A review of thrust faulting in the Eastern Cape Fold Belt, South Africa, and the implications for current lithostratigraphic interpretation of the Cape Supergroup
✍ Scribed by P.W.K. Booth; R.W. Shone
- Publisher
- Elsevier Science
- Year
- 2002
- Tongue
- English
- Weight
- 906 KB
- Volume
- 34
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1464-343X
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
Structural analyses of Palaeozoic Cape Supergroup outcrops in several areas within the Eastern Cape Fold Belt show that there are a number of thrust sheets hundreds of metres thick cropping out in more or less strike-parallel belts up to 5 km wide. Individual thrusts within the thrust sheets are commonly less than half a metre apart as measured in vertical sections of the thrust sheets. Argillaceous horizons, some of which serve as marker beds elsewhere in the fold belt, are partly or wholly eliminated in the thruststacked units, giving the latter the appearance of thick monotonous quartzite sequences. The relationship between folding and thrusting is a complex one where thrusting appears to have taken place before, during and after folding. The structural evidence, particularly that relating to severely thrusted areas suggests that some previously established lithostratigraphic units and their measured thicknesses may have to be re-examined. Although some of the units are mappable, they clearly consist of thrust-stacked quartzites from which argillaceous units have been eliminated.