Like all other departments, Stellenbosch is plunging into the business of another promising teaching year. We didn't really report on these things last time, so here is the research news.

Profs John Clemens, Alex Kisters and Ian Buick, with two students, are embarking on their final NRF-funded year of investigating the giant Donkerhuk batholith in Namibia. Great progress has been made in understanding the conditions under which the magmas were formed and their mode of emplacement only slightly higher in the crust. What remains to be worked out is how this extremely heterogeneous and ling-lived plutonism fits into the overall tectonic setting of the Damara Belt during Early Cambrian times.

Fig. 1. Profs Kisters and Buick on a Donkerhuk outcrop, with collaborator Prof Jung from Hamburg

Fig. 2. Prof Buick (for scale) on an pavement outcrop of Donkerhuk granite, nicely illustrating the highly heterogeneous, sheeted nature of the batholith

Following up on an NRF CSUR-grant on "Precambrian Dykes across the Greater Congo Craton", Dr Martin Klausen and MSc-student (Wean Welgemoed) managed in July to sample sections of the Kasai River (along the DRC-Angolan border) by boat. This was logistically feasible through collaborations with Prof Louis Kipata (Head of the Geological Department at Lubumbashi University), who also contributed with an MSc-student (Philip Mukonki) working on the felsic host rocks. Thus, a basic petrological and geochronological study has been initiated on the under-investigated Kasai Craton, including an older, migmatised, TTG gneiss terrane with granite plutons, cross-cutting mafic dykes and metamorphosed dykes associated with an older metagabbroic complex.

Prof. Ian Buick continued his collaboration with Prof. Cristiano Lana (Federal University of Ouro Preto, Brazil) on the development of accessory-phase U-Pb and Nd/O-Hf reference materials for LA-ICP-MS/SIMS instruments, funded through the "Science Without Borders" program of the CNPq (Brazil). Potential monazite reference materials for U-Pb and Nd-isotopes have recently been described (Gonçalves et al., 2016; Chemical Geology); development of other monazite (U-Pb, Nd, O) and a zircon (U-Pb, Hf) reference materials are in the manuscript pipeline. Work in 2016 will focus on assessment of potential columbite-tantalite U-Pb reference materials.

Over the past two years, our Palaeontologist/sedimentologist, Ryan Tucker, has developed key projects with collaborators at Wits (Zubair Jinnah and Bruce Rubidge) and UCT (Anusuya Chinsamy-Turan and Emese Bordy), supporting honours and masters student projects. One such project focuses on Triassic-Jurassic Boundary Karoo sediments (Elliot and Clarens formations) of Lesotho (in collaboration with UCT's Emese Bordy and Lara Sciscio). The fluvio-lacustrine and aeolian rocks of the Triassic-Jurassic Elliot and Clarens formations preserve a broad suite of vertebrate body and a plethora of trace fossils (Fig. 1). These ancient life remains and their mode of preservation in the host sediments can be used to decode messages about the dynamics of a ~ 200 Myr old palaeoecological system in southern Africa (Stellenbosch honours students Jani van Gend and Marisca Beyers). The second of these projects focuses on a unique deposit in the Lebombo Group lavas, exposed in Kruger National Park. This study seeks to uncover the sedimentological and palaeoecological context for "recently discovered" floral assemblage. This fossil record is particularly intriguing because of its age, which preserves a thriving and diversifying assemblage, and because the Karoo large igneous province (LIP) coincided temporally with a minor global extinction event (15% of genera). Furthermore, this 'in-situ' assemblage seemed to have thrived in the middle of this LIP during highly active volcanism; a rare occurrence (Fig 2). Despite these important factors, much of the contextual details surrounding this assemblage remain unresolved. This will provide crucial understanding of how South Africa's Jurassic terrestrial flora thrived not only in a hostile environment, but also during a minor global extinction event (Stellenbosch honours student Zandri Rademan and collaborator Martin Klausen).

Fig. 3. Well preserved dinosaur footprint in the lowermost Upper Elliot Formation

Fig. 4. Zandri Rademan (honours student) examining plant-like fossils preserved within the Lembombo lavas in Kruger National Park

On the recent conference front, Profs Gary Stevens and Alex Kisters both delivered well-received keynote lectures at the recent Granulites conference held in Windhoek. Staying with that meeting there was a 5-day, post-conference field trip with 30 participants from academia and industry, which was led by Alex Kisters and Dr Johan Diener (UCT). This concentrated on the high-grade parts of the Damara belt, looking at aspects of crustal melt migration and emplacement. Dr Jodie Miller and Prof. John Clemens also attended and presented papers at the Goldschmidt conference in Prague.

On the more local front. The annual IMSG (Igneous and Metamorphic Studies Group) meeting has turned into a convivial venue for the presentation world-class science carried out in South African departments. This year, it was organised by UCT, with an associated two-leg field trip led mainly by Profs Chris Harris (UCT) and Gary Stevens (Stellenbosch). As usual, Stellenbosch had a significant presence at the meeting. Indeed, I transpires that the president (John Clemens) is one of only 3 people who have attended and presented at all 8 of the meetings, sharing this distinction with Chris Harris of UCT and James Roberts of Pretoria. A full report on the meeting can be found elsewhere in this issue.

Finally, Stellenbosch has acquired some significant new equipment capabilities. For example, the CAF Electron Microbeam Unit has acquired a new Carl Zeiss MERLIN high resolution field emission SEM with nano-scale image and micro- and cryo-EDS analytical capabilities. The MERLIN combines ultra-fast analytics and high resolution imaging. The system is fitted with a number of detectors for imaging including: in-lens and chamber secondary (SE) detectors, an in-column energy-selective backscattered electron detector, a retractable diode backscattered electron detector a cathodoluminescence detector and a Scanning Transmission Electron Microscopy detector with a resolution of 0.6nm. Analytical capability is provided by an Oxford Instruments XMax 150mm2 detector for obtaining high resolution spectra and high spatial resolution maps. Furthermore, the instrument has a Quorum cryostage for cryo-micro-quantitative analysis of beam sensitive samples and a facility for local charge compensation for the analysis of insulating samples. Fancy stuff that will have numerous applications in Earth Sciences research.

Find more information in the GSSA geobulletin March 2016, volume 59, nr. 1