Petrography and geochemistry of iron formations of the Paleoproterozoic Koegas Subgroup, Transvaal Supergroup, Griqualand West, South Africa

M.Sc. (Geology)Nel, B.P. (2013). Petrography and geochemistry of iron formations of the Paleoproterozoic Koegas Subgroup, Transvaal Supergroup, Griqualand West, South Africa. MSc thesis (unpublished), University of Johannesburg, Aucklandpark, pp. 133. The Early Paleoproterozoic Koegas Subgroup comprises a succession of siltstone, mudstone, iron-­‐formation, chert and carbonate rocks that overlies the iron-­‐formations of the Asbestos Hills Subgroup with sharp contact. It is overlain with erosional unconformable contact by glaciogenic diamictites of the Makaganyene Formation. This study focused on the lithostratigraphy, mineralogy and geochemistry of the iron-­‐ formations of the Koegas Subgroup based on fresh diamond drill core samples obtained during the Agouron scientific drilling project in South Africa in 2004. The iron formations the Koegas Subgroup are represented by a few important lithotypes, occurring in distinct sedimentary facies, which formed in unique depositional and diagenetic environments. The iron formations consist essentially of four facies, namely silicate lutite, mixed silicate-­‐siderite lutite, siderite lutite and siderite peloidstone A repetitive sedimentary cycle consisting of fine-­‐grained chemical lithotypes grading upward into reworked chemical lithotypes is evident throughout the Koegas Subgroup iron formations. Silicate lutite formed in deep water settings well below the wave base along a chemocline. Siderite lutite formed in shallower parts of the basin through transformation of primary ferric iron precipitate by iron respiration in presence of organic carbon. Peloidstone formed above normal wave base in shallow water by reworking of earlier siderite lutite deposits. The REE geochemistry provides important clues as to the depositional environment of the iron formation as follows. Depletion in LREE and enrichment in HREE combined with positive Y are typical of ocean water indicate that the iron formations were deposited in a marine environment. Positive Eu anomaly suggest the presence of a hydrothermal component in the ocean water from which the iron formations were deposited. Negative Ce anomalies indicate that somewhere in the marine system Ce3+ was oxidized to Ce4+ oxide, probably in the presence of free oxygen in the ocean water column (Bau and Dulski, 1996). The negative Ce anomalies seen in the Koegas iron formations are the oldest currently known from iron formations. As such the Ce anomalies most probably signify an increase in the oxygenation state of the ocean immediately prior to the rise of atmospheric oxygen as defined by Guo et al. (2009)