Review and critical assessment on plate reconstruction models for the South Atlantic

The breakup of a supercontinent is a vital process of global tectonic evolution. How exactly West Gondwana and Pangea broke up is a controversial topic with many unanswered questions and problems that the reconstruction models attempt to solve. Since the mid-20th century in the course of modeling the South Atlantic tectonic evolution, several works contributed to the understanding of South America and Africa pre-breakup configuration, early stages of rift, and the kinematic involved in the rupture. However, these plate reconstruction models present several misfit problems. Here we review and analyze such misfits based on compiled geophysical and geological data by reproducing and comparing 15 reconstruction models since the pioneering work of Bullard et al. (1965). The location and magnitude of gaps and overlaps in each model are significantly different, in which fit differences mostly result from the assumed deformation. Nevertheless, a few similarities can be drawn, such as the maximum implemented overlap in the Central segment of the South Atlantic. We recognize that the accurate quantification of intraplate deformation is a challenge in refined models, and argue that South Atlantic models that restore intraplate deformation using geological and kinematic constraints tend to achieve a better fit.