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Geological Society, London, Special Publications; 1995; v. 95; p. 243-269;
DOI: 10.1144/GSL.SP.1995.095.01.15
© 1995 Geological Society of London

Development of the Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa

Mike P. Coward1, Richard M. Spencer2 & Camille E. Spencer2

1 Department of Geology, Imperial College, Prince Consort Road, London SW7 2BP, UK
2 Gemsa, Borja Larayen y Juan Pablo Sanz, Quito, Ecuador

The Witwatersrand basin is a large hinterland basin of Archaean age developed on already consolidated continental crust south of the Limpopo plate margin. It is a flexural basin formed southeast of a major thick-skinned thrust system, modified by a second thrust system to the southeast. Studies of several thousand kilometres of seismic data, together with geophysical modelling and new field data, have allowed the thrusts and their associated hanging-wall uplifts to be mapped and dated, relative to sediments of Central Rand age. The basin subsequently underwent extension on large detachment faults. Associated half-grabens are infilled with growth sequences of Platberg sediments and intermediate volcanics. These grabens were inverted during post-Platberg and post-Transvaal times. Studies of the Witwatersrand Basin allow tectonic models to be developed for the Archaean which can be used to help interpret Cenozoic mountain belts.





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S. J. Jolley, I. H. C. Henderson, A. C. Barnicoat, and N. P. C. Fox
Thrust-fracture network and hydrothermal gold mineralization: Witwatersrand Basin, South Africa
Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 1999; 155: 153 - 165.
[Abstract] [PDF]