Widespread syn-sedimentary deformation on a muddy deep-water basin-floor: the Vischkuil Formation (Permian), Karoo Basin, South Africa |
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| Authors: | W C van der Merwe D M Hodgson S S Flint |
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| Institution: | Stratigraphy Group, Department of Earth &Ocean Sciences, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK |
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| Abstract: | The ～380-m-thick mudstone–siltstone-dominated Vischkuil Formation represents the initiation phase of a 1.3-km-thick prograding basin floor to slope to shelf succession that marks a significant increase in the rate of siliciclastic sediment supply to the early Karoo Basin in the Permian. In the upper Vischkuil Formation three well exposed, widespread (～3000 km2) 10–70-m-thick intervals of deformed strata are encased within undeformed sediments. Such chaotic mass movement deposits that are mappable over areas comparable with seismic-scale mass transport deposits are commonly associated with submarine slope settings. However, the surrounding lithofacies and the correlation of distinctive marker beds indicate that these deformation intervals developed in a distal low gradient basin floor setting. The deformed intervals comprise a lower division of tight down-flow verging folds dissected by thrust planes that sole out onto a highly sheared décollement surface that are interpreted as slides. The lower divisions are overlain by an upper division of chaotic lithofacies with large contorted clasts of sandstone supported by a fine-grained matrix interpreted as a debrite. The juxtaposition of these lithofacies, the distribution of thickness of the divisions, and their close kinematic relationships indicate that the emplacement of the debris-flows triggered and drove the underlying slide, in a low-gradient distal setting. Individual beds in the deformed intervals can be mapped laterally into undeformed strata indicating limited movement of the slide. Therefore, widespread zones of syn-sedimentary deformation in deep-water settings do not necessarily indicate a slope setting and should not be used as single criterion to determine depositional setting. When associated with major debrites they may be developed on a flat basin floor. |
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