Magnetostratigraphic and geochronological age constraints on the lowermost Beaufort Group, Karoo Basin, South Africa
Abstract
The Karoo Basin of South Africa is a classic foreland basin sequence, with sedimentation putatively linked to Gondwanide orogenesis in the Cape Fold Belt. Biostratigraphic data for the fluvial to lacustrine sediments of the Beaufort Group have traditionally assigned a late Permian age to these foreland basin sediments on the basis of Glossopteris flora and Dicynodont fauna findings. This age conflicts with recently published U-Pb zircon age data from below the Beaufort Group that suggested a latest Permian, early Triassic age for those rocks. In order to resolve this discrepancy, we undertook a coupled magnetostratigraphic and geochronological study of the lowermost Beaufort Group of South Africa. Volcanic zircons from various tuffaceous horizons were analyzed for U-Pb age by SHRIMP. The youngest population of late Permian zircons are interpreted as the age of volcanic ashfall and sedimentation, with inheritance from pre-existing crust recognized from the presence of ca. 500 Ma and 1000-1100 Ma zircons. The possibility of Pb loss from these youngest grains will be assessed by CA-TIMS work. Magnetostratigraphic sampling was carried out in two separate sedimentary profiles, 169 m and 549 m thick, that are separated by roughly 85 km across depositional strike. Diagnostic patterns of normal and reversed magnetozones allow for the close correlation of these two sections. This pattern, anchored by the U-Pb zircon ages, can be correlated to the Global Polarity Timescale of Ogg et al. (2008), and supports a late Guadalupian age for these sediments.
- Publication:
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AGU Fall Meeting Abstracts
- Pub Date:
- December 2011
- Bibcode:
- 2011AGUFMGP51A1144T
- Keywords:
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- 1520 GEOMAGNETISM AND PALEOMAGNETISM / Magnetostratigraphy;
- 8169 TECTONOPHYSICS / Sedimentary basin processes