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The Tertiary evolution of the forearc basins of Ecuador shows a close correlation between the changing convergence rate of the Farallon, and later Nazca, oceanic plates and continental South America. The correlation occurs during the subduction of a relatively young slab and, in the Late Miocene, onset of the subduction of the Carnegie aseismic ridge. The Ecuador forearc basins lie on a basement of oceanic crust known as the Pinon terrane. The accretion of this terrance occurred in the Paleocene as the leading edge of the Farallon plate, the Macuchi island arc, collided with South America. In the Middle Eocene this forearc terrane was the site of major pull‐apart basin formation and turbiditic sedimentation, coincident with a phase of very rapid convergence between chron 21 and chron 13 (48–37 Ma). This deformation was bounded by the trench and a major dextral strike‐slip fault zone and resulted in the northward translation of the forearc with respect to continental South America. During the Oligocene a phase of extension normal to the trend of the active margin occurred, coincident with a phase of relatively slow convergence (chron 13 to chron 6, 37–20 Ma). This extension was followed in the Middle Miocene by inversion of most of the forearc basins, coincident with a return to relatively fast convergence from chron 6 (20 Ma) to the present day. Subduction of the Carnegie aseismic ridge occurred during this period (circa 8 Ma to present) and may have enhanced the compressive event. Further, northward translation of the forearc silver accompanied this later deformation. The relationships outlined for the forearc may be modeled in terms of a dynamic orogenic wedge which responds directly to changes in convergence rate at the subduction zone. The convergence rate appears to be an important control on the coupling between the downgoing slab and overriding continental plate.

The Central African Plateau (CAP) covers a million square kilometers of African lithosphere absent of recent volcanism and intense seismicity. Treating the CAP erosion surface as a reference frame for measuring continental deformation reveals an active landscape of normal fault systems and crustal flexures. Free‐air gravity anomalies over the CAP reveal both a short‐wavelength (100–200 km) flexural and a longer‐wavelength (>500 km) mantle convective signature. Apatite fission track thermochronometry records the onset of regional cooling of the erosion surface below 60 °C between 38 and 22 Ma. The erosion surface was formed by the Latest Miocene and elevated to its present altitude (1,200 ± 50 m) in the Latest Miocene/Pliocene. High‐resolution Shuttle Radar Topography Mission‐ and LIDAR‐based digital elevation models of the erosion surface show active fault terraces and alluvial fan deformation associated with pre‐existing rift border faults. Flexural modeling of the footwall uplift of the Luangwa Rift border fault yields an effective elastic thickness of the CAP lithosphere of ~35 km. The rifting initiated in the Pliocene with, or soon after, elevation of the CAP. Subsequent Plio‐Pleistocene deformation of the CAP surface controls the Congo and Zambezi drainage systems and wetland locations. The CAP rifts link southwestward through the Zambezi, Kafue and Muchili Rifts to the Pleistocene aged Okavango and Eiseb Rifts of Botswana and Namibia, defining a propagating Southwestern Rift cutting the Nubian Plate. This active rift system developed along relatively thin (~150 km) lithosphere between the Congo and Kalahari cratons within crust inherited from Neoproterozoic collisional tectonics.

A 1430 km, deep crustal, seismic reflection profile of the Parnaíba basin shows an asymmetric, structured western margin and a gently dipping eastern margin. The~3 km thick, Phanerozoic sedimentary section overlies a pronounced, planar, regional unconformity that crosses three Precambrian blocks with differing seismic facies: the Amazonian/Araguaia block, the Parnaíba block, and the Borborema block. The blocks are separated by steep crustal-scale boundaries across which seismic facies change abruptly. In the west, the ophiolitic metasedimentary rocks of the Araguaia Group overlie the Amazonian craton. Both craton and metasediments terminate eastward against a steep, east dipping fault zone defining the Amazonian/Araguaia block and Parnaíba block boundary. Reactivation of this Neoproterozoic margin in the Late Triassic and Late Jurassic/Early Cretaceous, folded and elevated basement and basin over 2 km. A second crustal boundary defines the eastern margin of the Parnaíba block with the Neoproterozoic Borborema block. This boundary is interpreted as the extension of the Transbrasiliano shear zone. These data demonstrate that the basement of the Parnaíba basin was formed during Brasiliano orogenesis by west directed collision-related thrusting, succeeded by lateral accretion along steep, crustal-scale boundaries. After formation of a post-Brasiliano peneplain, the Parnaíba basin developed seamlessly across three very different crustal blocks and appears to have been significantly larger than its present outline. No extensive underlying rift system is evident suggesting that basement structure had little to do with basin formation, but that episodic reactivation of the boundary zones and basement fabric has controlled the structuring and preservation of the basin.

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Lithospheric thickness of continents, obtained from Rayleigh wave tomography, is used to make maps of the lithospheric thickness of Pangea by reconstructing the continental arrangement in the Permian. This approach assumes that lithosphere moves with the overlying continents, and therefore that the arrangement of both can be obtained using the poles of rotation obtained from magnetic anomalies and fracture zones. The resulting reconstruction shows that a contiguous arc of thick lithosphere underlay most of eastern Pangea. Beneath the western convex side of this arc there is a wide belt of thinner lithosphere, underlying what is believed to have been the active margin of Pangea, here named the Pangeides. On the inner side of this arc is another large area of thin lithosphere beneath the Pan-African belts of North Africa and Arabia. The arc of thick lithosphere is crossed by bands of slightly thinner lithosphere that lie beneath the Pan-African and Brasiliano mobile belts of S. America, Africa, India, Madagascar, and Antarctica. This geometry suggests that lithospheric thickness has an important influence on continental deformation and accretion.