Observed link between folded Seaward Dipping Reflectors (SDRs) and large-scale morphology and architecture of the Early Cretaceous carbonate build-up and platform in the Orange Basin

Abstract

The Orange Basin is located in the volcanic-rifted margin of Namibia and South Africa and was formed during the break-up of Gondwana in the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous period (e.g. Nurnberg and Muller, 1991; Karner and Driscoll, 1999). Rifting and opening of the Orange Basin is believed to have occurred in an already extended and possibly inverted basement (Clemson et al., 2002). A general tectono-stratigraphic chart of the Orange Basin is presented in Figure 1.