| Popis: |
The Lesotho remnant contains the type succession for Karoo low-Ti basalts of central southern Africa. The 40Ar/39Ar dating indicates that the sequence was emplaced within a very short period at about 180 Ma and consists of a monotonous pile of compound basalt lava flows which lacks significant palaeosols and persistent sedimentary intercalations. We have used geochemistry to establish a stratigraphic subdivision of the lava pile. Thin units of basalt flows, the Moshesh's Ford, Golden Gate, Sani, Roma, Letele, and Wonderkop units, with diverse geochemical character and restricted geographical distribution, are present at the base of the succession. These are overlain by extensive units of compositionally more uniform basalt, the Mafika Lisiu, Maloti, Senqu and Mothae units, which build the bulk of the sequence. A single palaeomagnetic polarity reversal occurs within the lower third of the basalt succession and is consistently located within the Mafika Lisiu unit. This and the persistent and relatively uniform thickness of the stratigraphic units suggest that the pile was constructed in a uniform manner by eruption of basalt onto a generally planar surface from a widespread plexus of dykes. The stratigraphic sequence in Lesotho closely resembles that in the thinner sequence of low-Ti basalts of the Springbok Flats remnant, some 400 km to the north. A thin unit of high-Ti basalt within the upper part of the Springbok Flats sequence can be correlated with the thick high-Ti basalt suite along the rift-related Lebombo structure on the eastern margin of the Karoo province. This is the first established correlation between these two important outcrops of Karoo volcanic rocks and demonstrates that the low-Ti basalts of Lesotho and the cratonic interior are the approximate time equivalents of the lower part of the Lebombo sequence. This conclusion has important implications for models for the origin of the Karoo flood basalt province.Location of this section is described in Marsh et al. (1997) AGU Geophysical Monograph, 100, 247-272. Title of data set: Bushman’s pass. |
