallow and deep records of kimberlites

Flow in the sublithospheric mantle is increasingly invoked as a mechanism to explain both modern and past surface topography, but the importance of this phenomenon and its influence at different localities are debated. Southern Africa is an elevated continental shield proposed to represent dynamically supported topography. However, this region is also characterized by a complex lithospheric architecture variably affected by Cretaceous heating, thinning, and metasomatic alteration. We used apatite (U‐Th)/He thermochronometry on 15 Cretaceous kimberlites from an ∼600 km long transect across the Kaapvaal Craton, combined with information from xenoliths in these pipes, to determine the plateau interior erosion history. The goal was to determine the relationships with lithospheric modification patterns and thereby better isolate the sublithospheric contribution to elevation. The results document a wave of erosion from west to east across the craton from ∼120 to <60 Ma, initially focused along paleorivers and then retreating as a scarp across the landscape. This spatially variable erosion event was associated with limited modification of the Archean cratonic lithospheric mantle as recorded by mantle xenoliths and xenocrysts, implying that dynamic buoyancy sources may be required to explain the elevations. In contrast, off‐craton to the southwest, a more pronounced regional erosion phase at ∼110–90 Ma was coincident with significant modification of the Proterozoic lithospheric mantle. This relationship suggests that lithospheric processes were more important contributors to erosion and topographic change off‐craton than on‐craton. Together, these results suggest that lithospheric architecture can have an important control on the surface expression of mantle dynamics.