Metamorphism of the Permo-Triassic Cape Fold Belt and its basement, South Africa

Abstract

The Permo-Triassic Cape Fold Belt around the southern tip of Africa consists of a thick sequence of Palaezoic siliciclastic sedimentary and pre-Cape basement rocks believed to be of Pan-African age. Both the basement rocks and the supracrustal rocks of the Cape Supergroup display only low metamorphic grades. Application of chlorite, chlorite-chloritoid Fe-Mg exchange, and calcite-graphite carbon isotope geothermometry to rocks from the unconformable contact between pre-Cape basement and the Cape Supergroup made it possible to distinguish pre-Cape and syn-Cape metamorphic overprints. During Pan-African metamorphism temperatures of up to middle greenschist facies conditions (around 400 °C) were reached, whereas lowermost greenschist facies conditions (around 300 °C) were not exceeded during the 220–290 Ma Cape orogeny. In the past, most if not all of the pre-Cape basement rocks, which form the Pan-African Saldania Belt, were considered to be of Neoproterozoic age. A hiatus of about 100 °C observed between two adjacent limestone horizons that previously had been grouped together into a single formation at the bottom of the allegedly Neoproterozoic Kango Group indicates that almost all of this group is syn- to post-orogenic with respect to the Pan-African orogeny. A revision of the stratigraphy of the Kango Group is therefore suggested. Only its lowermost member is truly Pan-African and probably related to about 620–740 Ma post-Sturtian cap carbonates in other Pan-African belts of southern Africa. The remainder of the Kango Group reflects the successive development of two stages of orogen-related intra-continental basins: The older stage led to a typical syn-orogenic foreland basin related to tectonic loading in the Gariep and Damara orogenic belts further north(west) between 570 and 540 Ma; the younger is believed to have formed either a further foreland basin or an intra-orogen pull-apart basin caused by later tectonic loading in the Ross orogenic belt and its continuation into the southern Saldania Belt between 510 and 480 Ma.