Sedimentology of granite boulder conglomerates and associated clastics in the onshore section of the late Mesozoic Pletmos Basin (Western Cape, South Africa)

Abstract

Along the southern margin of South Africa, intermountain rift successions, which comprise unusually large, rounded granite boulders and other coarse clastics, reveal an important geological history about the mid-Mesozoic extensional tectonics that lead to the break-up of Gondwana. These strata, mapped as part of the Mid to Upper Jurassic Enon Formation, allow the assessment of the nature, intensity and mode of sediment transport in onshore section of the Pletmos Basin, which is one of the late Mesozoic basins in southern Africa. Based on sedimentary facies analysis, palaeocurrent measurements and semi-quantitative palaeohydraulic calculations, the results suggest that the abundant coarse sediment was deposited by debris-flows and stream-flow floods on a proximal alluvial fan with high gradient alluvial channels. The floods were intense with mean flow velocity of ∼6 m3/s and peak discharge of ∼450 m3/s. While the role of climate in the sedimentation dynamics remains unknown, syn-sedimentary rift tectonics were likely significant and caused, north of the major boundary fault, the unroofing and denudation of the uplifted mountainous source areas, including the Late Ediacaran–Cambrian Maalgaten Granite Suite and the Siluro-Ordovician Table Mountain Group (Cape Supergroup).