Depositional history and stratigraphical evolution of the Sakoa Group (Lower Karoo Supergroup) in the southern Morondava Basin, Madagascar

The Sakoa Group is the lowermost stratigraphical succession of the Karoo Supergroup and the oldest sedimentary unit in Madagascar, spanning the Late Carboniferous through Early Permian epochs. The Sakoa Group is exposed in the southern Morondava Basin. It is predominantly a siliciclastic sequence comprising seven lithofacies associations: (1) diamictites; (2) conglomeratic sandstones; (3) sandstones; (4) interbedded thin sandstones and mudstones; (5) mudstones; (6) coals; and (7) limestones. These facies represent deposition in the early extensional stages of continental rift development. The sediments were deposited predominantly on alluvial fans, and in braided to meandering stream and overbank environments. Locally lacustrine and coal swamp environments formed in low areas of the basin floor during rift initiation. Subsidence rates remained fairly constant throughout the Early Permian and were accompanied by a gradual reduction in relief of the basin margins and an increased geomorphic maturity of the fluvial systems flowing across the basin floor. Near the end of the Early Permian the southern Morondava Basin was inundated by a marine transgression , which resulted in deposition of the Vohitolia Limestone. Subsequent tectonic uplift and erosion resulted in a regional unconformity between the Sakoa Group and the overlying Sakamena Group.     

Stratigraphy and palynostratigraphy, Karoo Supergroup (Permian and Triassic), mid-Zambezi Valley, southern Zambia

The Karoo Supergroup outcropst in the mid-Zambezi Valley, southern Zambia. It is underlain by the Sinakumbe Group of Ordovician to Devonian age. The Lower Karoo Group (Late Carboniferous to Permian age) consists of the basal Siankondobo Sandstone Formation, which comprises three facies, overlain by the Gwembe Coal Formation with its economically important coal deposits, in turn overlain by the Madumabisa Mudstone Formation which consists of lacustrine mudstone, calcilutite, sandstone, and concretionary calcareous beds. The Upper Karoo Group (Triassic to Early Jurassic) is sub-divided into the coarsely arenaceous Escarpment Grit, overlain by the fining upwards Interbedded Sandstone and Mudstone, Red Sandstone; and Batoka Basalt Formations.Palynomorph assemblages suggest that the Siankondobo Sandstone Formation is Late Carboniferous (Gzhelian) to Early Permian (Asselian to Early Sakmarian) in age, the Gwembe Coal Formation Early Permian (Artinskian to Kungurian), the Madumabisa Mudstone Late Permian (Tatarian), and the Interbedded Sandstone and Mudstone Early or Middle Triassic (Late Scythian or Anisian). The marked quantitative variations in the assemblages are due partly to age differences, but they also reflect vegetational differences resulting from different paleoclimates and different facies.The low thermal maturity of the formations (Thermal Alteration Index 2) suggests that the rocks are oil prone. However, the general scarcity of amorphous kerogen, such as the alga Botryococcus sp., and the low proportion of exinous material, indicates a low potential for liquid hydrocarbons. Gas may have been generated, particularly in the coal seams of the Gwembe Coal Formation, that are more deeply buried.     

The age of the Tashinga Formation (Karoo Supergroup) in the Mid-Zambezi Basin,Zimbabwe and the first phytosaur from mainland sub-Saharan Africa

Correlations between continental sequences within the Karoo-aged basins of southern and eastern Africa are difficult due to the dearth of shared index fossils and a lack of radioisotopic dates for key formations. Here we describe four sites along the southeastern shoreline of Lake Kariba, Zimbabwe, within the Mid-Zambezi Basin, that yield material of phytosaurs (Archosauromorpha: Phytosauria) from within the informal Tashinga Formation (Upper Karoo Group). These phytosaur remains are the first to be recovered from sub-Saharan mainland Africa, representing a major geographic range extension for this group into high southern latitudes. Furthermore, an LA-ICPMS maximum depositional age of 209.2 ± 4.5 Ma (late Norian/early Rhaetian) derived from detrital zircons provides the first absolute age estimate for any of these sites. The phytosaurs are associated with lungfish and metoposaurid amphibians, forming part of a terrestrial-aquatic dominated biota, a previously undocumented biome from the Late Triassic of southern Africa.     

Depositional age,provenance and metamorphic age of metasedimentary rocks from southern Madagascar

Southern Madagascar is the core of a > 1 million km² Gondwanan metasedimentary belt that forms much of the southern East African Orogen of eastern Africa, Madagascar, southern India and Sri Lanka. Here the Vohibory Series yielded U–Pb isotopic data from detrital zircon cores that indicate that it was deposited in the latest Tonian to late Cryogenian (between ~ 900 and 640 Ma). The deposition of the Graphite and Androyen Series protoliths is poorly constrained to between the late Palaeoproterozoic and the Cambrian (~ 1830–530 Ma). The Vohibory Series protoliths were sourced from very restricted-aged sources with a maximum age range between 910 and 760 Ma. The Androyen and Graphite Series protoliths were sourced from Palaeoproterozoic rocks ranging in age between 2300 and 1800 Ma. The best evidence of the timing of metamorphism in the Vohibory Series is a weighted mean ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U age of 642 ± 8 Ma from 3 analyses of zircon from sample M03-01. A considerably younger ²⁰⁶Pb/²³⁸U metamorphic age of 531 ± 7 Ma is produced from 10 analyses of zircon from sample M03-28 in the Androyen Series. This ~ 110 Ma difference in age is correlated with the early East African Orogeny affecting the west of Madagascar along with its type area in East Africa, whereas the Cambrian Malagasy Orogeny affected the east of Madagascar and southern India during the final suturing of the Mozambique Ocean.     

准噶尔盆地南缘古近纪—新近纪前陆盆地沉积格局与演变*

针对准噶尔盆地南缘古近系和新近系碎屑岩沉积体,运用野外露头宏观分析与岩心、薄片微观描述来 “定岩相和沉积相”;依据地震相的不同特点及相变的不同位置,刻画湖岸线演化,从而对沉积体“定边界”;根据重矿物组合特征及砂岩等厚图来“定主次物源”的方法,综合研究前陆盆地的沉积相特征。在此基础上,分析了准噶尔盆地南缘湖盆沉积格局与演变,认为准噶尔盆地南缘古近系紫泥泉子组沉积时期,湖平面较低,天山山前带发育4个规模较大的扇三角洲朵状体;至安集海河组沉积时期,湖平面上升,山前带扇三角洲发生退积,仅沉积3个规模变小的朵状体,霍尔果斯地区扇三角洲朵状体不发育。新近系沙湾组沉积时期,由于逆冲推覆构造作用,山前带地形高差大、坡度陡且气候干旱,随着湖平面的迅速下降,山前带发育更大规模进积型扇三角洲沉积。准噶尔盆地南缘古近系—新近系2个主要物源分别是中部东湾—吐谷鲁—玛纳斯背斜、西部西湖—独山子背斜;2个次要物源分别为东部呼图壁背斜和中西部霍尔果斯背斜,此4个物源流向是由南向北。北部卡因迪克地区则是来自前陆隆起区的重要物源。     

Detrital barytes in the Karoo Supergroup of Southern Africa

Beds of sedimentary barytes are found in late Paleozoic sediments in the northeasternmost part of South Africa and adjoining parts of Rhodesia. The baryte horizon consists of 2 beds of composite thickness of up to 50 cm within a sequence of partly porcellaneous shales. It is dark gray to redbrown in colour, in places also black, and then contains traces of H₂S. It usually consists of fine-grained subrounded tabular grains of detrital origin. This horizon frequently contains aggregates of upward diverging acicular baryte which formed diagenetically within the detrital baryte. The deposit was formed through reworking of semiconsolidated clays containing baryte concretions. Such shales are known to occur to the west of the baryte deposit in contemporaneous sediments.

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Zusammenfassung In spätpaläozoischen Sedimenten im Nordosten Südafrikas und dem angrenzenden Bereich Rhodesiens treten sedimentäre Barytlagen auf. Die Barytzone besteht aus zwei Lagen mit einer gemeinsamen größten Mächtigkeit von 50 cm, innerhalb einer Abfolge teilweise verkieselter Tonschiefer. Der Baryt ist dunkelgrau bis rotbraun, stellenweise auch schwarz, und enthält dann Spuren von H₂S. Er besteht meist aus feinkörnigen kantengerundeten schwach plattigen Kristallen detritischer Herkunft. Die Zone enthält häufig Aggregate aus nach oben divergierenden nadeligen Barytkristallen, die sich frühdiagenetisch im detritischen Baryt bildeten. Das Vorkommen entstand durch Aufarbeitung von Barytkonkretionen in schwach verfestigten Tonen. Entsprechende Tonschiefer treten in gleichaltrigen Sedimenten westlich des Barytvorkommens auf.

     

Depositional age and provenance of the Cobar Supergroup

Abstract

The turbidite-filled, Lower Devonian Cobar Basin is characterised through a detrital zircon study. Uranium–Pb age data for six samples were combined with published data to show the basin has a unique age spectrum characterised by a subordinate Middle Ordovician (ca 470?Ma) peak superimposed on a dominant ca 500?Ma peak. Maximum depositional ages for 3 samples were ca 425?Ma, close to the published Lower Devonian (Lochkovian 419–411?Ma) biostratigraphic ages. A minor ca 1000?Ma zircon population was also identified. The major source of the 500?Ma zircons was probably the local Ordovician metasedimentary basement, which was folded, thickened and presumably exposed during the ca 440?Ma Benambran Orogeny. The ca 470?Ma age peak reflects derivation from Middle Ordovician (Phase 2) rocks of the Macquarie Arc to the east. The I-type Florida Volcanics, located ～50?km eastward from the Cobar Basin, contains distinctive Middle and Late Ordovician zircon populations, considered to be derived from deeply underthrust Macquarie Arc crust. Protracted silicic magmatism occurred before, during and after Cobar Basin deposition, indicating that the basin formed by subduction-related processes in a back-arc setting, rather than as a continental rift.     

Tectonic and climatic controls on sedimentation during deposition of the Sinakumbe group and Karoo supergroup,in the mid-Zambezi Valley Basin,southern Zambia

Sediments of the Ordovician to Devonian Sinakumbe Group (∼210 m thick) and overlying Upper Carboniferous to Lower Jurassic Karoo Supergroup (∼4.5 km thick) were deposited in the mid-Zambezi Rift Valley Basin, southern Zambia.The Sinakumbe-Karoo succession represents deposition in a extensional fault-controlled basin of half-graben type. The basin-fill succession incorporates two major fining-upward cycles that resulted from major tectonic events, one event beginning with Sinakumbe Group sedimentation, possibly as early as Ordovician times, and the other beginning with Upper Karoo Group sedimentation near the Permo-Triassic boundary. Minor tectonic pulses occurred during deposition of the two major cycles. In the initial fault-controlled half-graben, a basin slope and alluvial fan system (Sikalamba Conglomerate Formation), draining southeastward, was apparently succeeded, without an intervening transitional facies, by a braided river system (Zongwe Sandstone Formation) draining southwestward, parallel to the basin margin. Glaciation followed by deglaciation resulted in glaciofluvial and glacio-lacustrine deposits of the Upper Carboniferous to Lower Permian Siankondobo Sandstone Formation of the Lower Karoo Group, and isostatic rebound eventually produced a broad flood plain on which the coal-bearing Lower Permian Gwembe Coal Formation was deposited. Fault-controlled maximum subsidence is represente by the lacustrine Upper Permian Madumabisa Mudstone Formation. Block-faulting and downwarping, probably due to the Gondwanide Orogeny, culminated with the introduction of large quantities of sediment through braided fluvial systems that overwhelmed and terminated Madumabisa Lake sedimentation, and is now represented by the Triassic Escarpment Grit and Interbedded Sandstone and Mudstone Formations of the Upper Karoo Group. Outpourings of basaltic flows in the Early Jurassic terminated Karoo sedimentation.     

Depositional Environments in the Eastern Paratethys during the Final Middle Miocene Transgression (Kura Basin,Eastern Georgia)

Lithology and Mineral Resources - The mineral composition and depositional environments of the Konkian in eastern Georgia (Kura trough, eastern Paratethys) corresponding to the Kosovian...     

The Selloum Basin: new element of the Middle Liassic paleogeography in the southern Middle Atlas (Morocco)

A comparative study of the Middle Liassic series in the south western part of the Middle Atlas system leads to the definition of three new formations called Fellat 1, 2 and 3. They mainly involve gravity-flow deposits related to the breakup of the regional carbonate platform in a subsiding area, the Selloum Basin. The creation of this basin provides evidence for a rifting stage during the Carixian–Domerian interval, inducing the separation of the Selloum unit with respect to the Middle Atlasic trough and its possible connection with the High Atlasic sedimentary domain.     

Sedimentology of the Madumabisa Mudstone Formation (Late Permian), Lower Karoo Group,mid-Zambezi Valley Basin,southern Zambia

Sediments of the Upper Carboniferous to Lower Jurassic Karoo Supergroup (∼ 4.5 km thick) were deposited in the mid-Zambezi Valley Basin, southern Zambia. The Upper Palæozoic Lower Karoo Group in this area ends with a Late Permian sedimentary unit called the Madumabisa Mudstone Formation. The formation is 700 m thick and comprises four lithofacies grouped into two facies assemblages, collectively interpreted as lacustrine deposits. Sediments of a massive mudrock facies assemblage were deposited from suspension, probably from sediment-laden rivers entering a lake. Concretionary calcilutite beds probably mark the positions of palæosediment-water interfaces where calcite was precipitated. A laminated mudrock facies assemblage is attributed to lacustrine deposition from inflowing rivers at the lake margins and shallow parts of the lake. Repeated thickening-upward cycles are evidence of upward shallowing, interrupted by events of more abrupt deepening. Sandstone interbeds are interpreted as fluvial deposits laid down during low lake stands, with cross-lamination and asymmetrical ripples indicating current rather than wave deposition. A fossil assemblage of ostracods, bivalves, gastropods, fish scales, the alga Botryococcus sp. and fossil burrows is consistent with a lacustrine origin for the formation.     

An overview of the Permian (Karoo) coal deposits of southern Africa

The coal deposits of southern Africa (Botswana, Malawi, Mozambique, Namibia, South Africa, Swaziland, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe) are reviewed. The coal seams formed during two periods, the Early Permian (Artinskian–Kungurian) and the Late Permian (Ufimian–Kazanian). The coals are associated with non-marine terrestrial clastic sedimentary sequences, most commonly mudrock and sandstones, assigned to the Karoo Supergroup. The Early Permian coals are most commonly sandstone-hosted while the younger coals typically occur interbedded with mudstones. The sediments were deposited in varying tectono-sedimentary basins such as foreland, intracratonic rifts and intercratonic grabens and half-grabens. The depositional environments that produced the coal-bearing successions were primarily deltaic and fluvial, with some minor shoreline and lacustrine settings. Coals vary in rank from high-volatile bituminous to anthracite and characteristically have a relatively high inertinite component, and medium- to high-ash content. In countries where coal is mined, it is used for power generation, coking coal, synfuel generation, gasification and for (local) domestic household consumption.     

Depositional history and evolution of the Paso del Indio site,Vega Baja,Puerto Rico

Potshards discovered during excavation of bridge pilasters for a major expressway over the Rio Indio floodplain, a stream incised within the karsts of north‐central Puerto Rico, required large‐scale archaeological excavation. Five‐meter‐deep bridge pilaster excavations in the alluvial valley provide a 4500‐year history of deposition. Stratigraphic analysis of the exposed pilaster walls in combination with textural and organic carbon analyses of sediment cores obtained over a much broader area suggest a fluvial system dominated by overbank deposition. Six sequences of alternating light and dark layers of sediment were identified. The darker layers are largely composed of silts and clays, whereas the lighter layers are rich in sand‐sized sediment. Archaeological evidence indicates the organic‐rich dark layers, believed to be buried A horizons, coincide with pre‐historic occupation by Cedrosan Saladoid, Elenan Ostionoid, and Chican Ostionoid, extending from A.D. 450 to A.D. 1500. Lighter layers below the dark soil horizons are interpreted as overbank deposits from large magnitude flood events. The floodplain aggraded discontinuously with rapid deposition of sand followed by gradual accumulation of silt, clay, and organic material. An approximately 1‐m‐thick layer of coarse sand and gravel halfway up the stratigraphic column represents an episode of more frequent and severe floods. Based on radiocarbon ages, this layer aggraded between A.D. 1000 and A.D. 1100, which is well within the Elenan Ostionoid era (A.D. 900–1200). Rates of sedimentation during this period were approximately 8 mm per year, ten times greater than the estimates of sedimentation rates before and after this flood sequence. The cause for the change in deposition is unknown. Nonetheless the Elenan Ostionoid would have had to endure frequent loss of habitation structures and crops during these events. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

松辽盆地姚家组—嫩江组沉积演化与成藏响应

松辽盆地姚家组—嫩江组是一套完整的基准面升降旋回沉积地层,嫩江组二段底部最大湖泛面形成了盆地范围内稳定分布的油页岩,不仅是层序及地层对比的标准界面,而且成为重要的烃源岩层和盖层。姚家组及嫩江组一段是湖进形成的大型湖泊与退积型三角洲沉积,嫩江组二段到五段是强制性水退形成的大型湖泊与进积三角洲沉积;在湖进期嫩江组一段长轴物源方向发育大型重力流水道及末端浊积扇沉积,在嫩江组二段强制性水退环境下进积型三角洲前方发育大型滑塌扇沉积;储集层是湖进-湖退过程中形成的大型三角洲复合体,以分流河道、河口坝及席状砂体为特征,这些砂体向湖盆中心延伸楔入湖相泥岩及成熟烃源岩中,形成良好的生储盖组合关系,特别是盆地长轴物源方向发育的大型三角洲复合体成为油藏集中发育的良好场所,是松辽盆地成为巨型陆相含油气盆地的重要地质条件,同时重力流水道及滑塌扇体也具有形成岩性油气藏的有利条件,是不可忽视的勘探领域。     

Late Neoproterozoic (Ediacaran)-Early Paleozoic (Cambrian) acritarchs from the Marwar Supergroup,Bikaner-Nagaur Basin,Rajasthan

Characteristic latest Neoproterozoic and Early Paleozoic acritarchs and associated organic-walled microfossils are recorded from the sediments of Marwar Supergroup encountered in BGW-A well (Bikaner-Nagaur Basin) from 1123–481 m depth. Six distinct acritarch assemblages, broadly comparable with globally known Ediacaran (Vendian) and Cambrian assemblages are recognised. The recovered microfossils provide precise age for different units of the Marwar Supergroup whose ages, till now, were poorly understood due to absence or paucity of invertebrate and other mega and microfossils.     

The status and local stratigraphical context of the Hampen Formation type section (Bathonian,Middle Jurassic)

The type section of the Hampen Formation, as currently defined, is located near Salperton (Gloucestershire); it comprises beds of Middle Jurassic (Bathonian) age. Its validity as a type section is questioned; only the uppermost 2.3 m are herein considered truly to represent the Hampen Formation. The underlying 7.4 m are re-defined as a facies variant of the Througham Formation, for which the name Daglingworth Member is proposed. A review of the local stratigraphical context clarifies the relationship of the Hampen Formation, as newly defined, and of the Daglingworth Member, to contiguous stratigraphical units.     

Sedimentation rate and subsidence history of the southeastern Karoo Basin,South Africa,using 1D backstripping method

Backstripping analysis has been carried out on five boreholes and one outcrop section of the Ecca Group in the Main Karoo Basin of South Africa to determine the sedimentation rate and subsidence history of the basin. The result shows that the rate of sedimentation in the Prince Albert, Whitehill, Collingham, Ripon and Fort Brown Formations range between 0.003–0.03, 0.02–0.05, 0.01–0.05, 0.03–0.22, and 0.15–0.025 mm year^?1, respectively. The backstripped subsidence curves that are constructed by removing the effects of decompaction to the water column and sediment loads show subsidence rates decreasing with time, resembling the typical thermal subsidence curves of passive continental margins. Three major subsidence episodes characterized the Ecca Group, namely, (1) rapid subsidence in an extensional regime, (2) slow subsidence in the middle of basin development and (3) another rapid subsidence in a compressional regime. The aforementioned subsidence episodes show that the southeastern Karoo Basin was located on a passive continental margin, suggesting that the subsidence was initiated and mainly controlled by mechanical (gravitational loading) or tectonic events, with little contribution of thermal events. The average rate of tectonic subsidence in the Prince Albert, Whitehill, Collingham, Ripon and Fort Brown Formations are 63, 28, 25, 215 and 180 m Ma^?1, respectively. It is also inferred that the southeastern Karoo Basin evolved from a passive continental margin into an Andean-type continental foreland basin; thus, portraying a completely evolved post-rift setting along the southeastern Gondwana margin.