Magnetostratigraphic constraints for Early Permian rocks of the southwestern Karoo Basin, South Africa

We present results of rock and paleomagnetic magnetic analyses of a ~671 m-thick continuous vertical drill core (KZF-1) that intersect the lower Ecca Group (early-mid Permian) of the southwestern Karoo Basin, South Africa. Rock magnetic and optic microscopy experiments indicate monoclinic pyrrhotite and single-domain magnetite in the mudstones, shales, and siltstones as carriers of characteristic remanent magnetization (ChRM), which is likely a post-detrital remanent magnetization. Stepwise demagnetization and removal of low-coercivity and thermally less stable magnetizations reveal the preservation of a dual polarity ChRM in 90 samples. These are used to construct a magnetostratigraphic profile for the core that is dominantly reversed polarity with four short normal polarity subchrons. Correlation with published U–Pb SHRIMP and CA TIMS ages and the proposed composite reference section for the Early Permian allows us to propose an Artinskian (281 Ma) to Kungurian (276 Ma) age for the lower Ecca Group rocks. Our magnetostratigraphic profile can be tied in with published profiles from the mid to Upper Ecca Group to produce the first composite profile that spans all of the Ecca Group in the southwestern region of the Karoo Basin.