Type 1 and Type 2 Unconformity Development in Response to Differential Subsidence Rates and Eustatic Sea Level Fluctuations, Pletmos Basin, Offshore South Africa

Andrew Jollands

The Pletmos basin, offshore South Africa, has had variable subsidence rates from mid-Valanginian to mid-Campanian times. During this period, third-, fourth-, and fifth-order sea level fluctuations occurred.

The interplay of eustasy and differential subsidence rates caused 67 unconformities. Seventeen are major type 1 unconformities, 44 are minor type 1 unconformities, and 3 are type 2 unconformities. A further three exhibit type 2 characteristics and grade laterally into equivalent type 1 unconformities.

Slow subsidence rates permitted fourth- and fifth-order eustatic variations to move sea level below the shelf edge and to erode minor type 1 unconformities. Periodically, when higher order cycles coincided with the trough of a third-order cycle, major type 1 unconformities occurred.

Later periods of rapid subsidence precluded fourth- and fifth-order cycles being recorded in the stratigraphic section, and only third-order cycles were interpreted. When the rate of third-order eustatic falls were of the same order of magnitude as subsidence rates, relative sea level did not shift beyond the shelf edge, resulting in type 2 erosion. Deep-seated growth faulting established differential subsidence rates in the central Pletmos basin. In areas of slow subsidence the effects of eustatic variations were amplified relative to areas of rapid subsidence. This resulted in enhanced erosion associated with the former where major and minor type 1 unconformities coalesce and type 2 unconformities grade laterally into equivalent type 1 unconformities.

AAPG Search and Discovery Article #91022©1989 AAPG Annual Convention, April 23-26, 1989, San Antonio, Texas.