Lower Cretaceous deposit reveals first evidence of a post-wildfire debris flow in the Kirkwood Formation, Algoa Basin, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Muir, Robert A.; Bordy, Emese M.; Prevec, Rose

doi:10.1016/j.cretres.2015.04.005

Cited by 35 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 63 publications

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“…Fire -South Africa has a long history of fire that has recently been traced to the Upper Cretaceous (Muir et al 2015;He et al 2016) when fire also directed evolution of the reproductive biology of the proteoid Proteaceae (Lamont and He 2012). By 15 Ma many plant traits tied to the presence of fire were present (Fig.…”

Section: Prevailing Environment During Early Evolution Of Subshrub Gementioning

confidence: 99%

African geoxyles evolved in response to fire; frost came later

Lamont

Pausas

2017

Evol Ecol

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Section: Prevailing Environment During Early Evolution Of Subshrub Gementioning

confidence: 99%

African geoxyles evolved in response to fire; frost came later

Lamont

Pausas

2017

Evol Ecol

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“…The link between recurring wildfires and massive sedimentation events have considerable importance for the evolution of the landscape and biota (e.g., Belcher et al, 2013;Muir et al, 2015). Although regular wildfires in the fire-prone and fire-dependent Fynbos Biome are key ecological elements in revitalizing and sustaining one of the highest plant biodiversities in the world (Allsopp et al, 2014), catastrophic mass-wasting events are rare in the region.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In response to in mass-movement processes, charcoal is typically moved en masse without being abraded or attired (cf. Muir et al, 2015), and the shape of the fragments in debris-flow deposits (e.g., FA-B or facies Sm in FA-E) remains unchanged even after multiple mass-movement events (i.e., reworking from the burned catchment). For these reasons, the radiocarbon-dated charcoal samples are considered to provide a reliable discrete, nonetheless average, age for the facies associations.…”

Section: Radiocarbon Ages Of the Facies Associationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In brief, the facies analysis presented here leads to a better understanding of the sedimentary dynamics in bedrock-confined rivers, especially where massive sedimentation events dominated by debris flows may be linked to reoccurring wildfires. Depending on the frequency, size, intensity, and annual timing of the fire season, wildfires have been shown to not only shape the landscape but also to influence plant evolution and diversity, especially since the Cretaceous (Bond and Scott, 2010;Belcher et al, 2013;Muir et al, 2015).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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A Holocene “Frozen Accident”: Sediments of Extreme Paleofloods and Fires in the Bedrock-Confined Upper Huis River, Western Cape, South Africa

Bordy

Bowen

Moore

et al. 2018

Journal of Sedimentary Research

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Wildfires and flooding events are common and are forceful intrinsic controls over landscape evolution, biodiversity, and preserved sediment architecture in dryland environments. Charcoal-bearing Holocene flood sediments of the upper Huis River provide a rare perspective on the powerful and episodic sedimentary processes in a bedrock-confined fluvial setting in the tectonically stable SW Cape Fold Belt in South Africa. The sediments described in this paper are associated with high-magnitude, debris-flow-dominated paleofloods, and their charcoal content is linked to a series of radiocarbon-dated Holocene paleofires that occurred from ~ 2165 ± 37 BP to ~ 653 ± 35 BP. The five sedimentary facies associations are documented as products of: a) noncohesive pseudoplastic debris flows; b) transitional, high-matrix-strength debris flows with heterogeneous fluid content and flow behavior; c) low-cohesion debris flows; d) hyperconcentrated flows; and e) fluvial channel flow in the upper Huis River. The last is interpreted mainly from massive, subrounded to subangular boulder bars, which provide key evidence for the dramatic scouring of the upper Huis valley. The paleofloods, which not only filled the valley with debris-flow sediments up to 12 m thick, but also subsequently flushed it out nearly to the bedrock, had estimated extreme discharges of few thousands of m 3 /s. In summary, the upper Huis River sediments are exceptional because they preserve the geological record of reoccurring fires, and at least three extreme paleofloods (i.e., massive sedimentation events) over a period of ~ 1500 years in an area typified by the fire-prone and fire-dependent Fynbos Biome. Furthermore, this study provides insights into what the gaps in the commonly fragmented bedrock-confined alluvial stratigraphic record would be like, should there be "more record than gap".

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“…In the last few years, a number of studies (e.g. Manfroi et al 2015;Muir et al 2015;Abu Hamad et al 2016a, 2016bCarpenter et al 2016;dos Santos et al 2016;El Atfy et al 2016;Martill et al 2012;Lima et al 2019) have already demonstrated that the Cretaceous wildfires were more frequent on the southern continents than previously reported in the literature (e.g. Brown et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 93%

Repeated occurrence of palaeo-wildfires during deposition of the Bahariya Formation (early Cenomanian) of Egypt

et al. 2019

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The Upper Cretaceous (early Cenomanian) Bahariya Formation of Egypt has an outstanding reputation for its wealth of vertebrate remains, including a variety of iconic dinosaurs, like the carnivorous Spinosaurus and Carcharodontosaurus, as well as the herbivorous Aegyptosaurus and Paralititan. Besides these dinosaur fossils, the Bahariya Formation yielded also a wealth of invertebrate and plant remains, but even today many aspects concerning the continental palaeoenvironments reflected in these deposits (including the occurrence of palaeo-wildfires) have not been studied in detail. So far six distinct macro-charcoal bearing levels could be identified within the type section of the Bahariya Formation at Gabal El Dist profile, one of the most prolific outcrops of this formation in terms of fossil occurrence located in the north of the Bahariya Oasis, Western Desert, Egypt. Most of the charcoal investigated by means of SEM originates from ferns, pointing to a considerable proportion of this plant group within the palaeo-ecosystems that experienced fires. Gymnosperms and (putative) angiosperms have less frequently been identified. The collected data present evidence that the landscapes at the northern shores of Gondwana repeatedly experienced palaeo-wildfires, adding extra proof to previous statements that the Late Cretaceous was a fiery world on a global scale.

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Lower Cretaceous deposit reveals first evidence of a post-wildfire debris flow in the Kirkwood Formation, Algoa Basin, Eastern Cape, South Africa

Cited by 35 publications

References 63 publications

African geoxyles evolved in response to fire; frost came later

African geoxyles evolved in response to fire; frost came later

A Holocene “Frozen Accident”: Sediments of Extreme Paleofloods and Fires in the Bedrock-Confined Upper Huis River, Western Cape, South Africa

Repeated occurrence of palaeo-wildfires during deposition of the Bahariya Formation (early Cenomanian) of Egypt

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