Late Palaeozoic Palynomorphs from the Kalahari Karoo Basin in Botswana: Potential for Biostratigraphic Applications in the Lower Karoo Sequence

The application of biostratigraphic methods in sedimentary basin analysis remains a valuable tool for geological mapping and preliminary mineral assessment studies. Past studies in the Kalahari Karoo Basin, which is host to important resources such as coal, coalbed methane, clay deposits and groundwater aquifers, have been greatly hampered by stratigraphic constraints owing to inadequate exposure. This work therefore, provides an alternative tool to augment the traditional method of lithostratigraphic applications in geological correlations. Local biozonations, erected on the basis of palynomorphs and palynofacies retrieved from coreholes, are analysed and discussed. This book is intended to provide geologists working in the mineral exploration and development industry with a basic biostratigraphic correlation reference system, for use in the Kalahari Karoo Basin. In addition, this work will also provide earth scientists in the region, and around the world, with the presently inadequate but much needed biostratigraphic data from the Kalahari Karoo Basin, for both regional and global correlations.