GSA Connects 2022 meeting in Denver, Colorado

Paper No. 68-4
Presentation Time: 8:50 AM

STRATIGRAPHY OF THE NOMTSAS FORMATION IN THE WITPUTS SUBBASIN, SOUTHERN NAMIBIA: IMPLICATIONS FOR THE PLACEMENT OF THE EDIACARAN-CAMBRIAN BOUNDARY IN THE NAMA GROUP


NELSON, Lyle1, SMITH, Emily F.2, DARROCH, Simon A.F.3, TURK, Katherine3 and RAMEZANI, Jahandar4, (1)Department of Earth Sciences, Carleton University, 1125 Colonel By Drive, Ottawa, ON K1S 5B6, (2)Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, Johns Hopkins University, 3400 N. Charles St., Baltimore, MD 21218, (3)Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, Vanderbilt University, Nashville, TN 37235, (4)Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 77 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge, MA 02139

The Nama Group on the Kalahari Craton of southwestern Africa is an archetypal stratigraphic record of the Ediacaran-Cambrian transition. The Nomtsas Formation in the upper Schwarzrand Subgroup of the Nama Group contains key biostratigraphic markers of the terminal Ediacaran and basal Cambrian, including erniettomorphs, cloudinomorphs, and trace fossils, yet has a complex stratigraphic architecture across the basin. Here we describe the stratigraphy from three areas where the Nomtsas Formation has been identified within the Witputs (southern) Subbasin of the Nama Basin, and consider geochronology, carbon isotope chemostratigraphy, and biostratigraphy data within this framework to better constrain stratigraphic correlations and the placement of the Ediacaran-Cambrian boundary in southern Namibia.