Chapter 12 The foreland karoo basin, south africa

Abstract

Publisher Summary This chapter discusses the different aspects of the foreland Karoo basin, South Africa. The main Karoo Basin contains strata that range in age from late Carboniferous to middle Jurassic and attain a maximum cumulative thickness of approximately 12 km in the southeastern portion of the basin toward the eastern end of the Karoo trough. The basin covers an area of approximately 700,000 km2, but it was more extensive during the late Carboniferous to Permian, when it formed one of the major depocentres in southwest Gondwana with an area of at least 1,500,000 km2. The Karoo basin is filled with clastic and subordinate igneous rocks belonging to the Karoo supergroup. The Dwyka group forms the basal part of the succession and consists of diamictite and other glacial-related rock types deposited during the late Carboniferous and early Permian. The deposits are overlain by the mudrock-dominated Permian Ecca group, generally representing suspension settling.