Cenozoic Deposits of South Africa
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Cenozoic deposits of South Africa B Hurter 22160396 Dissertation submitted in fulfillment of the requirements for the degree Magister Scientiae in Environmental Sciences at the Potchefstroom Campus of the North-West University Supervisor: Mr PW van Deventer May 2016 DISCLAIMER This report was written with full intention of being accurate and viable however the Department of Geo-and Spatial Science of the North-West University, NRF/THRIP, AGES (North-West) and the author are not responsible for any information that might have been influenced by external factors or any other influences leading to misinterpretations of the maps, tables or graphs. Any opinion, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed in any publication generated through THRIP-supported research are those of the author(s) and therefore the NRF/THRIP will not accept any liability in that regard. i PREFACE Acknowledgements Firstly I want to thank God my saviour and Father in heaven by quoting Ephesians 3:20: „Now to Him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine, according to His power that is at work within us,21 to Him be glory‟ I would like to thank my supervisor (Oom) Mr. Piet van Deventer, who is always willing to share his insightful knowledge and passion with his students. He shared his invaluable time teaching me, inspiring me to also learn more and gave me the opportunity to travel and meet people who helped me to improve my knowledge. I‟ll always keep his quote close to my heart: „It‟s all about choices in life‟. I would also like to thank my family and friends for their immense support and encouragement especially my dad, mom, sister and Dirk who always believed in me. I also wish to acknowledge my assistants who helped me with field and laboratory work throughout the two years; Wynand Du Plessis, Regionald Scholtz, Dirk Peters, Jandre de Wet, August Kruger and Riaan Brummer. I would like to thank Terina Vermeulen, Yvonne Visagie and their co-workers at Eco-Analytica Laboratories for all of their assistance, as well as Belinda Venter for the XRF analysis and Willie Kruger for composing the thin sections. As well as Dirk Peters who helped me to compile my ArcGIS maps and Dr. Hayley Cawthra from the Council for Geoscience, Cape Town in providing GIS information. Last but not least I want to thank Jessica Strydom, Alida Botha, Sascha Roopa, Cindy Faul and Jaco Koch, for their significant insight. ii ABSTRACT The Cenozoic Era comprises the last 65 million years of Earth‟s history, which is divided into the Tertiary and Quaternary Periods. The deposits of the Cenozoic Era are reflected in many surface features covering South Africa including; 1) palaeosols; 2) clastic sedimentary deposits such as cave sediments, gravel deposits, the Pebble Marker; periglacial deposits, redistributed sand deposits and drainage depressions; 3) pedogenic deposits such as calcrete, silcrete, dorbanks, ferricrete, manganocrete, phoscrete, gypcrete and intergrade pedocretes. Each feature linked to the Cenozoic Era reflects certain characteristics of specific palaeoenvironmental conditions or palaeoclimatic change. The extent and the characteristics of the respective Cenozoic features differ considerably. The Cenozoic deposits cover vast surface areas over South Africa therefore modern society frequently interacts with these materials. This said the objectives were to assimilate information regarding the Cenozoic sediments and pedogenic material with respect to its geotechnical, economical, agricultural and tourism potential. The aims were to compile a distribution map of the South African terrestrial Cenozoic deposits as well as a basic chronostratigraphic timeline. Physical analyses included angle of repose, atterberg limits, particle size distribution, water retention and loss on ignition, amongst others. Geochemical analyses included, but were not limited to, pH, electrical conductivity, cation exchange capacity and X-ray fluorescence. Mineralogical analyses included scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. These methods were used to comply with the aims and objectives of the study. The selected palaeosol localities at Florisbad and Cornelia were mainly used to gain more information on the horizon characteristics. The determined geochemical results were used to compare with previous literature, regarding the palaeoenvironmental conditions which were linked to these deposits. The geochemical analyses supported the palaeoenvironments discussed in literature. The fauna evolutionary stages linked to these sites e.g. the Cornelian Land Mammal Age and Florisian Land Mammal Age were used in the chronostratigraphic timeline. The clastic sediment results illuminated the variation that occurs in different caves with regards to geochemistry and microbial activity. The main geochemical components were phosphate, nitrate and ammonium and the microbial activity were ascribed to the presence of bats. The bat guano can contribute to the economic potential of the Cenozoic deposits in the form of fertilizers. Information obtained from literature regarding known caves, such as Sterkfontein and Makepansgat, were used in the chronostratigraphic timeline. iii The gravel deposits from Windsorton were used as an example of gravel terraces associates with palaeodrainage systems. These gravel deposits were linked to the Riverton and Rietsputs alluvial gravel deposits obtained from literature. The gravel deposits indicated fluvial episodes linked to the Pleistocene Epoch, and can indirectly refer to wetter palaeoenvironmental conditions that existed. The Pebble Marker was investigated at two selected sites and indicated that the sediments in this „gravel layer‟ were not uniform with respect to the gradation and composition. The origin of the Pebble Marker was stated to be associated with ancient river systems or formed by termites as hypothesised by Brink (1985). An alternative hypothesis is used in this research as being formed during periglacial environmental conditions. The age of approximately 19 000 years was proposed for the Pebble Marker from dated fossilised giraffe bones present in this layer. A periglacial deposit was investigated close to Groot Marico in the North-West province and was linked to a Period between 300 000 years - 1.7 million ago, as Acheulean stone tools were found in the deposit. This indicated that colder periglacial palaeoenvironmental conditions existed during the Late Pliocene and Pleistocene Epochs. The terrestrial sand deposits were divided into the Kalahari sand deposit and the redistributed coastal sands. The Kalahari Group stratigraphy observed from three borehole logs were compared with the stratigraphy by Thomas (1981) and correlated well. The geochemical analysis of the Kalahari and coastal deposits mainly indicated that SiO2 was the dominant mineral. The Scanning Electron Microscope interpretation of selected samples indicated that wind was the mode of transportation. The geotechnical analysis indicated that the sand deposits may have the potential to collapse when used as base foundation. The agricultural potential was low due to a low water retention potential and cation exchange capacity. The drainage depressions indicated a variation in mineral compositions and in some occurrences were relatively saline. This may be due to the drainage depressions being contaminated or the salt being concentrated after evaporation takes place. The geotechnical evaluation indicated that the drainage depressions sediments have a high shrink and swell potential and are not suitable to build on. The drainage depressions were not suited for agricultural purposes due to the high water retention potential resulting in an insufficient amount of water available for plants. The pedogenic deposits were linked to certain climatic conditions, and were compared to the Climatic N-value map of Weinert (1980). Calcrete, silcrete and ferricrete correlated well and indicated that calcrete and silcrete formed under semi-arid to arid conditions and ferricrete under humid conditions. Literature obtained stated gypcrete formed under very arid conditions. iv Intergrade pedocretes are mixtures of different dominant geochemical components such as silica and iron-oxides, and were interpreted as being formed during rapid environmental change or microenvironmental change. The distribution of the calcrete, silcrete and dorbanks, and ferricrete were also compared to the distribution of calcic, silicic, and oxidic soils in South Africa, respectively (Fey, 2010). Calcrete correlated well to the distribution of calcic soils, silcrete correlated poorly to silicic soils, but dorbanks correlated well with silicic soils and ferricrete correlated well with the distribution of oxidic soils. The distribution and geochemical analyses of phoscrete and gypcrete deposits correlated well with literature. The intergrade pedocretes correlated well with the Cenozoic deposit distribution map. The geochemical compositions were determined for selected samples of all the pedogenic material and overall correlated well with the minimum requirements stated by literature. The geotechnical implications of the pedogenic deposits were mainly dependent on the stage of development and therefore are very inconsistent due to variability in the deposit. It was found that the Cenozoic deposits have high economic potential such as the alluvial diamond bearing gravel deposits; calcrete, silcrete and ferricrete used for road construction material; and phoscrete as fertilizer, amongst others. These