The sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Beaufort Group of the Karoo Supergroup in the vicinity of Thaba Nchu, central Free State province

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dc.contributor.authorRutherford, Anthony Brian
dc.date.accessioned2009-09-11T07:33:29Z
dc.date.available2009-09-11T07:33:29Z
dc.date.issued2009-09-11T07:33:29Z
dc.description.abstractDifferent basin fill models have been proposed for the retroarc foreland basin within which the Karoo Supergroup of South Africa was deposited. The most recent of these proposals suggests that the Karoo Basin behaved as a partitioned entity and that reciprocal infill occurred either side of a hinge line in the centre of the basin. Detailed sedimentological, palaeontological, stratigraphic and geophysical information for the Beaufort Group in the eastern central Free State in the vicinity of Thaba Nchu is presented here enhances aspects of this model. It is shown that the fossils assignable to the Dicynodon, Lystrosaurus and Cynognathus assemblage zones occur within the sandstones and mudrocks of the Balfour, Katberg and Burgersdorp formations in the study area. Using this combined data set it is shown that parts of the Beaufort Group stratigraphic succession which are present in the southern part of the Karoo Basin are absent in the central Free State. This suggests a depositional hiatus at both the beginning of the Lystrosaurus Assemblage Zone and at the end of Cynognathus Assemblage Zone times. During these hiatuses deposition was restricted to the proximal sector i.e. south of the hinge line. This finding is in line with the proposal that the Karoo Basin behaved as a partitioned basin with reciprocal fill. Geophysical information defines a basement high north-east of Thaba Nchu that probably accounts for a coarse-grained unit with anomalous palaeocurrent directions within the study area.en_US
dc.identifier.urihttp://hdl.handle.net/10539/7235
dc.language.isoenen_US
dc.titleThe sedimentology and stratigraphy of the Beaufort Group of the Karoo Supergroup in the vicinity of Thaba Nchu, central Free State provinceen_US
dc.typeThesisen_US
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