Abstract
The Early Permian black shales of the Prince Albert and Whitehill Formations (lower Ecca Group) of the Karoo Basin were deposited in the immediate aftermath of the Carboniferous glaciation across Gondwana. Their preserved geochemical and mineralogical signals indicate that organic carbon production and preservation changed in time and space due to variations in marine incursions into a fresh water lake. We propose that the Post-Pleistocene glaciation history of the Baltic Sea of northern Europe provides a modern analogue for the deposition of TOC-enriched fine-grained sediments of the lower Ecca Group. The low sulphur contents of the Prince Albert Formation reflects deposition in a water body influenced by melting water, at least in the lower part. In contrast, the depositional environment of the TOC-rich Whitehill Formation reflects processes that can be compared with those of deep basins in the subrecent Baltic Sea, where the preservation of organic carbon in the sediments is controlled by a stable water stratification comprising anoxic bottom water, with high total dissolved solids, overlain by lighter freshwater with high bio-productivity at surface.
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Acknowledgments
We thank Prof. John Isbell (University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, U.S.A.) and Dr. Bastien Linol (Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University, Port Elizabeth, South Africa) for their constructive comments and recommended revisions that have helped improve this manuscript. This AEON contribution number 160.
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Schulz, HM., Chere, N., Geel, C., Booth, P., de Wit, M.J. (2016). Is the Postglacial History of the Baltic Sea an Appropriate Analogue for the Formation of Black Shales in the Lower Ecca Group (Early Permian) of the Karoo Basin, South Africa?. In: Linol, B., de Wit, M. (eds) Origin and Evolution of the Cape Mountains and Karoo Basin. Regional Geology Reviews. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-40859-0_11
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