Rogers a, kristina curry rogers b, darlington munyikwa c, rebecca c. Upb ages determined using sensitive highresolution ion microprobereverse geometry on 205 singlegrain zircons from 16 ash beds within submarine fan deposits of the ecca group provide the first evidence of a marine permiantriassic pt boundary in the karoo basin of south africa. Sedimentology and taphonomy of the upper karoo equivalent mpandi formation in the tuli basin of zimbabwe, with a new 40ar39ar age for the tuli basalts raymond r. Basin fill evolution and paleotectonic patterns along the. Kalahari karoo basin outline showing subbasins after smith, 1984, major pre karoo structural lines after modie, 2007, and outline of the study area in orange. It extends east from the kalahari basin that underlies much of botswana. Forensic analyses of deep karoo geology, water and gasshales. See related open access article, is the vertebratedefined permiantriassic boundary in the. Basin subsidence, karoo supergroup, soutpansberg basin, permianjurassic. Sep 22, 2015 the karoo basin and eastern south africa. Modie report on a field visit to exposures in the kalahari karoo basin of botswana the karoo supergroup of the kalahari basin.
Sedimentology and taphonomy of the upper karooequivalent. Transboundary aquifer mapping and management in africa africa is heavily reliant on groundwater resources, with an estimated 75% of the population dependent on this resource for basic water supplies. These deposits found north of the karoo basin are found as the lowermost geological formation of the springbok flats, tshipise, northern lebombo, tuli, and ellisras basins of northnortheastern south africa. Map from 2009 article showing the karoo basins, with south africas great karoo basin outlined in gold colour. Jul 25, 2017 this is an overview of the karoo basin in south africa, and its geologic setting. The karoo tectonic evolution of the tanganyikarukwamalawitrm zone in the east african rift. This is an overview of the karoo basin in south africa, and its geologic setting.
Sedimentary deposits of the karoo sequence in northwestern damaraland are exposed in the goboboseb mountains south of the ugab river, as well as in an area approximately 100 by 50 km wide on both the northern and southern sides of the huab river fig. It contains thick, organic rich shales such as the permian whitehill formation representing the prime focus of shale gas permit applications. Is the vertebrate defined permiantriassic boundary in the karoo basin, south africa. The ruhuhu licence is located in southwest tanzania and covers an area of 10,343 km2 and jacka is the operator holding 100% of the licence which provides jacka with the petroleum exploration rights to the entire ruhuhu basin, a karoo rift basin, and to a portion of the lake nyasa rift basin which is part of the east african rift system. Palynofacies patterns of the highveld coal deposits karoo. Clues to reconstruction of palaeoenvironment and palaeoclimate alexander wheeler alex. The erosional remants of the main karoo basin cover approximately 700 000 km2 of southern africa today see map overleaf, and together with sediments in subsidiary karooaged basins, these rocks play host to the majority of south africas onshore fossil fuel reserves. Kirschvink,4 roger smith3 the karoo basin of south africa exposes a succession of upper permian to. It is named after the tillite dwyka group found in the karoo basin of south africa, where evidence for this ice age was first clearly identified in. Pdf rapid vertebrate recuperation in the karoo basin of.
Bordy department of geological sciences, university of cape town, private bag x3. Seismic data provide a unique opportunity to understand the subsurface structure of dolerite sills that have intruded the karoo basin at multiple levels. Faunal aggregation in the early triassic karoo basin. Karoo basins sensu stricto, which show clear similarities with the main karoo basin of south africa, are generally restricted to southcentral africa, whereas the karoo age successions preserved to the north of the equator are distinctly di.
Tracking the pliensbachiantoarcian karoo firewalkers. These sills have intruded close to the whitehill formation at several locations within the basin, and may impact shale gas exploration of. The karoo supergroup is the most widespread stratigraphic unit in africa south of the kalahari desert. Structure and evolution of hydrothermal vent complexes in the karoo basin.
Stable isotope constraints on the fluid source of hydrothermal. This book describes the latest research on the geological, geochemical, geochronological, biological, and geomorphic evolution of the unique and relatively pristine landscape of the cape mountains and the karoo basin, a region in south africa that is currently being. Depositional environments and stratigraphic correlation of. When the exploration began in 2018, there was a great deal of excitement and a number of karoo towns, especially in the central karoo basin.
See related open access article, is the vertebratedefined permiantriassic boundary in. Karoo time, which includes the dwyka, ecca, beaufort and stormberg lithostratigraphic units. The pdf printer has a feature that will upload the created pdf file to a server. The main karoo basin of south africa is renowned for its exceptional palaeontological record and while its vertebrate fossils have been extensively researched, karoo floras have received considerably less attention. The southern tectonic regime was related to processes of subduction and orogenesis along the panthalassan palaeopacific margin of gondwana, which. For the karoo basin province, the usgs defined a vryheid coal total petroleum system tps and a karoo vryheid coalbed gas assessment unit au within this tps. This biozone has outcrops in the south central eastern cape middelburg, queenstown, aliwal north, nieubethesda and in the. The karoo basin is a foreland basin catuneanu et al. No exact definition of what constitutes the karoo is available, so its extent is also not precisely defined. Petroleum potential of the karoo basins the karoo basins the karoo basins of southern africa record 100 million years of sedimentation in the heartland of the supercontinent gondwana, in a range of depositional environments. Thinking in terms of such fault and structural systems, this kavango basin can be related along strike to the karoo basins in eastern africa via features such as the omaruru lineament, implying the possibility of a fairway of extensional basins and shears across the.
The karoo basin covers much of south africa and is an area of prospective shale gas exploration, with the. Rapid vertebrate recuperation in the karoo basin of south africa following the endpermian extinction. The karoo igneous rocks represent one of the largest continental flood basalt events by volume on earth, and are not normally associated with fossils remains. Report on a field visit to exposures in the kalahari. The karoo supergroup in southern africa occurs in the areally extensive main karoo and kalahari basins as well as in a number of subsidiary basins in south africa, namibia, botswana, zimbabwe and mozambique. Speculations about vast cheap energy wealth stacked away beneath the karoo have reached fever pitch. Geological survey editorial standards and stratigraphic nomenclature. South africa karoo shale gas deposits seen less than earlier. Karoo system, geologic system of rocks outcropping over a 1,560,000squarekilometre 600,000squaremile area of africa from the equator south to the cape of good hope. The late paleozoic icehouse, formerly known as the karoo ice age, was between 360260 million years ago mya during which large landbased icesheets were present on earths surface. It is the uppermost of the three formations found in the stormberg group of the greater karoo supergroup rocks and represents the final phase of preserved sedimentation of the karoo basin. The karoo basin is a retroarc foreland basin associated with the development of the cape fold mountains catuneanu et al.
Central kalahari karoo basin and its subdivision belts redrawn after smith, 1984. However, with population growth, climate change and the need to combat. Rubidge2 igeology department, university of the witwatersrand, private bag 3, wits 2050, south africa 2bernard price institute for palaeontological research, university of the witwatersrand. These reflect the progressive infilling of the karoo basins, the changing tectonic framework as well as the migration of gondwana from polar to tropical latitudes. Only two pans, namely those on groenfontein 395 jr ai and leeuwkraal 517 ir a2 arc at present drainage centres. The supergroup consists of a sequence of units, mostly of nonmarine origin, deposited between the late carboniferous and early jurassic, a period of about 120 million years in southern africa, rocks of the karoo supergroup cover almost two thirds of the present land surface, including all of. Pdf lithostratigraphy of the abrahamskraal formation.
The karoo is partly defined by its topography, geology and climate, and above all, its low rainfall, arid air, cloudless skies, and extremes of heat. Thesis submitted to the faculty of science at the university of the witwatersrand, johannesburg, in fulfilment of. Deflating the shale gas potential of south africas. Generally, both pre and syn karoo fault systems are considered to have had a local influence on the distribution and thickness of the karoo sequence ecl 1998. The supergroup consists of a sequence of units, mostly of nonmarine origin, deposited between the late carboniferous and early jurassic, a period of about 120 million years. The abrahamskraal formation is the oldest terrestrial deposit of. The time span of the karoo system extends from the carboniferous and permian periods about 359 million to 251 million years. Poor yields of palynomorphs from the beaufort and stormberg groups have complicated the. The term karoo was extrapolated from the main karoo basin of south africa, to describe the sedimentary fill of all other basins of similar age across gondwana.
Fossils from the dwyka group in the warmbad basin in southernnamibiafig. The karoo basin in south africa offers an ideal study area to evaluate these processes because the region is targeted for shale gas extraction in the near future, but has only been minimally developed for conventional energy extraction previously. Dictionary, encyclopedia and thesaurus the free dictionary 12,063,833,060 visitors served. Jul 14, 2017 unpacking the issues around fracking in south africa. The ellisras basin is about 320 kilometres 200 mi north of the main karoo basin. For this reason, the karoo basins sensu stricto, which show clear similarities with the main karoo basin of south africa, are generally restricted to southcentral africa fig. This means that you can send the documents to a web server that you have created and do some processing in a cloud application. Depositional environments of the lower permian dwyka. Abrupt and gradual extinction among late permian land vertebrates in the karoo basin, south africa peter d. Pdf carboniferouspermian glaciation in the main karoo. Earth stewardship science nelson mandela metropolitan university shale gas in south africa fff johannesburg 29 may, 2012. The karoo basins of southcentral africa sciencedirect.
A provisional basin analysis of the karoo supergroup. Between 1981 and 1982 a joint technical project by the canadian international development agency and the geological survey of botswana undertook a groundtruth drilling project in the kalahari region of western and northern botswana. The karoo basins of southcentral africa evolved during the firstorder cycle of supercontinent assembly and breakup of pangea, under the influence of two distinct tectonic regimes sourced from. Carboniferouspermian glaciation in the main karoo basin, south africa. Paul, mn 55105, usa b science museum of minnesota, 120 w. Gondwanan carboniferouspermian of the parana basin, brazil a. The early ordovician to early carboniferous cape basin 160 ma is believed to have developed by extensional processes cloetingh et al.
The great karoo basin covers an area of over 700,000 km 2 and constitutes a retroarc foreland basin. Pdf the laingsburg depocentre of the sw karoo basin, south africa. New late permian tectonic model for south africas karoo. The cape and karoo basins formed within the continental interior of gondwana. It was the second major glacial period of the phanerozoic. Pdf the coalbearing sediments and coal seams of the karoo basin, southern africa are described and discussed. Subsidence analysis and burial history of the late carboniferous to. Predrill groundwater geochemistry in the karoo basin. The karoo basin is a sedimentary basin covering 600,000 km2 in central and southern south africa. Currently the permian whitehill formation is thought to be most favourable target formation for shale gas exploration and production, owing to the high total organic content toc averaging 5%, favourable maturities ro 1 4 %, thickness 30m average. The clarens formation is a geological formation found in several localities in lesotho and in the free state, kwazulunatal, and eastern cape provinces in south africa. Tectonic evolution of the cape and karoo basins of south. However, these pliensbachiantoarcian lava flows contain sandstone interbeds that are particularly common in the lower part of the volcanic succession and are occasionally fossiliferous.
Abrupt and gradual extinction among late permian land. Karoo basin of south africa, these groups are named, in stratigraphic succession, the dwyka, ecca, beaufort, stormberg and drakensberg fig. In main karoo basin, the permian ecca group hosts economically. Dwyka to lower ecca groups in the karoo basin of southern africa catuneanu et al. If found in commercially viable quantities, this gas could help secure south africas energy future, but only if we can preserve the unique character of the area as well. Introduction the karoo basin of south africa contains some of the best exposed shelf margin strata in the world. In the southwestern karoo basin sedimentation of the abrahamskraal formation, initiated in the middle permian by tectonic events in the gondwanide mountainlands halbich, 1983, cole, 1992, veevers et al. The south african portion of the ellisras basin is about 90 kilometres 56 mi from east to west and 35 kilometres 22 mi from north to south. The stratigraphy of the lower and middle karoo supergroup, north of paterson, eastern cape, south africa 7th inkabayeafricaworkshop potsdam, germany 1 5 november 2010.
We believe that the environmentally sensitive karoo can be protected even if it becomes a national energy resource. National and global petroleum assessment assessment of. The lystrosaurus assemblage zone is a tetrapod assemblage zone or biozone which correlates to the upper adelaide and lower tarkastad subgroups of the beaufort group, a fossiliferous and geologically important geological group of the karoo supergroup in south africa. Middle jurassic karoo supergroup in the main karoo. Upb zircon ages from the southwestern karoo basin, south. Late permian karoo basin tectonics in south africa are reflected as two finingupward megacycles in the balfour and upper teekloof formations. The cape and karoo basin stratigraphy in the sw karoo.
Oct 01, 2005 the karoo basins of southcentral africa evolved during the firstorder cycle of supercontinent assembly and breakup of pangea, under the influence of two distinct tectonic regimes sourced from the southern and northern margins of gondwana. Overall, the karoo supergroup across the kalahari karoo basin reflects a transition from a glaciation period through to deltaic and swampy periods ultimately turning arid before the extrusion of. South africa karoo shale gas deposits seen less than earlier estimates. Recent interest in the main karoo basin of south africa has been sparked by the possibility of extensive shale gas resources. Refined stratigraphy of the middle permian abrahamskraal. Report on a field visit to exposures in the kalahari karoo basin of botswana. Seismic imaging of dolerite sills in the karoo basin, with. Beaufort group in a wide arc across the northern and northeastern parts of the great karoo basin, to determine if new technology can be applied to producing these challenging deposits.
Historical reflection seismic, petroleum exploration wells and regional magnetic data are used to better understand the. Further, groundwater in the karoo basin is the primary source of both drinking and. The basin is bounded by the cape fold belt along its southern margins and comprises up to 6 km of clastic sedimentary strata. Pdf faunal aggregation in the early triassic karoo basin. Pdf an overview of the permian karoo coal deposits of. Singer e a department of geology, macalester college, 1600 grand avenue, st. The base of the lystrosaurus assemblage zone, karoo basin.
The erosional remants of the main karoo basin cover approximately. The southern main karoo basin of south africa is considered prospective for shale gas exploration. Unpacking the issues around fracking in south africa. An overview of the permian karoo coal deposits of southern africa. Dwyka group deposits are also found outside of and north of the karoo basin. The petroleum potential of south africas onshore karoo. Kingston technology karoo user manual pdf download. Jan 18, 2016 radioactive dust is likely to be one of the greatest hazards from uranium mining in the karoo. Black and white pdf printer bullzip knowledge base.
Palynofacies patterns of the highveld coal deposits karoo basin, south africa. Pdf depositional architecture and sequence stratigraphy of the. Aukarob hardveld is a semi desert natural region of south africa. View and download kingston technology karoo user manual online. Pdf geophysically plumbing the main karoo basin, south. Transboundary aquifer mapping and management in africa. Shale gas developments in the karoo basin i 1 doug colehaajierah mosavel characterisation of surface dust and trapped dust samples around some asbestos mine dumps in mpumalanga province, south africa i 3 maphuti kwata the all new young geoscientists network i 4 refilwe shelembe first south africacanada bilateral collaboration. The main karoo basin constitutes a retroarc foreland basin, while the rest are intracratonic sag basins or rift basins. But not all stakeholders agree, or are yet part of an ongoing debate whether or not south africa should even consider the potential value of this resource. The karoo basin system in the nwtrendingubende belt in tanzania and east congo is a manifestation of the early stage of gondwana breakupin eastcentralafrica.
These groups, and their correlatives to the north of the main karoo basin, are described in subsequent sections of the paper. J 2, is a shallow rock basin of pre karoo age from which the overlying karoo beds. The cape and karoo basins represent two largescale episodes of intermittent subsidence and sedimentation within the interior of gondwana fig. Along the basin s southern margin the karoo succession attains a maximum composite thickness of 12 km. Johannesburg south africas karoo basin probably has a 30th of the shale gas deposits that some. Forensic analyses of deep karoo geology, water and gasshales who decides what is natural, and how. Stratigraphy, depositional controls, and glacial dynamics. Structure and evolution of hydrothermal vent complexes in. Wegeners concept of a united gondwana supercontinent.
Current knowledge of shale gas resource potential for the karoo what dont we know yet. Just as the threat of fracking seemed to recede in the karoo, the danger of uranium mining has arisen and it is even more frightening and more likely than shale gas extraction. Subsidence resulted from the vertical motion of rigid basement blocks and intervening crustal faults. Glaciogenic deposits of the permocarboniferous dwyka group in the eastern region of the karoo basin, south africa v.
As integral parts of du toits 1927 samfrau geosyncline, the sauce grande basin ventana foldbelt argentina and karoo basin cape foldbelt south africa share similar paleoclimatic, paleogeographic, and paleotectonic aspects related to the late paleozoic tectonomagmatic activity along the panthalassan continental margin of gondwanaland. Each basin episode records a threestage evolution consisting of crustal uplift, faultcontrolled subsidence, and long periods of regional subsidence largely unaccompanied by faulting or erosional. Origin and evolution of the cape mountains and karoo basin. The centrally located kalahari karoo basin of botswana covers more than half the country and comprises a major carboniferous to jurassic siliciclastic sequence with widespread continental flood basalt belonging to the karoo supergroup. The karoo sediments in the sbf basin clearly represent the broad spectrum of the same set of palaeo environments that are recognized in the main karoo basin rocks. The karoo basins of southcentral africa preserve a record of a special time in earths history, when the pangea supercontinent reached its maximum extent during the late paleozoicearly mesozoic interval. The boundary of the au is defined mainly by the karoo basin province boundary in the northeast ern part of the basin and by the 50meter isopach contour of the vryheid. Click to view article in pdf format the petroleum potential of south africas onshore karoo basins lindiwe. The karoo basin and the end permian mass extinction. Depositional environments varied geographically in the karoo basin and ranged from marine to lacustrine for the dwyka to lower ecca groups of southern africa. The karoo basins of southcentral africa university of alberta. The endpermian is associated with major changes in both marine and terrestrial biodiversity. Following on from the first 2 books in the series, sedimentary basins of the world, which covered chinese sedimentary basins volume 1 and south pacific sedimentary basins volume 2, comes volume 3, on african basins.
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