Abstract
The lithostratigraphy and structure of the southern Karoo Basin is analyzed based on detailed re-logging of 11 deep boreholes drilled by SOEKOR in the 1960s. The Karoo Supergroup here is between 750 and 5540 m thick. The sequence starts with an extensive cover of glaciomarine and/or glaciolacustrine bedded diamictites with black shales of the mid-Carboniferous to Lower Permian Dwyka Group (353–744 m thick), capped by 79–569 m black shales of the lowermost Ecca Group deposited during rapid deglaciation that mark a relatively short-lived time horizon. The black shales are overlain by middle- to outer-fan turbidites in the southernmost deeper part of the basin that grade over a distance of 50 km northward into alternating dark gray silty shales with fine sandstones and carbonated mudstones characteristic of shallower shelf-slope deposits. The successions become regionally sandier and thicker bedded upward, implying a first-order regression that is marked by at least two second-order regressive surfaces, but the transition to the fluvial, Middle Permian to Triassic Beaufort Group cannot at this stage be mapped with confidence. In addition, along the southern margin, flanking the Cape Fold Belt, the Karoo successions are variably deformed, whilst farther north increasingly abundant dolerite sills intrude progressively to greater depths, all of which complicate unraveling the basin-wide stratigraphy.
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Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support by the DST/NRF of South Africa. We thank the Council for Geosciences in Pretoria for providing the original SOEKOR well logs and for their help in accessing and sampling the archived cores. We also thank Doug Cole for a critical review and advice. This is AEON contribution number 155.
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Linol, B., Chere, N., Muedi, T., Nengovhela, V., de Wit, M.J. (2016). Deep Borehole Lithostratigraphy and Basin Structure of the Southern Karoo Basin Re-Visited. In: Linol, B., de Wit, M. (eds) Origin and Evolution of the Cape Mountains and Karoo Basin. Regional Geology Reviews. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40859-0_1
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