Lithostratigraphy of the Kookfontein Formation (Ecca Group, Karoo Supergroup), South Africa

2017 ◽  
Vol 120 (3) ◽  
pp. 447-458
Author(s):  
H. de V. Wickens ◽  
D.I. Cole
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Depositional Environment ◽  
Delta Front ◽  
Southwestern Part ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Deformation Features ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
Shelf Margin ◽  
Upper Slope

Abstract The Permian Kookfontein Formation forms part of the upper Ecca Group in the southwestern part of the main Karoo Basin of South Africa. It occupies a stratigraphic position between the underlying Skoorsteenberg Formation and the overlying Waterford Formation, with its regional extent limited to the cut-off boundaries of the Skoorsteenberg Formation. The Kookfontein Formation has an average thickness of 200 m, coarsens upwards, and predominantly comprises dark grey shale, siltstone and thin- to thick-bedded, fine- to very fine-grained, feldspathic litharenite. Characteristic upward-coarsening and thickening successions and syn-sedimentary deformation features reflect rapid deposition and progradation of a predominantly fluvially-dominated prodelta and delta front slope environment. The upward increase in the abundance of wave–ripple marks further indicates a gradual shallowing of the depositional environment through time. The upper contact with the Waterford Formation is gradational, which indicates a transition from deposition in an unstable upper slope/shelf margin environment to a more stable shelf setting.

scholarly journals Shelf-margin clinothem progradation, degradation and readjustment: Tanqua depocentre, Karoo Basin (South Africa)

Sedimentology ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 65 (3) ◽  
pp. 809-841 ◽  
Author(s):  
Luz E. Gomis-Cartesio ◽  
Miquel Poyatos-Moré ◽  
David M. Hodgson ◽  
Stephen S. Flint
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Shelf Margin

Stratigraphic Evolution of Fine-Grained Submarine Fan Systems, Tanqua Depocenter, Karoo Basin, South Africa

2006 ◽  
Vol 76 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. M. Hodgson ◽  
S. S. Flint ◽  
D. Hodgetts ◽  
N. J. Drinkwater ◽  
E. P. Johannessen ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Submarine Fan ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Stratigraphic Evolution

scholarly journals The occurrence of marine fossils in the Upper Cretaceous deltaic sediments at Pautut, central West Greenland

1991 ◽  
Vol 39 ◽  
pp. 111-122
Author(s):  
Torben Olsen ◽  
Gunver Krarup Pedersen
Keyword(s):  
Depositional Environment ◽  
Upper Cretaceous ◽  
Sediment Accumulation ◽  
Accumulation Rates ◽  
Delta Front ◽  
Delta Plain ◽  
Facies Associations ◽  
Marine Fossils ◽  
Stratigraphic Position ◽  
Marine Influence

Finds of Upper Cretaceous marine macrofossils from Pautut have been reported since 1874. Subsequent investigations have led to contrasting views concerning the stratigraphic position of the fossils, the general depositional environment, and the amount of marine influence. During a brief visit to Pautut in the summer of 1989, a section of the exposed sediments was described. The sediments can be divided into 4 facies associations reflecting deposition on a prograding delta front, in distributary channels, on a subaerial to limnic delta plain and on an abandoned delta lobe during a marine transgression. The sedimentological model predicts that marine fossils, if present, should occur in the delta front association. The sediments were thoroughly searched for marine macrofossils, which were found in the lower part of the prominent coarsening-upward delta front sequences. The number of fossils is generally low. Bivalves and echinoids constitute the dominant groups of fossils and seem to have been well adapted to a life in muddy marine bays, subject to fluctuations in salinity and rate of deposition and with much suspended sediment. The fossils indicate that the beds at Pautut were deposited during latest Santonian to earliest Campa­nian times. Sediment accumulation rates were high. The stratigraphy within the Pautfit area is discussed and all the Cretaceous sediments are referred to the Atane Formation.

scholarly journals DELTAIC AND SHELF DEPOSITIONAL PACKAGES OF THE GULANI MEMBER OF PINDIGA FORMATION, GONGOLA SUB-BASIN, NORTHERN BENUE TROUGH, N.E. NIGERIA

2018 ◽  
Vol 6 (4) ◽  
pp. 188-197
Author(s):  
B. Shettima ◽  
A.I. Goro ◽  
M. Bukar ◽  
Y.B. Mohammed
Keyword(s):  
Depositional Environment ◽  
Facies Analysis ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Delta Front ◽  
Benue Trough ◽  
Fine Grained

Stratigraphic and facies analysis of the Gulani Member of the Pindiga Formation in the Gongola Sub-basin of the Northern Benue Trough indicated that the lithostratigraphic architecture of the formation are characterized by three bioturbated lithologic units. These includes the lower succession of heterolithic units with fine grained sandstones and mudstone interbeds, passing into succession of medium-coarse grained sandstone with dominantly trough crossbeds and a upper succession of medium grained trough crossbedded sandstone and mudstone interbeds. Facies evaluation of these distinct succession indicated development of a corresponding pro-delta sands and clays, moving into delta front sands and then shelf sandstone and claystone respectively. Thus suggesting that the Gulani Member was generally formed in a coastal setting defined by river dominated deltaic setting and shelf depositional environment.

Contribution of research borehole data to modelling fine-grained turbidite reservoir analogues, Permian Tanqua–Karoo basin-floor fans (South Africa)

2006 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 175-190 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stefan M. Luthi ◽  
David M. Hodgson ◽  
Cees R. Geel ◽  
Stephen S. Flint ◽  
Jan Willem Goedbloed ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Borehole Data ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
Basin Floor

Biostratigraphy of the Endothiodon Assemblage Zone (Beaufort Group, Karoo Supergroup), South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 123 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-180 ◽  
Author(s):  
M.O. Day ◽  
R.M.H. Smith
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Mass Extinction ◽  
Ecosystem Recovery ◽  
Southwestern Part ◽  
Karoo Basin ◽  
The Third ◽  
Maximum Thickness ◽  
Assemblage Zone

Abstract The Endothiodon Assemblage Zone is the third oldest tetrapod biozone of the Beaufort Group (Adelaide Subgroup, Karoo Supergroup). It is situated between the underlying Tapinocephalus and overlying Cistecephalus assemblage zones and in the southwestern part of the basin corresponds to the majority of the Poortjie and Hoedemaker members of the Teekloof Formation. It is characterised by the dicynodont genus Endothiodon, especially in the lower part of assemblage zone, and records early ecosystem recovery from the Capitanian mass extinction. It also contains the lowest occurrence in the Karoo Basin of cynodont therapsids, eutherocephalians, bidentalian dicynodonts, and diapsids. The biozone reaches a maximum thickness of around 250 m in the southwestern part of the basin. We propose a two-fold subdivision into a lower Lycosuchus - Eunotosaurus Subzone (equivalent to the upper two-thirds of the former Pristerognathus Assemblage Zone) and an upper Tropidostoma - Gorgonops Subzone (equivalent to the former Tropidostoma Assemblage Zone), with the contact defined by the first appearance of Tropidostoma dubium. The Endothiodon Assemblage Zone is terminated by the first appearance of Aulacephalodon bainii.

Evolution of an Archean fan delta and its implications for the initiation of uplift and deformation in the Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa

2019 ◽  
Vol 89 (9) ◽  
pp. 849-874 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nadja Drabon ◽  
Christoph E. Heubeck ◽  
Donald R. Lowe
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Greenstone Belt ◽  
Microbial Mats ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Tectonic Activity ◽  
Delta Front ◽  
Fine Grained ◽  
Barberton Greenstone Belt ◽  
Fan Delta ◽  
Rapid Transition

ABSTRACT The 3.28 to 3.23 Ga Mapepe Formation in the Barberton greenstone belt, South Africa, marks the initiation of widespread tectonic uplift and deformation after nearly 300 million years of predominantly basaltic and komatiitic magmatism under largely anorogenic conditions. This rapid transition is recorded in the eastern Barite Valley area by the buildup of a fan delta. Well-exposed sections there reach about 450 m thick and can be divided (from base to top) into five informal members: Member 1 is dominated by mudstone with subordinate banded ferruginous chert and turbiditic sandstone representing a deep-water basinal environment. Member 2 is composed of siltstone and fine-grained sandstone reworked by currents to form laminated, cross-laminated, and low-angle cross-stratified sediments in an off-shore or possibly subtidal fan-delta-front setting. Member 3 overlies member 2 unconformably; it is composed of predominantly coarse-grained, cross-bedded sandstone interbedded with laminated mudstone deposited on shallow-subtidal to intertidal flats along the fringe of a small fan delta in which putative microbial mats covered low-energy upper tidal flats. Fan-delta sedimentation was subsequently overwhelmed by the influx of dacitic pyroclastic sediments of member 4. Orthochemical sedimentary rocks including barite, jaspilite, and chert deposited on top of this shallow-water bank. Mappable facies changes towards the northeast and southwest document the transition from bank top into major mass-transport deposits of fan-delta slope facies and then into basinal deposits. Subsequent relative sea-level rise resulted in the return to below-wave-base deposition of turbiditic sandstone, mudstone, and banded ferruginous chert of member 5. The lenticular geometry of units in cross section, mineralogical immaturity, and high variability in provenance of the coarse-grained units imply short-distance transport of sediment derived from strata of the underlying Onverwacht Group and from local penecontemporaneous dacitic volcanism. Throughout the greenstone belt, Mapepe rocks in several structural belts display fan deltas developed adjacent to small, local uplifts. While the cause of these uplifts has generally been associated with the initiation of geodynamically driven tectonic activity in the BGB, it is possible that a cluster of large meteorite impacts may have directly or indirectly triggered the crustal deformation.

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