Recalibrating the breakup history of SW Gondwana: U–Pb radioisotopic age constraints from the southern Cape of South Africa

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Syn-rift deposits often provide the only means to determine the chronology of rift initiation and evolution. However, the earliest syn-rift packages deposited in Jurassic – Cretaceous rift basins that formed during the breakup of SW Gondwana are poorly understood because they are deeply buried beneath overlying passive margin sequences. The exhumed remnants of several such rift basins are exposed in the southern Cape of South Africa and contain the Suurberg and Uitenhage groups, which are predominantly continental, taphrogenic, fossiliferous strata interbedded with volcaniclastics. Here we present the first robust U–Pb chronostratigraphic framework for these groups by dating zircon in nine pyroclastic and five resedimented volcaniclastic deposits using Laser Ablation – Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (LA-ICPMS). To further improve the precision and accuracy of the results, we utilize Chemical Abrasion – Thermal Ionisation Mass Spectrometry (CA-TIMS) on four selected samples minimizing the effects of Pb-loss and further constraining depositional uncertainties. We thereby show that the Suurberg Group was deposited rapidly during the emplacement of the Karoo Large Igneous Province in the Early Jurassic and likely predates the main phase of rifting, whereas the Uitenhage Group was deposited over a prolonged (>40 Ma) period beginning in the Early Jurassic and continuing into the Early Cretaceous. The Uitenhage Group records two phases of rifting: an initial Jurassic episode that roughly coincides with the separation of East and West Gondwana and is contemporaneous with widespread volcanism in SW Gondwana, and a subsequent period of renewed rifting during the Early Cretaceous opening of the South Atlantic and initiation of the Agulhas Falkland Transform. This framework illustrates the complexity of long-lived rift-basin sedimentation and highlights the importance of high-resolution chronostratigraphy when investigating and integrating the tectonic, palaeogeographic and palaeontological records from the final stages of a unified SW Gondwana.