The glacial paleolandscapes of Southern Africa: the legacy of the Late Paleozoic Ice Age
Pierre Dietrich,François Guillocheau,Guilhem A. Douillet,Neil P. Griffis,Guillaume Baby,Daniel P. Le Héron,Laurie Barrier,Maximilien Mathian,Isabel P. Montañez,Cécile Robin,Thomas Gyomlai,Christoph Kettler,and Axel Hofmann
Department of Geodynamics and Sedimentology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, 1090 Vienna, Austria
Laurie Barrier
Institut de Physique du Globe de Paris, CNRS, UMR 7154, Université Paris Cité, Paris, France
Maximilien Mathian
Institute of Applied and Exact Sciences (ISEA EA7484), University of New Caledonia, 145 Avenue James Cook, Nouville, Nouméa Cedex, BP R4 98851, New Caledonia
Isabel P. Montañez
Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of California, Davis, Davis, CA 95616, USA
Cécile Robin
Univ Rennes, CNRS, Géosciences Rennes, UMR 6118, 35000 Rennes, France
At the evocation of icy landscapes, Africa is not the first place that comes to mind. The modern relief of Southern Africa is generally considered to be a result of uplift and counteracting erosion. We show that some of the modern relief of this region is due to fossil glacial landscapes – striated pavements, valleys, and fjords – tied to an ice age that occurred ca. 300 Myr ago. We focus on how these landscapes have escaped being erased for hundreds of millions of years.
At the evocation of icy landscapes, Africa is not the first place that comes to mind. The modern...