Collaborative Research: Co-operative Program: The Origin and Evolution of the Karoo Basalt Group, Southern Africa

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This project is to determine the timing, genesis, and evolution of the Karoo continental flood basalt province in Southern Africa. Particular emphasis will be placed on the flow-by-flow stratigraphy of the basalt flows using field mapping and chemical techniques, and their relative and absolute ages. These data will be used to constrain both the physical nature and the duration of this exceptionally large volcanic event, to correlate the numerous eroded remnants of Karoo basalt now scattered over large areas of southern Namibia, Botswana, Lesotho, and South Africa, and to correlate the flows with the numerous Karoo dikes found across southern Africa. The increased knowledge of the physical evolution of the province will then be used in conjunction with the compositional data to model mantle melting, fractionation and crustal assimilation in the production of the basaltic magmas and to constrain the composition of their source.