Provenance of Cape Supergroup sediments and timing of Cape Fold Belt orogenesis: Constraints from high-precision 40Ar/39Ar dating of muscovite

Abstract

The Permian Cape Fold Belt (CFB) of South Africa forms part of a major orogenic belt that originally extended from Argentina, across southern Africa and into Antarctica. The CFB is dominated by complexly folded and faulted rocks of the siliciclastic Cape Supergroup that were deposited in the Cape Basin. The provenance of the Cape Supergroup, timing of deformation and tectonic setting are poorly constrained. U-Pb detrital zircon provenance studies suggest that the Cape Basin received sedimentary detritus from the African Mesoproterozoic Namaqua-Natal Metamorphic Belt, Neoproterozoic-Cambrian Pan-African Belts and the Brasiliano orogenic belts of South America, Africa and Antarctica. However, ..