Journal of African Earth Sciences 43 (2005) 196210 www.elsevier.

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The Cape Basin, South Africa: A review

R.W. Shone *, P.W.K. Booth
Geology Department, University of Port Elizabeth, P.O. Box 1600, Port Elizabeth 6000, South Africa Received 1 June 2004; accepted 18 July 2005 Available online 3 November 2005

Abstract Sedimentary rocks of the Palaeozoic Cape Supergroup, Natal Group and Msikaba Formation were deposited on a passive continental margin in a variety of terrestrial and shallow marine-shelf depositional environments, from the early Ordovician until the mid-Carboniferous. Tectonism, which took place between 278 Ma and 230 Ma, aected only the Cape Supergroup rocks and resulted in the Cape Fold Belt. Rocks of the Natal Group and Msikaba Formation were not tectonized. In the Cape Fold Belt, the presence of thrust-stacked successions, together with evidence of thrust-eliminated pelitic units, cast doubt on the reliability of some aspects of the accepted lithostratigraphy. In spite of deciencies in the available database, it is possible broadly to reconstruct the probable basin history; a rifted continental margin seems a likely setting for the Cape Supergroup, Natal Group and Msikaba deposits. 2005 Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Keywords: Palaeozoic Cape Basin; Cape Supergroup; Depositional sedimentary environments; Thrust-stacking; Stratigraphic implications

1. Introduction Early Palaeozoic metasedimentary rocks of the Cape Supergroup, Natal Group and Msikaba Formation crop out along the southwestern, southern and southeastern margins of South Africa. Most of the outcrop lies in a laterally continuous fold-and-thrust belt, the Cape Fold Belt whereas the Msikaba Formation and the Natal Group occur as smaller entities in the eastern part of the country, and are relatively undeformed (Fig. 1). The latter two entities are correlated with the main outcrop area of the Cape Supergroup in the south and western areas, based on lithological similarities and age correspondence (Hobday and Matthew, 1974; Marshall and von Brunn, 1999). Metasediments of the Cape Supergroup, the Natal Group and the Msikaba Formation were deposited in what appears to have been a single sedimentary basin, the Cape Basin. This basin may have extended into parts of what is now Argentina, where there are similar outcrops of folded Early Palaeozoic metasediments (du Toit, 1927; Cobbold et al.,
*

Corresponding author. E-mail address: russell.shone@nmmu.ac.za (R.W. Shone).

1992). Strata of the Cape Supergroup (Table Mountain Group, Bokkeveld Group and Witteberg Group) consist of clastic metasedimentary rocks, predominantly quartzites and phyllites (though often referred to as sandstones and shales) which, for the most part, have undergone no more than lower greenschist grade metamorphism (de Swardt and Rowsell, 1974). The thickness of the whole Cape succession may be as little as 3300 m although it appears to thicken considerably in the eastern parts of the fold belt (Rust, 1973). The prevalence of thrusting and the presence of thick, thrust-stacked successions with few marker beds (Booth and Shone, 1998, 1999) make it dicult if not impossible to measure the original thicknesses of the individual stratigraphic sub-units which make up the Cape Supergroup. The age of the Cape succession (as inferred from its stratigraphic relationships with underlying and older rocks, interpretations of Cape sedimentary sequences in terms of world-wide sea-level curves and the body- and trace-fossil content of the Cape strata) is generally believed to range from earliest Ordovician to Mid-Carboniferous (Broquet, 1992). Deformation of the Cape strata, the preCape basement and some of the Karoo cover rocks is thought to have taken place in four major compressional

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Fig. 1. Map showing the outcrop of Cape Supergroup rocks in the Republic of South Africa. C = Ceres, H = Hibberdene, K = Kareedouw, O = Oudtshoorn, P = Piketberg, PA = Port Alfred, S = Steytlerville, U = Uniondale, Ul = Ulundi, VRD = Vanrhynsdorp.

episodes during the Permian and Triassic, between 278 Ma and 230 Ma (Ha lbich et al., 1983). This orogeny resulted in north-verging thrusts and folds in the southern branch of the Cape Fold Belt. In the western branch of the fold belt, open folds are indicative of less severe deformation. The two fold branches meet in a syntaxial zone characterized by a pattern of interference structures (de Beer, 1992). During the subsequent breakup of Gondwana, Cape Supergroup strata were subject to tensional stresses resulting in complex horst, graben and half-graben structures. These are readily recognized wherever younger (Mesozoic) sediments are preserved in fault-bounded basins (e.g. Oudtshoorn, Gamtoos, and Algoa Basins), but they are certainly prevalent elsewhere throughout the fold belt. 2. Lithostratigraphic subdivisions of the Cape Supergroup Lithostratigraphic subdivision of the Cape Supergroup into three distinctive groups (from oldest to youngest, the Table Mountain, Bokkeveld and Witteberg Groups; SACS, 1980) rests in part, on the dierent rock types and ready mappability of the three units (Fig. 2). In some areas, within each group, the presence of numerous closely spaced thrusts in parts of the southern branch of the fold belt, give rise to tectonically thickened sequences. In addition, since pelitic units are commonly smeared out along thrust planes, and many fold limbs consist of previously thruststacked units, it appears that the established lithostratigraphic succession is, at least in parts of the fold belt, an artefact of the tectonic history. 2.1. The Table Mountain Group The Table Mountain Group can be subdivided into the following, from oldest to youngest.

2.1.1. The Piekenierskloof Formation Rust and Theron (1964) described a reddish conglomerate from the Vanrhynsdorp area of the Western Cape which they considered to be the very base of the Cape succession. The conglomerate contains angular to subrounded boulders, cobbles and pebbles of dolomite, quartzite, vein quartz, jasper, shale and pink gneiss. The conglomerate varies in thickness from about 1 m at Giftberg, about 15 km south of Vanrhynsdorp to more than 60 m south of Groot Kobe some 29 km east of Vanrhynsdorp (Rust and Theron, 1964). Later Rust (1967) described similar basal conglomerates from the Piketberg area, which he called the Piekenier Formation. He identied two distinctly dierent members, the Rest Member and the De Hoek Member which he considered to represent proximal/distal facies of the Piekenierskloof Formation. The Rest Member is a thick-bedded, profusely cross-bedded conglomerate consisting predominantly of vein quartz pebbles averaging about 6 cm in diameter. Palaeoow as determined from the cross-bedding was towards the southeast (Rust, 1967, Fig. 84). The De Hoek Member, which crops out south of Piketberg, is described as a gritty, thick-bedded orthoquartzose (quartz arenite) sandstone. The thickness of the Piekenier is evidently greatly variable. Rust (1967) suggests a thickness of up to 1000 m. The contact between the Piekenierskloof Formation and the underlying pre-Cape rocks (including the Klipheuwel Formation) is marked by an angular unconformity, although in some areas the contact is essentially that of a disconformity (Rust, 1967). According to Rust (1967, 1969) the Piekenierskloof Formation was deposited in a relatively narrow northwest-southeast trending embayment, probably open to the sea at its southeastern extremity. This might suggest that the Piekenierskloof Formation was always rather

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Fig. 2. Stratigraphic column for the Cape Supergroup.

limited in lateral extent. However, a conglomerate at Sardinia Bay, near Port Elizabeth, occupies a similar stratigraphic position to the Piekenierskloof Formation at the base of the Table Mountain Group. Although clearly not connected to the outcrops of Piekenierskloof Formation in the Western Cape, the Sardinia Bay conglomerate is probably representative of local early Cape sedimentation on a rugged pre-Cape landscape. The Sardinia Bay conglomerate does not yet have formation status. 2.1.2. The Graafwater and Sardinia Bay formations These two formations are spatially separated by some 700 km, occurring at the western and easternmost ends of the main fold belt. They are included under one heading because both overlie basal conglomerates, and stratigraphically lie at or near the base of the Cape Supergroup. The Graafwater Formation outcrops are conned to a narrow northwest-southeast trending area of the westernmost Cape (Rust, 1977), whereas the Sardina Bay Formation is exposed only in a narrow coastal outcrop at Sardinia Bay near Port Elizabeth (Shone, 1983). The 70 m thick Graafwater Formation, which rests unconformably on pre-Cape basement, consists of a basal conglomeratic unit (the Bellvue Conglomerate Member; Rust, 1977) which contains rather angular cobbles and pebbles of vein quartz, quartzite and chert (Rust, 1977). The successively overlying units consist of thinly-interbedded reddish- to maroon-coloured quartzites and siltstones (Loop Member), coarse, pebbly white-coloured quartzites (Tierhoek Sandstone Member) and purple quartzites and interbedded siltstones with abundant trace fossils, especially Skolithos traces (Faroo Member). An identiable erosion surface separates the Graafwater Formation from the overlying Peninsula Formation (Rust, 1967). Erosion surfaces are common throughout the Graafwater succession, typically demarcated by deformed clay pellet conglomerates at the bases of thin sandstone/quartzite units.

The Graafwater quartzites are identied as orthoquartzites by Rust (1977) and quartz arenites by Tankard and Hobday (1977). Sedimentary structures identied by Rust (1977) and Tankard and Hobday (1977) include megaripple trough- and planar-crossbedding with set heights of up to a metre. Herringbone patterns formed by dierent foreset orientations are common, and reactivation surfaces have been identied by Tankard and Hobday (1977). Flaser-, wavy- and lenticular-bedding are predominant sedimentary structures in the thinly-interbedded quartzites, siltstones and mudrocks. Wave- and currentripple structures are common, including at-topped, double-crested types and ladderback ripple patterns. Some red mudrock layers are characterized by sand-lled cracks associated with desiccation polygons up to 0.3 m in diameter. Other post-depositional sedimentary structures include water-escape structures. Trace fossils are relatively common, including the genera Skolithos, Petalichnus and Arthrophycus. No body fossils have as yet been found in the Graafwater Formation. Palaeocurrent analyses by Rust (1977) show a general bimodal, but not quite bipolar palaeoow pattern with weak vector means towards the north-northeast and south-southwest (Rust, 1977, p. 129), whereas the data presented by Tankard and Hobday (1977, p. 142) for large-scale crossbeds are indicative of local variations in palaeoow with predominantly unimodal westerly to southwesterly ow directions. Tankard and Hobday (1977) identied a ning-upward facies sequence as typical of the Graafwater Formation. This sequence is characterized by a basal quartz-arenite/ quartzite with large-scale crossbeds. These rocks are overlain successively by ner-grained quartzite with ripple structures, thinly-interbedded mudstone and quartzite (the former with sand-lled cracks dening desiccation polygons) and red- to maroon-coloured mudrock.

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At the eastern end of the fold belt the 180 m thick Sardinia Bay Formation crops out in a narrow strip along the coast just west of Port Elizabeth. It occurs as a sliver of relatively undisturbed strata sandwiched between severely tectonized Table Mountain Group quartzites. It appears to be close to the base of the Cape succession in the area as it seems to lie immediately above or close to the tectonized conglomerate unit described above (Section 2.1.1). Weathered granite outcrops at the base of this conglomerate could either be part of the pre-Cape basement proper or thrust-in fragments of this basement basement. The Sardinia Bay Formation itself consists of relatively thin-bedded quartzites and phyllites (formerly siltstones and siltstreaked mudrocks). The quartzites are mostly quartz arenites and sub-lithic arenites, but some of them contain numerous large subhedral detrital grains of microcline feldspar (Shone, 1983). Two thin, matrix-supported conglomerate horizons containing angular vein quartz pebbles occur near the base of the succession. An 18 m thick turbidite containing large rip-up clasts occurs at the top of the Sardinia Bay Formation (Shone, 1987). Channelled erosion surfaces occur in the lower and upper parts of the Sardinia Bay Formation, but in general, erosion surfaces are rare. What appear to be burrowed hardgrounds may testify to periods of non-deposition. Sedimentary structures found in the Sardinia Bay Formation include large-scale trough and planar crossbedding (set heights up to a metre) in herringbone cosets, abundant wave- and current-ripple structures and associated aser, wavy and lenticular bedding. The remains of a large sandwave structure complete with lee-side lowangle erosion surfaces and complex intraset cross-laminae have also been identied (Shone, 1983). Other syn-depositional sedimentary structures found include low-angle and near-horizontal lamination, hummocky stratication and graded bedding (in the turbidite unit). Imbricated pebbles with their long axes oriented sub-parallel to the inferred ow direction occur at the base of the turbidite unit (Shone, 1987). Post-depositional sedimentary structures include water-escape structures, load-casts and ame structures (Shone, 1983). The Sardinia Bay Formation is notable for its trace fossil assemblage (Shone, 1991). Genera identied include Ophiomorpha, Thalassinoides, Diplocraterion, Skolithos, (?)Chondrites, (?)Planolites, (?)Fascifodina and possible Cruziana (Shone, op. cit.). Enigmatic body fossils include what appear to be abraded fragments of stromatoporoid origin (Shone, 1983). Palaeocurrent analysis of restored crossbed and trough axis data collected from individual units in the Sardinia Bay Formation shows a bimodal, nearly-bipolar distribution of the palaeoow data. Flow was characterized by high vector strengths and was mainly to the northwest and east-southeast (Shone, 1983, pp. 273313). The inferred ow direction at the base of the turbidite unit at the top of the Sardinia Bay Formation is to the southeast (Shone, 1983, 1987).

Sequence analysis of the facies identied in the Sardinia Bay Formation suggests that a silt-streaked mud was the base state in the immediate Sardinia Bay depository, with episodic introduction of sands (Shone, 1983, pp. 332341). Although the Sardinia Bay Formation and the Graafwater Formation are spatially separated by some 700 km, they are tentatively correlated as time-equivalent deposits, based on the observation that both occur near the base of the Cape Supergroup. 2.1.3. The Peninsula Formation The Peninsula Formation (SACS, 1980) crops out in both the western and eastern parts of the Cape Fold Belt. In the eastern Cape Fold Belt the Peninsula consists of little more than a succession of stacked thrust-bounded quartzite packages. The closely-spaced thrusts are commonly, but not always, sub-parallel to bedding surfaces, and many identiable mudrock/phyllite units have evidently been smeared out and almost obliterated during thrusting. This indicates that even if individual beds are preserved, the exposed sequence as a whole is an artefact of the tectonism and cannot be subjected to meaningful lithostratigraphic analysis. In the western Cape exposures, however, where thrusting appears to be less pervasive, available lithostratigraphic and sedimentologic data on the Peninsula Formation may be more reliable. Here the Peninsula Formation is reportedly only 550 m thick (Fuller and Broquet, 1990), considerably less than the 3500 m mooted as a maximum thickness (see Visser, 1974; Johnson, 1991). Exposures of undisturbed Peninsula Formation in the Platteklip Gorge, on the east face of Table Mountain, have been described by Fuller and Broquet (1990). These strata consist of well-bedded, pebbly, supermature quartzites with channel cut-and-ll structures particularly in the upper half of the succession (Broquet, 1990). Some of the preserved channel cuts are as much as 40 m deep and several kilometres in lateral extent (Hobday and Tankard, 1978). Mudrock is reportedly very rare (less than 2% of the Peninsula succession). A thin but laterally-persistent clast-supported conglomerate occurs in the middle of the sequence. Some pebbles found in a lateral correlate of this conglomerate are faceted dreikanter, suggesting a period of subaerial deation (Macdonald, 1989; Fuller and Broquet, 1990). So hnge (1984) described a diamictite of probable glacial origin from the Peninsula Formation near Cape Hangklip. Other sedimentary structures found in the Peninsula Formation include large-scale trough and planar crossbedding (set heights up to 2 m), low-angle cross-lamination and horizontal lamination. At least one sandwave complex has been identied (Hobday and Tankard, 1978). Trace fossils identied in the Peninsula Formation include Diplichnites (the arthropod trackways described by Rust (1967) and Anderson (1975)), Cruziana (Potgieter and Oelofsen, 1983), and a variety of other traces usually attributed to arthropods (Rusophycus, Isopodichnus;

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Broquet, 1990). Broquet (op. cit.) also identied a number of other trace fossils (Planolites, Skolithos) and trace fossil assemblages. Palaeocurrent analyses reveal a variety of localized ow directions (see Hobday and Tankard, 1978, p. 1742). Bimodal, bipolar ow patterns characterize a few localities, but, in general, the inferred ow patterns are unimodal with vector means towards the south. Broquet (1990) and Fuller and Broquet (1990) have identied a number of ning-upwards sequences in the lower half of the Peninsula Formation. Individual ningupwards cycles become thinner-bedded towards their tops. The tops of these ning- and thinning-upwards cycles are further marked by the increasing prevalence of trace fossils (Broquet, op. cit.). 2.1.4. The Pakhuis Formation The Pakhuis Formation (Rust, 1967) is relatively thin (as little as 40 m, SACS, 1980), but up to 190 m thick (Rust, 1981). It can be subdivided into a lower portion, the Sneeukop tillite, and an upper unit, the Kobe tillite, separated by a thin quartzite, the Oskop sandstone (Rust, 1967). The Sneeukop tillite is a relatively structureless quartzite which contains faceted and striated erratics. The Oskop sandstone, which unconformably overlies the Sneeuberg tillite, contains current ripple structures and its upper surface is deeply grooved and furrowed and/or folded; features which Visser (1962), Rust (1967) and Blignault (1970) attributed to soft sediment deformation caused by the movement of an overlying ice sheet. The Kobe tillite contains large angular erratic fragments (up to 50 cm in diameter) of probable Neoproterozoic Nama Group origin (Rust, 1981). Ice movement, as inferred from tillite fabrics and soft sediment deformation features, appears to have been variable, but with a strong southerly component (Rust, 1981). 2.1.5. The Cedarberg formation shale This 150 m thick unit grades almost imperceptibly from the underlying Pakhuis Formation via a succession of diamictites and varved mudrocks (Rust, 1973). The basal portion (Soom Member) consists of a black thinly-laminated shale which is overlain by a succession of lighter-coloured mudrocks, siltstones and sandstones (Disa Member). The Disa Member contains a fossil brachiopod assemblage, including the genera ?Plectoglossa, Trematis, Orbiculoidea, Marklandella, Eostropheodonta, and Plectothyrella (Cocks et al., 1970). The Cedarberg Formation shale is a persistent unit that outcrops continuously from the western part of the fold belt to near Port Elizabeth in the east, where it dies out some 100 km west of the city. Remnants of this formation are preserved in fold noses, but not on limbs of large folds. These characteristics suggest that it represents a structurally favourable detachment zone in the eastern part of the fold belt.

2.1.6. The Nardouw Formation sandstone The Nardouw Formation sandstone is (according to SACS, 1980) a 500 m thick succession of quartzites with a few thin conglomerate stringers, some of which are characterized by small, angular vein quartz pebbles; others contain at shale clasts (Rust, 1967; Thamm, 1984). Winter (1984) has described an unconformity at the base of the Nardouw Formation, but this is not referred to by other researchers. The Nardouw exhibits abundant large-scale crossbedding (Rust, 1967). Trace fossils, particularly Skolithos are common (Rust, op. cit.) and fossil brachiopods are known to occur at the top of the formation (Theron, 1970). Palaeocurrent directions are predominantly towards the south (Rust, 1967). However, the overall vector strength for the accumulated crossbed data from a variety of dierent locations is low (about 0.6). 2.2. Bokkeveld Group The Bokkeveld Group, thought to be as much as 3000 m thick (Theron, 1970, 1972; SACS, 1980) consists of a succession of black (when freshly exposed) mudrocks, dark grey to olive-coloured siltstones and grey to olive-grey ne-grained sandstones. Sandstones containing mudclast fragments are common. In parts of the southern Cape the mudrocks contain disseminated cubes of diagenetic pyrite which rapidly alter to limonite in the weathering zone. The sandstones typically have a dirty appearance associated with lithic arenites (Tankard and Barwis, 1982). However, according to Johnson (1991), most of the Bokkeveld sandstones contain small amounts of detrital feldspar and few rock fragments. The most common sedimentary structures found in the Bokkeveld Group sandstones are wave-ripple structures and hummocky stratication (Tankard and Barwis, 1982; Rust and Shone pers. comm.). Both wave and current ripple forms tend to be associated with mudasers, or occur as partly isolated lenses in wavy and lenticular bedded mudrock. Climbing ripple cross-lamination, graded bedding and evidence of occasional emergence (sand-lled mudcracks, runzel marks) have been described by Tankard and Barwis (1982). Some sandstones contain slump structures in the form of ow rolls. The Bokkeveld strata contain numerous trace fossils including the genera Skolithos, Zoophycos and ?Planolites. Body fossils are common, including an abundance of crinoid, brachiopod, gastropod, bivalve and pteropod remains. Some cephalopod, sponge and coral fragments have been identied, as well as a few plant fragments (Reed, 1925; du Toit, 1954). Fossils are not, however, equally abundant throughout the Bokkeveld succession. The black pyritic shales, for example, contain very few body fossils and sometimes only a few enigmatic trace fossils. Palaeoow, as inferred for the Bokkeveld, is generally towards the south and southwest (Rust, 1973). Localized variations in ow and episodic current reversals are

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inferred from unspecied data by Tankard and Barwis (1982). Both ning- and coarsening-upwards sequences have been identied by Tankard and Barwis (1982). They consider the Bokkeveld succession as a whole to consist of ve major superimposed coarsening-upwards sequences, each grading from mudrock at the base upward through graywacke and lithic arenite sandstones to coarser, more quartz-arenitic sandstone. 2.3. Witteberg Group The Witteberg Group strata have been described in detail by only a handful of researchers, amongst them Loock (1967), Hiller and Dunlevy (1978), Theron and Loock (1988), Hiller and Taylor (1992), Booth et al. (1999) and Cotter (2000). The Witteberg succession is thought to attain a thickness of over 2600 m in the Eastern Cape (SACS, 1980). The lithotypes include mudrock, siltstone and sandstone. According to Johnson (1991) most Witteberg sandstones are quartz arenites or subfeldspathic arenites. For the most part the strata consist of thinly interbedded sandstones and shales. Some cut-and-ll erosion surfaces are evident, but in general individual beds show appreciable lateral continuity, except where truncated by thrusting. The thin lenticular beds illustrated by Cotter (2000, p. 5), are almost certainly thrust wedges. Sedimentary structures in the Witteberg Group strata include trough and planar crossbedding, wave ripple structures, hummocky stratication, and near-horizontal lamination. Mudrocks usually contain silt streaks. Wavy, aser and lenticular bedding characterize many of the thinly-intercalated mudrock/sandstone units. Palaeoow directions determined for the Witteberg are mainly towards the south, southeast and southwest (Rust, 1973, Fig. 12). Trace fossils found in the Witteberg include Skolithos and Zoophycos. Body fossils found in the Witteberg strata include the remains of lingulid brachiopods, palaeoniscid sh (Jubb, 1965) and lycopod and psilophyte plant fragments. In the eastern part of the fold belt, near Grahamstown, Hiller and Taylor (1992) describe carbonaceous black shale units containing fossilized sh and plant material, in association with thinly-bedded quartzites and shales. Cotter (2000) recognized a typical coarsening-upwards facies sequence in the lower part of the Witteberg Group which is repeated at least 40 times in the stratigraphic interval he investigated. The sequence, from the bottom upwards, consists of a silt-streaked mudrock grading into mudrock containing isolated wave-ripple lenticles, through wave-rippled aser-bedded sandstone, and into hummocky cross-stratied sandstone. Structurally, the Witteberg Group is thrusted and folded, as are the underlying Bokkeveld and Table Mountain Groups, particularly on the southern side of structural buttresses composed of infolded, less competent, massive tillites of the overlying Karoo Supergroup.

3. Lithostratigraphy, Natal Group and Msikaba Formation The Natal Group rocks and those of the Msikaba Formation crop out in a fairly narrow strip along or close to the eastern coast, in Pondoland and Kwazulu-Natal (Fig. 1). 3.1. Natal Group Flat-lying Natal Group rocks occur in a coast-parallel strip from Hibberdene in southern Kwazulu-Natal to Ulundi in the north, stretching as far inland as Pietermaritzburg. The Natal Group attains a maximum thickness of 530 m; (SACS, 1980) and can be subdivided into a number of readily identiable lithostratigraphic entities. Despite this there are dierences in the subdivisions recognized by dierent workers (SACS, 1980; Marshall and von Brunn, 1999, 2000). The Ulundi conglomerate at the very base of the Natal Group unconformably overlies basement rocks of the Neoproterozoic Natal Metamorphic Belt (Liu and Cooper, 1998). This basal unit is a coarse clast-supported conglomerate composed largely of quartzite pebbles with a sparse muddy-sandy matrix (Marshall and von Brunn, 1999). The Ulundi conglomerate is overlain successively by arkosic sandstones and shales (Eshowe Member of Marshall and von Brunn, 1999), a well-silicied quartz arenite unit (the Kranskloof Member), more arkosic sandstones (Situndu Member) and a second silicied quartz arenite (the Dassenhoek Member) (Fig. 2). These units make up the Durban Formation (lower half of the Natal Group, Marshall and von Brunn, op. cit.). The Durban Formation is overlain by the Marianhill Formation (Marshall and von Brunn, op. cit.) which has at its base the Tulini Member (a small-pebble conglomerate). This conglomerate underlies a succession of arkosic sandstones and shales (Newspaper Member) which is in turn overlain in some areas by a matrix-supported polymict conglomerate, the Westville Member. Sedimentary structures recognized in the quartz-arenite sandstones of the Kranskloof and Dassenhoek Members of the Durban Formation include trough and planar crossbedding, current- and wave-ripple structures and associated aser, wavy and lenticular bedding. Herringbone crossbedding is common and cyclic variations in the thickness of foreset laminae have been recognized as well as reactivation surfaces (see Liu and Cooper, 1998). Postdepositional sedimentary structures identied include mudcracks. Palaeocurrent analysis of the Natal Group as a whole shows a southerly ow trend throughout the outcrop area (Marshall and von Brunn, 1999, their Fig. 8, p. 22). For the Kranskloof and Dassenhoek Members of the Durban Formation, Liu and Cooper (1998) measured bimodal roughly bipolar ow directions, the more dominant direction to the east. A typical vertical facies sequence characterizes the quartz arenite sandstones (Kranskloof and Dassenhoek Members). Thinly-interbedded wavy and lenticular bedded

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sandstone and mudrock at the base of each cycle give way upwards to herringbone crossbedded sandstone and thence to sandstone with tabular (planar) crossbedding (Liu and Cooper, op. cit.). 3.2. Msikaba Formation The Msikaba Formation, which crops out north of Port St Johns in the southeastern part of South Africa (Fig. 2), overlies Natal Group rocks along the coast at Wood Grange and Rock of Gibraltar near Hibberdene (Marshall and von Brunn, 2000). The Msikaba Formation is therefore clearly younger than the Natal Group. The Msikaba Formation consists of a succession of pale grey quartz arenite sandstones almost 700 m thick (du Toit, 1954). Hobday and Matthew (1974) identied three distinctive facies. These include a sheet sandstone facies characterized by relatively thin, but laterally-persistent, beds containing the trace fossil Scolicia; a lenticular trough crossbedded sandstone facies with Planolites traces and inferred palaeoow towards the southwest; and a channel-sandstone facies marked by the presence of quite steep-proled channels lled by complexly crossbedded sandstone. Lycopsid plant fragments from the Msikaba Formation were identied by Lock (1973). 4. Age of the Cape Supergroup, Natal Group and Msikaba Formation Circumstantial evidence, that is, evidence on which reasonable deductions may be based, is by and large the principal source of information on the age of these successions. There are very few direct radiometric dates available, notably the early Ordovician (490 Ma) date obtained for the Natal Group (Thomas et al., 1992a,b), as well as dates for pre-Cape basement rocks, including the Darling batholith (502 Ma, Schoch, 1975) the Kango Group rocks (519 Ma, Barnett et al., 1997), and volcanic rocks associated with the Cape Granite Suite (515 Ma, Scheepers and Poujol, 2002). Most of the other dates are inferred from index fossils, a procedure fraught with pitfalls, as pointed out by Cooper (1984). These caveats notwithstanding, it is generally accepted that the Table Mountain Group rocks range from midCambrian to late Silurian (Broquet, 1992, his Table 1). The Bokkeveld Group rocks are regarded as mid Devonian and the Witteberg Group as late Devonian to mid Carboniferous in age (Broquet, op. cit.). The Natal Group rocks are Ordovician and therefore probably coeval with part of the Table Mountain Group. The Msikaba Formation, on the other hand, contains plant fossils which suggest a much younger (Devonian) age for this unit (Lock, 1973). Neither Marshall and von Brunn (1999) nor Liu and Cooper (1998) regard the Msikaba Formation as part of the Natal Group. Furthermore Liu and Cooper (1999), following Anderson and Anderson (1985) point out that the Msikaba Formation could be

even younger than the Witteberg Group. If the latter were the case then a hiatus between the Witteberg Group and the Msikaba Formation would have been very short because Dwyka tillite unconformably overlies both groups of rocks, the ice sheets having stripped o >1000 m of Msikaba overburden in Pondoland, whilst simultaneously bringing about soft sediment deformation in Witteberg sandstones along the main Cape Fold Belt. 5. Depositional sedimentary environments Depositional sedimentary environments are most reliably inferred from a variety of sedimentary parameters (geometry, lithology, sedimentary structures, fossils and trace fossils, palaeocurrent patterns, successions and cycles; Selley, 1978). Given that the known data bases for many of the above mentioned lithostratigraphic units are of variable quality, and in some cases relatively incomplete, some of the inferred depositional sedimentary environments are speculative and a few may be controversial. 5.1. Cape Supergroup The Piekenierskloof Formation at the base of the Cape succession is clearly the result of coarse clastic terrestrial sedimentation on a rugged, freshly eroded pre-Cape landscape. That these coarse sediments are found only in two localities (in the western Cape in a narrow southeast trending zone near Vanrhynsdorp, and in a coastal exposure of very limited extent at Sardinia Bay, near Port Elizabeth) may be misleading. We may not yet have seen the full extent of the basalmost Cape Supergroup, perhaps because the exposed pre-Cape/Cape contact is commonly a tectonic one (cf. Booth and Shone, 1992a). Nevertheless, Rust (1967, 1973) envisaged the Piekenier basin as a small trough-shaped one and the coarse conglomerates lling it as scree breccias, uvial conglomerates and even tillites (Rust and Theron, 1964). A braided uvial setting is invoked by Vos and Tankard (1981), Tankard et al. (1982) and Thamm (1989). The Graafwater Formation sediments are generally considered to have originated in a shallow marine tidal at setting characterized by intermittent exposure (Rust, 1977). Tankard and Hobday (1977) opted for a seawards-prograding, ebb-dominated, mesotidal, back-barrier setting for these strata which they envisaged as distal to the Piekenier facies (op. cit., their Fig. 21). The Sardinia Bay Formation in the Eastern Cape is thought to be a shallow marine shelf deposit which shows evidence of strong tidal activity (Shone, 1983). A turbidite unit at the top of the Sardinia Bay Formation suggests either a major storm surge (Shone, 1987) or a seismic event. Some controversy exists over the depositional sedimentary environment inferred for the Peninsula Formation. Rust (1973) weighed the possibilities of marine surf zone and aeolian sedimentary environments before opting for a general marine setting. Hobday and Tankard (1978) were

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more specic in their interpretation of the data, favouring a shallow marine shelf/barrier island depositional model. The marine origin of the Peninsula Formation has nevertheless been questioned by Fuller (1985) and Turner (1987). The latter considered progradation of uvial braidplain deposits over the older Graafwater deposits as a model for the deposition of the Peninsula Formation. The Pakhuis Formation is certainly glacial in origin (Visser, 1962; Rust, 1967, 1981). The ice sheet deemed to be responsible for these deposits was probably grounded, at least at its northern extremity with inferred movement of the glacier generally southwards (Rust, 1973). The Cedarberg Formation shale which overlies the Pakhuis Formation is evidently a distal marine/meltwater facies of the Pakhuis Formation (Rust, 1973). The relatively thick succession of quartzites which make up the Nardouw Formation have been ascribed to deposition in a marine setting by Rust (1973). Thamm (1987) suggested an alternative uvial setting on the basis of clast shapes, but his analysis was subsequently questioned by Reddering and Illenberger (1988). The Bokkeveld Group strata have been identied as delta and shallow marine deposits by Theron (1970), Rust (1973) and Tankard and Barwis (1982). The delta front and interdistributary bay deposits seem to be conned mostly to the more northerly outcrops of Bokkeveld, with prodelta and shallow marine muds in the more southerly areas of Bokkeveld outcrop (Rust and Shone, pers. comm.). Tankard and Barwis (1982) suggested an array of delta front sedimentary environments for the more northerly deposits, including tidal channel sand bodies, tidal at, inter-distributary bay and distributary mouth bar deposits. They found evidence of ve coarsening-upwards sequences in the Bokkeveld which they interpreted as indicating rapid subsidence, punctuated by periods of relative stability and delta progradation. The dark pyritic shales of the more southerly Bokkeveld outcrops contain few sandy units and commonly display a restricted faunal content. These strata, even though characterised by wave ripple structures and hummocky stratication (and therefore deposited just above or below ordinary wave base) seem to have been accumulated as pro-delta and shallow marine shelf deposits in what might have been an anoxic epeiric marine setting. Rust (1973) alluded to signicant changes in the rates of sedimentation and subsidence for the second half of the life of the Bokkeveld depository, which are reected in regional facies dierences in the upper part of the Bokkeveld succession. The Witteberg Group is widely believed to be the result of sedimentation in a shallow marine environment (Loock, 1967; Rust, 1973; Cotter, 2000) although distal delta settings and freshwater lagoonal depositional environments have been suggested by some researchers for specic units in the Witteberg succession (Gardiner, 1969; Johnson, 1976, 1991). The abundance of hummocky stratied sandstone and wave-rippled, aser-bedded siltstone and mudrock suggests that much of the Witteberg was deposited

close to ordinary wave base in a shallow marine depositional milieu. Loock (in Rust, 1973) evidently felt that the Witteberg succession reects an unspecied number of repeated transgressions and regressions. Cooper (1986) and Hiller and Taylor (1992) reported evidence of shoreline uctuations from Witteberg Group strata. Likewise, Cotters (2000) investigation of cyclic facies repetition in the lower Witteberg led him to suggest repeated shallowing which he related to global sea level changes. 5.2. Natal Group The Natal Group sediments are almost all inferred to be terrestrial/uvial in origin (Marshall and von Brunn, 1999), except for the two clean quartzite units (Kranskloof and Dassenhoek Members of the Durban Formation) which Liu and Cooper (1998, 1999) ascribe to deposition in a shallow, tide-dominated marine setting, an interpretation challenged by Marshall (1999). 5.3. Msikaba Formation The clean quartz arenites of the Msikaba Formation (Cape Supergroup in the southeastern part of South Africa referred to as the Transkei) were identied as shallow marine and estuarine deposits (Hobday and Matthew, 1974). They recognized the sheet sandstone facies as shallow marine shelf deposits. The lenticular sandstone units were compared to modern subtidal deposits and the channel-sandstone units ascribed to deposition in a sub-tidal estuarine setting. 6. Deformation of the Cape Supergroup Thrusting and folding is restricted to the rocks of the Cape Supergroup (Natal Group and Msikaba Formation rocks show no signs of either thrusting or folding). According to Ha lbich et al. (1983), deformation of the Cape Fold Belt began at about 278 Ma (270 million years after the deposition of the rst Cape Supergroup sediments) and ended during the mid Triassic (230 Ma) during the deposition of the Molteno Formation of the Karoo Supergroup. Ha lbich et al. (op. cit.) identied four tectonic pulses, at 278 Ma, 258 Ma, 248 Ma and 230 Ma. The eects of these episodes of intense crustal shortening include thrusting and folding of Cape Supergroup and lowermost Karoo Supergroup rocks. The deformation is most intense in the eastwest trending southern branch of the Cape Fold Belt, whereas the north-south trending western branch of the fold belt is less severely deformed (Fig. 1). A syntaxis marks the junction of the western and southern branches of the fold belt. This is an area of coeval interference folding (de Beer, 1992), these structural patterns possibly brought about by the rotation and interaction of microplates during the Cape orogeny (de Wit and Ransome, 1992). Inversion (repeated episodes of compression and extension exploiting pre-existing zones of weakness) is a

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characteristic feature of the Cape Fold Belt (de Wit and Ransome, 1992). Thrust faulting is more prevalent in the southern branch of the fold belt, and especially where there is pronounced arcuation of the fold belt, there seem to be thrusts which are characterised by relatively large displacements (e.g. Baviaanskloof thrust, 15 km displacement, Booth et al., 2004). Thrusting in the southern branch of the Cape Fold Belt is more often characterized by sets of closely-spaced thrusts and stacked thrust sheets in which individual displacements are dicult to ascertain (Fig. 3). Most of the thrust planes dip southwards, with a northward direction of thrust propagation as inferred by slickenbre orientations (Fig. 4). However, there are numerous backthrusts and associated pop-ups, triangles and wedges. Thruststacked quartzite packages, hundreds of metres thick, occur in areas of Table Mountain Group outcrop (e.g. Cape Recife, Booth and Shone, 1992b; Kareedouw and Uniondale thrust sheets, Booth and Shone, 1998, 1999). Individual thrusts are often parallel to bedding (bedding thrusts), but this is not always the case, and the thrusting also exploits suitably oriented cleavage planes, particularly in areas of Bokkeveld outcrop where there is a pervasive, south-dipping cleavage (Shone and Booth, 1993). A common feature of the thrusting is the frequent eclipse of shale units, formerly interbedded with the quartzites but then smeared out along thrust surfaces (Booth and Shone, 1992a, 1999). Thrusting can be seen to have developed in both piggy-back and break-back fashion. Folding on various scales and in an array of dierent fold styles is the most immediately obvious form of deformation in the Cape Fold Belt (Ha lbich, 1977, 1983, 1992). Gentle, fairly open folds characterize the western branch of

Fig. 3. Closely spaced thrusts in thrust-stacked quartzites of the Table Mountain Group, Uniondale. Note the development of S-C cleavages which demonstrate the direction of thrust propagation, in this case from south to north.

the fold belt, whereas tighter north-verging folds occur in the southernmost parts of the southern branch, where the deformation becomes markedly less intense and the folds more open northwards. Recumbent overfolds large enough to be identied as nappes occur at Port Elizabeth (Booth and Shone, 1992b), but in general the folds are more upright with a well-developed axial planar cleavage (Ha lbich, 1983). The relationship between thrusts and folds is a complex one. Thrusting appears to have preceded folding in many areas; In places fold limbs occur as thrust-stacked units (de Wit et al., 1998). Subsequent folding was clearly followed by more thrusting and backthrusting with suitably oriented fold limbs being exploited as zones of weakness along which renewed thrusting took place (see Booth and Shone, 1999, for examples of this). Within the Witteberg Group, the development of folds and thrusts is closely related (Booth, 1996). In some areas movement on latergeneration thrusts has re-oriented earlier fold structures (Booth, 1998; Booth et al., 2004). Normal faults occur throughout the Cape Fold Belt. Most of these normal faults are east-west striking with downthrown blocks to the south, but complex horst and graben structures with cross-cutting transfer faults are also common in the Cape Supergroup and pre-Cape rocks (Shone, 1976; Shone et al., 1990). Displacements of thousands of metres can be determined for some of these faults (Worcester, Gamtoos, Coega and Commando Kraal faults). At least some of these normal faults co-incide with earlier-formed planes of crustal weakness, but most can be linked more immediately to the breakup of Gondwana. Many of the east-west striking normal faults have a small strike-slip component (e.g. Lauries Bay fault, Booth and Shone, 1992a), but there are also a number of northsouth striking strike-slip faults in the eastern part of the Cape Fold Belt (Booth, 1996) which were probably formed as a result of regional extension during the breakup of Gondwana. The most important eect of this tectonic deformation (thrusting and folding, as well as the subsequent normal and strike-slip faulting), is the packaging of slivers of Cape Supergroup rocks in such a way that, in places, individual slivers and packages of slivers cannot be readily correlated with those nearby. Thrust stacking of quartzites and the eclipse of pelitic units add to the problems of correlation between outcrops and stratigraphic analysis within Groups. Despite this, the occurrence of mappable quartzite packages has misled many researchers into believing that the exposures in certain areas are at the very least, close approximations of the original stratigraphic succession. This is not to say that all outcrops are similarly tectonized: the Sardinia Bay Formation, for example, is a 180 m thick intact remnant of part of the Table Mountain Group, sandwiched between strongly tectonized quartzitic units (Shone, 1983). There is every reason to believe that the Sardinia Bay Formation exposed near Port Elizabeth is an intact fragment of the Cape succession (it contains many

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Fig. 4. Stereograms of structural elements in the eastern sector of the Cape Fold Belt. (a) forethrusts in the TMG at Uniondale, (b) lineations in forethrusts of a, (c) forethrusts in the Witteberg Group, Steytlerville, (d) lineations in forethrusts of c, (e) forethrusts in the Bokkeveld and Witteberg Groups, Port Alfred, (f) lineations in forethrusts of e. Data plotted on equal area nets (a), (c) and (e), and on Wul nets (b), (d) and (f). Contour intervals: (a) = 3.5% per 1% area, (c) = 3.4% per 1% area (e) = 2.8% per 1% area. Data from Booth, 1996, 1998; Booth and Shone, 1998, 1999; Booth et al., 1999; Booth et al., 2004.

mudrock units and shows no signs of thrusting), but the same cannot be said of the strata above and below it. 7. The Cape Basin Sedimentary basin analysis is no longer simply a question of lithostratigraphic and biostratigraphic analysis of a perceived layer-cake succession (Miall, 1990). Modern stratigraphic investigations generally demand a more exacting interrogation of sedimentary successions through careful dating of the rocks, examination of the vertical facies sequences and the inferred depositional sedimentary environments, the application of the principles of sequence stratigraphy assisted whenever possible by seismic stratigraphic data, and a broad understanding of plate-tectonic settings and associated basin types. In the case of the Cape Supergroup-Natal Group deposits, we must ask ourselves whether the time has come for a detailed re-analysis to unravel the complications resulting from tectonic stacking and ll in the data gaps such as the absence of seismic or other geophysical data which might be used to elucidate aspects of the basin architecture. The present dominantly lithostratigraphic-based interpretations may be found wanting, a point made previously by Fuller and Broquet (1990). 7.1. Previous attempts at basin analysis Rust (1973) was one of the rst researchers to attempt a comprehensive analysis of the Cape Basin. He considered the Cape sedimentation to have been uninterrupted from the beginning of the Ordovician until the beginning of

the Carboniferous (i.e. he did not identify any major unconformities). Rust identied fault-bounded subsidence as an early inuence in the history of the Cape Basin (e.g. deposition of the terrestrial pre-Cape Klipheuwel Formation). Subsequent regional downwarping to form an elongate basin during Peninsula time was inferred from isopach data (Rust, 1973). He regarded the basin as tectonically stable until the sedimentation of the Bokkeveld which he considered to be marked by repeated transgressions and regressions associated with accelerations and decelerations in the rate of basin subsidence. Two main depocentres in a once-again tectonically stable downwarp were proposed to explain the accumulation of the Witteberg sediments. Winter (1984) and Johnson (1991) regarded the Cape Supergroup sediments as passive continental margin deposits. Johnson (op. cit.) invoked a wedge-shaped (in crosssection) craton-derived clastic accumulation along an east-west trending passive margin as a likely scenario. He further suggested downward exure of the continental margin in response to sediment loading to explain the considerable apparent thickness (8000 m) of the Cape succession. Tankard and Hobday (1979) and Tankard et al. (1982) favoured an aulacogen as the principal mechanism of downwarp which demarcated the early Cape/Natal basin. They attempted to relate the sedimentation to known global sea level data by suggesting that the world-wide rise in sea level during the Ordovician was balanced in the Cape Basin, by the ready availability of terrestrial sediment. They suggested that the Winterhoek glaciation (as represented by the Pakhuis tillite) did not involve appreciable lowering of sea level, but nevertheless considered the

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postglacial Cedarberg Formation shales to be indicative of marine transgression. Regression was invoked to explain the deposition of the Nardouw Formation. The stacking of deltaic Bokkeveld deposits was considered to be the result of delta progradation and repeated basin margin downwarping in an epeiric marine setting. The Witteberg sedimentation was similarly thought to be the result of alternating regressions and transgressions (Tankard et al., op. cit.). Winter (1984) identied two major discordances in the Cape Supersequence. The rst discordance perceived, between the Peninsula and Nardouw Formations, he correlated with the global drop in sea level proposed by Vail et al. (1977) for the end of the Ordovician. The second discordant break identied by Winter is represented by the Nardouw/Bokkeveld interface which corresponds with a global sea level rise which is presumed to have commenced at the start of the Devonian (Vail et al., op. cit.). Winter (1984, 1989) did not regard the Cape Supergroup and Natal Group deposits as a failed rift accumulation, preferring a miogeoclinal downwarp as a probable tectonic setting. Cooper (1986) correlated facies shifts in the Bokkeveld and Witteberg Groups with global sea level curves established for Europe and North America. He noted the probable deepening associated with the Bokkeveld sedimentation and commented on the anoxic nature of the Bokkeveld sea oor. Metre-scale coarsening-upward sequences in the lower Witteberg Group have been linked to global sea level changes by Cotter (2000), who suggested that the regional architecture of the lower Witteberg Group can be explained by an hierarchical series of global sea level uctuations. Thomas et al. (1992b) used aeromagnetic data and the occurrence of Beattie-set anomalies to suggest that two dierent types of Mid- to Late-Proterozoic crust (inferred from the magnetic data) controlled sedimentation and the later deformation (or lack of deformation) of sediments in the Cape Basin. Catuneanu et al. (1998) proposed that orogenic cycles of loading and unloading (related to the Cape Orogeny)led to the deposition of overlying sediments of the Karoo Supergroup in a retro-arc foreland basin, immediately north of the Cape Basin. All of these attempts at basin analysis draw on a database which at its best is incomplete. Little is known about the seismic architecture of the Cape Fold Belt, and few if any acceptable sequence boundaries have been identied. This does not mean that the attempts to understand the Cape Basin are not innovative. They are simply based on very limited data. Seen in the light of the evidence for widespread and pervasive thrusting, thrust-stacking and the accompanying eclipse of pelitic units which characterizes the Cape Fold Belt, some of the data used to infer the basin history may be controversial and requires a revisit. Apparent vertical facies changes, coarsening- or ning-upwards and thinning-upwards successions are, in places, likely

artefacts of tectonic stacking and probably do not accurately reect the sedimentary history of the basin. Isopach maps (the basis for much of Rusts pioneering analysis of the Cape Basin) could measure the degree of thrust stacking rather than the position of a depocentre. On the outcrop scale, there are many potential problems: the photograph of what are described as lenticular bedded sandstones in Cotters paper on the Witteberg (Cotter, 2000, his Fig. 6, p. 5) could very well be nothing more than a series of thrust-stacked wedges. 7.2. A revised model and basin history for the Cape Supergroup, Natal Group and Msikaba Formation Given the doubts expressed about the reliability of data and the problems which arise in using suspect data to infer a basin history one might reasonably conclude that any new model must be as awed as its predecessors. However, simply recognizing the inherent pitfalls may be insucient in the reconstruction of the Cape Basin and its evolution. We therefore propose the following: 1. Broad lithostratigraphic division of the Cape Supergroup into the Table Mountain Group, Bokkeveld Group, and Witteberg Group is substantially correct although published estimates of depositional thicknesses are likely to be incorrect. The subdivision of the Table Mountain Group into smaller lithostratigraphic entities (Piekenierskloof Formation, Graafwater Formation etc.) is probably also reliable, at least in the Western Cape, where the succession has been subjected to fairly intensive scrutiny over the years. Our misgivings about thicknesses, and speculations concerning the apparent volume of quartz arenites (Tankard et al., 1982: the quartz arenite problem) remain. Thrusting is likely to have been responsible for the thinning and even removal of many thin interbedded shales thus creating the perception of a vast pile of quartz arenite sandstone. Quantication of the degree of thrust displacement has not to date been adequately addressed, strongly suggesting that a structural review of the Cape Fold Belt is necessary in order to attempt to resolve this problem. 2. Details of the Bokkeveld and Witteberg lithostratigraphy as listed in SACS (1980) are suspect, especially in the Southern and Eastern Cape where closelyspaced thrusts are especially common. Facies analysis of exposed sections in these areas is problematical. 3. Without appropriate seismic data, both the broad and detailed architecture of the Cape succession remains enigmatic. This makes it dicult to identify sequence boundaries. In spite of this, the Table Mountain Group/Bokkeveld transition can be identied as a marine ooding surface (Cooper, 1986). 4. Sediments of the Cape Supergroup (with the possible exception of the Pakhuis Formation), Natal Group

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5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

10.

and Msikaba Formation are typical uvial, clastic shoreline and clastic marine continental shelf deposits. The Bokkeveld Group sediments appear to be delta and shallow epeiric marine deposits which show some evidence of accumulation in anoxic sinks. The basin model which best ts the available data is the divergent margin basin model as described by Miall (1990). Passive rifting is preferred as the mechanism responsible for divergence in the Cape Supergroup (absence of volcanics), but active rifting may have marked the separation in northern Natal where contemporaneous volcanism has been reported (Marshall and von Brunn, 1999). Early rifting, probably in the form of listric faults along pre-existing lines of crustal weakness, was accompanied by the deposition of coarse clastic sediments in fault-bounded graben and half-graben basins (e.g. Piekenierskloof Formation in the Cape Supergroup, Ulundi conglomerate in the Natal Group). Subsidence along the new divergent margin resulted in the deposition of marine sediments over earlier non-marine graben-ll deposits (e.g. Graafwater and Peninsula Formations in the Cape Supergroup, Kranskloof member in the Natal Group). Subsequent regressions or transgressions (as inferred, for example, by the deposition of the Pakhuis tillite, Cape Supergroup) are probably not simply the result of global sea level changes as suggested by Winter (1984, 1989), Cooper (1986) and Cotter (2000), even though the evidence may appear to t inferred global sea level records. Tectonically-induced changes of relative sea level are likely in a divergent margin basin setting. The inferred global sea level rise during the Devonian (Vail et al., 1977) does, however, match the evidence for epeiric marine sedimentation of the Bokkeveld rather well (Winter, 1984; Cooper, 1986). Lithication of the Cape Supergroup sediments took place during deep (up to 8 km) burial under conditions of load diagenesis (de Swardt and Rowsell, 1974). This happened well before the Cape folding events which did not have notable dynamo-metamorphic eects on the strata (Drong, 1973). Thrusting and folding of the Cape Supergroup began at about 278 Ma, resulting in the inversion of the Cape Basin and the development of a yoked Karoo foreland basin to the north of the thrust and fold belt (de Wit, 1992). A number of plate tectonic models have been proposed to explain the folding and thrusting (Lock, 1980; Johnson, 1991; de Wit and Ransome, 1992; Ha lbich, 1992). Problems regarding the dierent orientations and intensities of folding in the western and southern arms of the Cape Fold Belt and the area of the syntaxis have not yet been satisfactorily resolved. The undeformed, but more or less coeval Natal Group and Msikaba Formation, pose an even bigger problem: How is it that these latter

Fig. 5. Plate tectonic model for the Cape Fold Belt (modied after de Wit and Ransome, 1992). Note the position of the proposed microplate south of the southern African coastline presumed to have collided with the African continent (Booth and Shone, 2002). The presence of the microplate could account for the greater degree of deformation in the eastern compared to the western part of the fold belt, and lack of deformation in the Natal Group, and Msikaba Formation.

sediments escaped the Cape deformation? A possible solution has been put forward by Booth et al. (2004) who propose the collision of a microcontinent in the region of the present southern and southeastern part of the southern arm of the Cape Fold Belt (Fig. 5). According to this hypothesis, the Natal Group and Msikaba Formation would have remained unaected by the deformation. The far-eld tectonic eects of such a collision remain enigmatic, but could have had an inuence on distant crustal structures which may, in turn, have played a signicant role in the evolution of, for example, the Congo Basin (Giresse, this issue).

8. Conclusions There is clearly much to be done before the sedimentary basin history and subsequent deformation of parts of the Cape Supergroup, Natal Group and Msikaba Formation can be more completely understood. There are doubts about the nature and origin of some of the lithostratigraphic units which have not been resolved, and some aspects of the lithostratigraphy which could be artefacts of the tectonism need to be evaluated more thoroughly. Without a series of seismic proles across the Cape Fold Belt, its macro-architecture and the contained sequence boundaries remain largely unknown. The basin model which we have proposed is, accordingly, a conservative one. A more speculative interpretation would be dicult to justify in the light of the many remaining uncertainties.

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R.W. Shone, P.W.K. Booth / Journal of African Earth Sciences 43 (2005) 196210 lithostratigraphic interpretations of the Cape Supergroup. Journal African Earth Sciences 34, 179190. Booth, P.W.K., Munro, A.J., Shone, R.W., 1999. Lithological and structural characteristics of Cape Supergroup rocks at Port Alfred, Eastern Cape, South Africa. South African Journal of Geology 102, 391404. Booth, P.W.K., Brunsdon, G., Shone, R.W., 2004. A duplex model for the eastern Cape Fold Belt? Evidence from the Palaeozoic Witteberg and Bokkeveld Groups (Cape Supergroup), near Steytlerville, South Africa. Gondwana Research 7, 211222. Broquet, C.A.M., 1990. Trace fossils and ichno-sedimentary facies from the Lower Palaeozoic Peninsula Formation, Cape Peninsula. Abstracts, Geocongress 90. Geological Society of South Africa, Cape Town, pp. 6467. Broquet, C.A.M., 1992. The sedimentary record of the Cape Supergroup: a review. In: de Wit, M.J., Ransome, I.G.D. (Eds.), Inversion Tectonics of the Cape Fold Belt, Karoo and Cretaceous Basins of Southern Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 159183. Catuneanu, O., Hancox, P.J., Rubidge, B.S., 1998. Reciprocal exural behaviour and contrasting stratigraphies: a new basin development model for the Karoo retroarc foreland system. Basin Research 10, 417 439. Cobbold, P.R., Gapais, D., Rossello, E.R., Milani, E.J., Szatmari, P., 1992. Permo-Triassic intracontinental deformation in SW Gondwana. In: de Wit, M.J., Ransome, I.G.D. (Eds.), Inversion Tectonics of the Cape Fold Belt, Karoo and Cretaceous Basins of Southern Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 2326. Cocks, L.R.M., Brunton, C.H.C., Rowell, A.J., Rust, I.C., 1970. The rst Lower Palaeozoic fauna proved from South Africa. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society London 125, 583603. Cooper, M.R., 1984. Cruziana acacencisthe rst Silurian index-trace fossil from South Africadiscussion. Transactions of the Geological Society South Africa 87, 5355. Cooper, M.R., 1986. Facies shifts, sea level changes and event stratigraphy in the Devonian of South Africa. South African Journal of Science 82, 255258. Cotter, E., 2000. Depositional setting and cyclic development of the lower part of the Witteberg Group (Mid- to Upper-Devonian), Cape Supergroup, Western Cape, South Africa. South African Journal of Geology 103, 114. de Beer, C.H., 1992. Structural evolution of the Cape Fold Belt syntaxis and its inuence on syntectonic sedimentation in the SW Karoo Basin. In: de Wit, M.J., Ransome, I.G.D. (Eds.), Inversion Tectonics of the Cape Fold Belt, Karoo and Cretaceous Basins of Southern Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 197206. de Swardt, A.M.J., Rowsell, D.M., 1974. Note on the relationship between diagenesis and deformation in the Cape Fold Belt. Transactions of the Geological Society of South Africa 77, 239245. de Wit, M.J., 1992. The Cape Fold Belt: a challenge for an integrated approach to inversion tectonics. In: de Wit, M.J., Ransome, I.G.D. (Eds.), Inversion Tectonics of the Cape Fold Belt, Karoo and Cretaceous Basins of Southern Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 312. de Wit, M.J., Ransome, I.G.D., 1992. Regional inversion tectonics along the southern margin of Gondwana. In: de Wit, M.J., Ransome, I.G.D. (Eds.), Inversion Tectonics of the Cape Fold Belt, Karoo and Cretaceous Basins of Southern Africa. A.A. Balkema, Rotterdam, pp. 1521. de Wit, M.J., Booth, P.W.K., Shone, R.W., Bronn, P., 1998. A eld guide through the Cape Fold Belt. Gondwana 10 Conference, University of Cape Town, p. 196. Drong, H.J., 1973. About diagenesis and reservoir conditions in the Bokkeveld and Table Mountain of the Karoo Basin. Soekor report, unpublished. du Toit, A.L., 1927. A geological comparison of South America with South Africa, with a palaeontological contribution by F.R. CowperReed. Publication 381. Carnegie Institution, Washington. du Toit, A.L., 1954. The Geology of South Africa, third ed. Oliver and Boyd, Edinburgh, 611p.

The microcontinent collision hypothesis originally put forward by Booth et al. (2004), and re-advanced in our basin model (point 10., above) to explain how the Natal Group and Msikaba Formation escaped the fairly intense deformation which characterizes the southern branch of the Cape Fold Belt may not stand up to rigorous criticism. For the moment, however, it provides an appealing solution to a vexing problem. Acknowledgements We have done eld work in the Cape Fold Belt and have therefore been able to contribute some of the data forming the basis for this paper. Much of the data was, however, collected by others, as listed in the references. For their assistance with this review we would like to thank Izak Rust, Maarten de Wit, Stephen Johnston, John Craddock, Gerry Webers, Nick Mortimer and Coenie de Beer for their (occasionally acerbic) comments, ideas and encouragement. Callum Anderson digitized the location map, and the University of Port Elizabeth provided us with research funding. We would also like to thank Pat Erikssen and Marc Goedhart for their constructive criticism which helped us improve on the original manuscript. References
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