Sedimentary facies from the Head of the Cape Canyon : insights into the Cenozoic evolution of the western margin of South Africa

Cenozoic sedimentary successions have a restricted distribution and are largely incomplete due to erosion and non-deposition on the western margin of southern Africa. For this reason, much controversy and uncertainty remains on the geological evolution of the western margin. The wide western margin is largely devoid of bathymetric features, except for the deeply incised Cape Canyon that crosscuts the continental slope and shelf ~150 km to the northwest of Cape Town. The Head of the Cape Canyon forms a well-developeed trough landwards of the Western Ridge, which separates the middle and outer shelf. More than 50 cores, up to 6 m in length, at water depths between 190 and 450 m were recovered from the Head of the Cape Canyon region. Siliclastic, authigenic and biogenic sediments, varying in age from Cretaceous to Holocene provide the basis of a detailed sedimentary analysis. The diversity of lithostratigraphic units recovered from the condensed sedimentary record provides a unique opportunity to define in detail, for the first time, a late Cenozoic stratigraphic record for the western outer continental shelf.

Grantor dc:publisher.institution

Department of Geological Sciences

Year dc:date.issued

2004

Author dc:creator

• Wigley, Rochelle Anne

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Compton, John
• Rogers, John

Language dc:language.iso

eng

Handle dc:identifier.uri

http://hdl.handle.net/11427/4232

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:open.uct.ac.za:11427/4232