Palynofacies as a tool for high-resolution palaeoenvironmental and palaeoclimatic reconstruction of Gondwanan post-glacial coal deposits: No. 2 Coal Seam, Witbank Coalfield (South Africa)

Challenges of Gondwanan Marine-Nonmarine Correlations—A Palynological Perspective

“…These data, together with associated palynostratigraphic determinations, are crucial for the direct calibration of the Price (1997) scheme to the numerical timescale, and provide an excellent base for refining Australian palynostratigraphy including climate signatures. Furthermore, focusing again on studies of acritarch acme events which were previously detected in the eastern Australian basins (Evans, 1962;Norvick, 1981;McMinn, 1985;McLoughlin, 1988;Price, 1997) and coincide with transgressive events, may be useful in further refining the interbasinal correlation schemes (Wheeler et al, 2017). For Antarctica, the works by Farabee et al (1990), Larrsson et al (1990) and Lindström (1995a,b), and more recently the study by Lindström and McLoughlin (2007) applying Australian palynostratigraphy to Antarctica, rather than develop local palynostratigraphic schemes, provide an ideal base to establish integrated correlation schemes in the future as it is at present developed for southern Africa.…”

Marine flooding surfaces recorded in Permian black shales and coal deposits of the Main Karoo Basin (South Africa): Implications for basin dynamics and cross-basin correlation

“…2 and No. 5 coal seams were identified also in marine black shales (Ruckwied et al, 2014;Götz and Wheeler, 2017) indicating an early Guadalupian (Roadian) age. Barbolini (2014) noted the shared taxa between South Africa and Australia, but found challenges in correlation based on endemism and palaeoenvironmental differences.…”

“…A prominent change in the composition of palynomorph assemblages records the switch from a fern-and conifer-dominated flora in the lower coal seam to a more diverse Glossopteris-Gangamopteris flora in the upper coal seam. This signal is interpreted to indicate the transition from a cold to a fluctuating cool-temperate climate, initiating the switch from icehouse to greenhouse conditions (Falcon et al, 1984;Götz and Ruckwied, 2014;Wheeler and Götz, 2017). A comparable change in floral composition in the adjacent Highveld Coalfield (Wheeler and Götz, 2016), suggests such changes providing a basis for cross-basin correlation (Ruckwied et al, 2014).…”

“…2 seam was dated as Artinskian/Kungurian indicating a correlation with black shales of the Prince Albert Formation (Ruckwied et al, 2014). A facies model for the coalbearing environments based on palynofacies is given in Wheeler and Götz (2017), distinguishing between swamp-, lake-and river/delta-controlled sedimentation in a paralic setting and influenced by glacial meltwater input from the hinterlands. whereas the No.…”

“…As identified for the Whitehill shales, a high percentage of Vittatina spp., a general increase of the striate bisaccate pollen group, and the consistent presence of Guttulapollenites hannonicus and Lueckisporites virkkiae is characteristic of the No. 5 coal seam(Ruckwied et al, 2014;Götz and Wheeler, 2017). Thus, the upper Prince Albert Formation and Whitehill Formation are interpreted to belong to the Lueckisporites virkkiae Interval Zone regarded as late Cisuralian (Kungurian) to early Guadalupian (Roadian)(Souza and Marques-Toigo, 2005), whereas the lower Prince Albert Formation still belongs to the early Cisuralian (Artinskian) Vittatina costabilis Interval Zone(Ruckwied et al, 2014;Götz and Wheeler, 2017).…”