Decoding the Late Palaeozoic glaciated landscape of Namibia

Autor(en)
D. P. Le Heron, C. Kettler, P. Dietrich, N. Griffis, I. P. Montañez, R. Wohlschlägl
Abstrakt

The geometry of unconformities carved by deep time ice sheets is often obscured and restricted by discontinuous exposure, or outcrop conditions that do not readily permit the examination of glacial unconformities (for example, steeply dipping strata). Here, we present new uncrewed aerial vehicle (UAV) data from selected outcrops across northern, central and southern Namibia to shed further light on the nature of the basal Dwyka Group unconformity. This includes the onlap relationship of basal diamictites onto the Gomatum palaeo-fjord system in northern Namibia, highly complex mapped ice flow orientations elsewhere in the northern Kaokoveld, previously undiscovered grooves along the Fish River area, and a set of subglacial grooves along the border with South Africa along the Orange River. In the latter two cases, photogrammetric methods integrating orthophotos and digital elevation models reveal the presence of subglacial grooves. Furthermore, subglacial grooves often show different orientations to striations and fabrics measured in overlying diamictites, raising fresh questions about the nature of small-scale flow variations beneath Late Palaeozoic ice sheets.

Organisation(en)
Institut für Geologie
Externe Organisation(en)
Zentralanstalt für Meteorologie und Geodynamik (ZAMG), Université Rennes-I, University of California, Davis
Journal
Sedimentary Geology
Band
462
ISSN
0037-0738
DOI
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.sedgeo.2024.106592
Publikationsdatum
03-2024
Peer-reviewed
Ja
ÖFOS 2012
105404 Geomorphologie
Schlagwörter
ASJC Scopus Sachgebiete
Geology, Stratigraphy
Link zum Portal
https://ucrisportal.univie.ac.at/de/publications/987be179-4b4e-4535-b838-44a6cc50318e