Three main contractional tectonic regimes are recognized: (1) Late Cretaceous gravity
spreading, (2) Mid-Tertiary uplift, and (3) Neogene transpression. Tilting of the young
continental margin created the first tectonic regime, the ultimate cause of this was
thermal subsidence after continental breakup. The second regime was the direct cause of
the uplift of the Angolan coast, mostly in the Oligo-Miocene but continuing into the Plio-
Pleistocene, while the late tectonic regime was probably the differential movement of
reactivated crustal blocks, whose slip directions depended on their orientation
