Lithostratigraphy and depositional environments in the Waterberg-Erongo area, central Namibia, and correlation with the main Karoo Basin, South Africa.

Holzförster F, Stollhofen H, Stanistreet IG (1999)

Publication Language: English

Publication Type: Journal article, Original article

Publication year: 1999

Journal

Journal of African Earth Sciences

Pages Range: 105-123

Journal Issue: 29

DOI: 10.1016/S0899-5362(99)00083-4

Abstract

The dissected landscape of the Waterberg-Erongo area, central Namibia, exposes Karoo-equivalent strata deposited in basins that occur throughout sub-Saharan Africa. Although many are of economic interest, including coal-bearing strata, their depositional history is not well understood. This study of the Waterberg-Erongo area provides detailed lithostratigraphical data, which suggest sedimentation from the late Early Triassic to the Early Jurassic in a fault-bounded depository. Subsidence and sediment supply were controlled predominantly by the northeast-southwest trending Waterberg-Omaruru Fault Zone, which defines the northwestern margin of the depository. Facies development and thickness distribution of the Karoo strata in the Waterberg-Erongo area, perhaps the most continuous of any of the Karoo basins, indicate a northeastwardly-migrating depocentre alongside that fault, in response to major extensional movements in the early pre-South Atlantic rift zone. Periodic fault movements repeatedly caused basinward progradation of the alluvial facies, which are reflected by stacked fining-upward cycles in the lithological record. On a broader scale, the results of this study suggest that the northward propagation of the rift zone between Southern Africa and South America, was partially accommodated by transfer lineaments. Local depocentres developed along these lineaments, such as those in the Waterberg-Erongo area, with localised enhanced subsidence greater than that revealed in other Namibian onshore exposures, dominated by the rifting itself.

Authors with CRIS profile

Harald Stollhofen Lehrstuhl für Geologie (Exogene Dynamik)

Involved external institutions

The University of Liverpool GB United Kingdom (GB) Julius-Maximilians-Universität Würzburg DE Germany (DE)

How to cite

APA:

Holzförster, F., Stollhofen, H., & Stanistreet, I.G. (1999). Lithostratigraphy and depositional environments in the Waterberg-Erongo area, central Namibia, and correlation with the main Karoo Basin, South Africa. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 29, 105-123. https://doi.org/10.1016/S0899-5362(99)00083-4

MLA:

Holzförster, Frank, Harald Stollhofen, and Ian G. Stanistreet. "Lithostratigraphy and depositional environments in the Waterberg-Erongo area, central Namibia, and correlation with the main Karoo Basin, South Africa." Journal of African Earth Sciences 29 (1999): 105-123.

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