Springbok Flats Fm
Type Locality and Naming
Springbok Flats Basin. Named after the Springbok Flats, an extensive, morphologically flat region situated north of Pretoria (stretching between Bela-Bela and Zebediela). Originally, the South African Committee for Stratigraphy (SACS) in 1980 grouped these capping lavas with the Letaba Formation of the Lebombo Group. However, subsequent geochemical work by J.S. Marsh and others in the 1980s and 1990s revealed that they are petrographically and chemically distinct from the olivine-rich Letaba picrites. Consequently, the term "Springbok Flats Formation" was proposed and is widely used by igneous petrologists to distinguish this isolated suite of basalts.
Synonym:
Lithology and Thickness
A succession of continental flood basalts. The lavas are predominantly tholeiitic basalts, varying from fine-grained aphyric (lacking visible crystals) to macroporphyritic varieties.
Relationships and Distribution
Lower contact
Rests upon the fine-grained, aeolian desert sandstones of the Clarens Fm (Stormberg Gr equivalents).
Upper contact
Forms the modern erosional surface across much of the Springbok Flats region.
Regional extent
Restricted entirely to the Springbok Flats Karoo Basin (which is structurally divided into the northern Roedtan Basin and the southern Settlers-Tuinplaats Basin) in South Africa. Karoo Volcanics (Springbok Flats Basin). Historically mapped as the Letaba Fm. It is stratigraphically and geochemically correlated with the Sabie River Fm (Lebombo) and the Drakensberg Gr of the Main Karoo Basin.
GeoJSON
Fossils
As a massive extrusive igneous unit, it is unfossiliferous.
Age
Depositional setting
Subaerial continental flood basalts.
Additional Information