The Gondwana breakup along the Mozambique continental margin caused the formation of extensional and/or sheared margins. One of these sheared margins offshore southern Mozambique, the Limpopo Corridor (LC), is a key area for understanding the evolution of the southward movement of Eastern Gondwana with respect to Western Gondwana. However, crustal architecture and stratigraphy in this area have been inadequately studied, mainly due to the lack of deep seismic data.

In this study, we present interpretations of new multichannel seismic reflection profiles oriented west to east across the LC and Mozambique Fracture Zone (MFZ). Our results show that the basement of the LC is characterized by dipping and alternating strong and weak reflectors, revealing a thick Volcano-Sedimentary Sequence (VSS). To the west of the LC, a marginal basement high zone extends from north to south, consisting of an eroded and fractured VSS. Besides, the acoustic basement is characterized by an eastward dipping or flat VSS in the LC. Sediments overlying the top of the VSS reveal an onlap geometry against the basement high. Five major stratigraphic units (U1-U5) with well-layered sedimentary sequences are mainly constrained from the western boundary of the basement high to the eastern MFZ, and dated to Neocomian, Middle Cretaceous, Late Cretaceous, Paleogene, and Neogene times respectively.

We propose that the VSS in the acoustic basement likely formed in pre-Neocomian time. An uplift event occurred continuously from the Oxfordian-Kimmeridgian to Middle Cretaceous, resulting in a basement high that represents the western limit of the LC. Between this limit and the MFZ, the LC experienced the intracontinental rifting, wrench faulting, and discrepant subsidence associated with the southward strike-slip movement of East Gondwana along the MFZ. The earliest sediments overlying the fractured and deformed VSS consist of a wedge-shaped unit (U1) that deposited along the entire LC during the active transform stage. When the spreading centre passed the adjacent segment of the LC in the Mozambique Basin, the depocentre rapidly shifted to the basin, and the LC entered a passive transform margin stage. We propose that the LC results from three successive stages: (1) intracontinental rifting stage with substantial uplift and erosion, (2) active transform margin stage with strike-slip movement along the MFZ, and (3) passive transform margin with a different sedimentary setting.

冈比亚沿莫桑比克大陆边缘的破裂导致了伸展和/或剪切边缘的形成。莫桑比克南部近海的这些剪切边缘之一是林波波走廊（LC），是了解东部冈瓦纳相对于西部冈瓦纳的向南运动演化的一个重要领域。但是，该地区的地壳构造和地层学研究不足，主要是由于缺乏深层地震数据。

在这项研究中，我们介绍了横跨LC和莫桑比克断裂带（MFZ）从西向东定向的新的多通道地震反射剖面的解释。我们的结果表明，LC的地下室的特征是将强反射器和弱反射器相互浸入和交替，从而显示出厚厚的火山-沉积层序（VSS）。在LC的西部，边缘基底高区从北向南延伸，由侵蚀和断裂的VSS组成。此外，声学基底的特征在于LC中向东倾斜或平坦的VSS。VSS顶部上方的沉积物显示出与地下室高位相对的重叠几何形状。五个具有良好层状沉积层序的主要地层单元（U1-U5）主要受基底高西边界至MFZ东部的约束，其日期可追溯至新白垩纪，新白垩纪，

我们认为，在地下室中的VSS可能是在新西蒙时代之前形成的。从牛津-基米第纪期到白垩纪中段持续发生隆升事件，导致基底高度偏高，这代表了LC的西边界。在此极限与MFZ之间，LC经历了与东冈瓦纳沿MFZ向南的走滑运动相关的洲内裂谷，扳手断裂和下沉的沉降。覆盖在断裂和变形的VSS上的最早的沉积物由楔形单元（U1）组成，该单元在活动转换阶段沿整个LC沉积。当扩展中心经过莫桑比克盆地LC的相邻部分时，沉积中心迅速转移到盆地，LC进入了被动转换裕度阶段。