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The investigation of the Earth system and interplays between its components is of utmost importance to enhance the understanding of the impacts of global climate change on the Earth's land surface. In this context, Earth observation (EO) provides valuable long-term records covering an abundance of land surface variables and, thus, allowing for large-scale analyses to quantify and analyze land surface dynamics across various Earth system components. In view of this, the geographical entity of river basins was identified as particularly suitable for multivariate time series analyses of the land surface, as they naturally cover diverse spheres of the Earth. Many remote sensing missions with different characteristics are available to monitor and characterize the land surface. Yet, only a few spaceborne remote sensing missions enable the generation of spatio-temporally consistent time series with equidistant observations over large areas, such as the MODIS instrument.
In order to summarize available remote sensing-based analyses of land surface dynamics in large river basins, a detailed literature review of 287 studies was performed and several research gaps were identified. In this regard, it was found that studies rarely analyzed an entire river basin, but rather focused on study areas at subbasin or regional scale. In addition, it was found that transboundary river basins remained understudied and that studies largely focused on selected riparian countries. Moreover, the analysis of environmental change was generally conducted using a single EO-based land surface variable, whereas a joint exploration of multivariate land surface variables across spheres was found to be rarely performed.
To address these research gaps, a methodological framework enabling (1) the preprocessing and harmonization of multi-source time series as well as (2) the statistical analysis of a multivariate feature space was required. For development and testing of a methodological framework that is transferable in space and time, the transboundary river basins Indus, Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Meghna (IGBM) in South Asia were selected as study area, having a size equivalent to around eight times the size of Germany. These basins largely depend on water resources from monsoon rainfall and High Mountain Asia which holds the largest ice mass outside the polar regions. In total, over 1.1 billion people live in this region and in parts largely depend on these water resources which are indispensable for the world's largest connected irrigated croplands and further domestic needs as well. With highly heterogeneous geographical settings, these river basins allow for a detailed analysis of the interplays between multiple spheres, including the anthroposphere, biosphere, cryosphere, hydrosphere, lithosphere, and atmosphere.
In this thesis, land surface dynamics over the last two decades (December 2002 - November 2020) were analyzed using EO time series on vegetation condition, surface water area, and snow cover area being based on MODIS imagery, the DLR Global WaterPack and JRC Global Surface Water Layer, as well as the DLR Global SnowPack, respectively. These data were evaluated in combination with further climatic, hydrological, and anthropogenic variables to estimate their influence on the three EO land surface variables. The preprocessing and harmonization of the time series was conducted using the implemented framework. The resulting harmonized feature space was used to quantify and analyze land surface dynamics by means of several statistical time series analysis techniques which were integrated into the framework. In detail, these methods involved (1) the calculation of trends using the Mann-Kendall test in association with the Theil-Sen slope estimator, (2) the estimation of changes in phenological metrics using the Timesat tool, (3) the evaluation of driving variables using the causal discovery approach Peter and Clark Momentary Conditional Independence (PCMCI), and (4) additional correlation tests to analyze the human influence on vegetation condition and surface water area.
These analyses were performed at annual and seasonal temporal scale and for diverse spatial units, including grids, river basins and subbasins, land cover and land use classes, as well as elevation-dependent zones. The trend analyses of vegetation condition mostly revealed significant positive trends. Irrigated and rainfed croplands were found to contribute most to these trends. The trend magnitudes were particularly high in arid and semi-arid regions. Considering surface water area, significant positive trends were obtained at annual scale. At grid scale, regional and seasonal clusters with significant negative trends were found as well. Trends for snow cover area mostly remained stable at annual scale, but significant negative trends were observed in parts of the river basins during distinct seasons. Negative trends were also found for the elevation-dependent zones, particularly at high altitudes. Also, retreats in the seasonal duration of snow cover area were found in parts of the river basins. Furthermore, for the first time, the application of the causal discovery algorithm on a multivariate feature space at seasonal temporal scale revealed direct and indirect links between EO land surface variables and respective drivers. In general, vegetation was constrained by water availability, surface water area was largely influenced by river discharge and indirectly by precipitation, and snow cover area was largely controlled by precipitation and temperature with spatial and temporal variations. Additional analyses pointed towards positive human influences on increasing trends in vegetation greenness. The investigation of trends and interplays across spheres provided new and valuable insights into the past state and the evolution of the land surface as well as on relevant climatic and hydrological driving variables. Besides the investigated river basins in South Asia, these findings are of great value also for other river basins and geographical regions.
Statistical modeling of phenology in Bavaria based on past and future meteorological information
(2020)
Plant phenology is well known to be affected by meteorology. Observed changes in the occurrence of phenological phases arecommonly considered some of the most obvious effects of climate change. However, current climate models lack a representationof vegetation suitable for studying future changes in phenology itself. This study presents a statistical-dynamical modelingapproach for Bavaria in southern Germany, using over 13,000 paired samples of phenological and meteorological data foranalyses and climate change scenarios provided by a state-of-the-art regional climate model (RCM). Anomalies of severalmeteorological variables were used as predictors and phenological anomalies of the flowering date of the test plantForsythiasuspensaas predictand. Several cross-validated prediction models using various numbers and differently constructed predictorswere developed, compared, and evaluated via bootstrapping. As our approach needs a small set of meteorological observationsper phenological station, it allows for reliable parameter estimation and an easy transfer to other regions. The most robust andsuccessful model comprises predictors based on mean temperature, precipitation, wind velocity, and snow depth. Its averagecoefficient of determination and root mean square error (RMSE) per station are 60% and ± 8.6 days, respectively. However, theprediction error strongly differs among stations. When transferred to other indicator plants, this method achieves a comparablelevel of predictive accuracy. Its application to two climate change scenarios reveals distinct changes for various plants andregions. The flowering date is simulated to occur between 5 and 25 days earlier at the end of the twenty-first century comparedto the phenology of the reference period (1961–1990).
The present study concerned mainly on the source, facies, and sedimentary environments of the Middle to Upper Jurassic strata in the Kerman and Tabas areas, east-central Iran. The composition of sandstones, and heavy mineral analysis point to pre-existing sedimentary, low, middle to upper rank metamorphic, and plutonic rocks of the Kalmard, Posht-e-Badam, Bayazeh, and Zarand-Kerman areas as the source rocks. According to the diagram of WELTJE et al. (1998), most samples from the Middle-Upper Jurassic rocks suggest a moderate to high elevation of the source area, and indicate a semi-arid and mediterranean to sub-humid climate. In the Qt-F-L ternary diagrams of DICKINSON et al. (1983), most point counting data from the Lower Siliciclastic Member and the top of the Hojedk Formation plot in the recycled orogen (Quartzose recycled) area of the diagram. The sandstones in this area can be interpreted as being derived from the Mid-Cimmerian Movements. Sixteen different types of siliciclastic-carbonate, and evaporatic sedimentary environments have been recognized. Thirty-nine macroinvertebrate taxa have been identified. Ten ichnotaxa have been taxonomically described from the Middle to Upper Jurassic rocks. Quite likely, before rotation of CEIM which were associated with counterclockwise block-rotation, equivalent rocks of the Bidou Formation occurred along the tectonic zone between the Yazd and the Tabas blocks (probably during the Middle Jurassic to Lower Cretaceous). However, from the Cretaceous onwards, most of the Bidou Formation has been removed by a combination of strike-slip and reverse movements of the Kashmar-Kerman tectonic zone. Roughly, these block-rotation movements occurred after the Cretaceous. During the Middle to Upper Jurassic, the tectonic activities were vertical movements producing the sedimentary pattern in the CEIM.
Coal mining, an important human activity, disturbs soil organic carbon (SOC) accumulation and decomposition, eventually affecting terrestrial carbon cycling and the sustainability of human society. However, changes of SOC content and their relation with influential factors in coal mining areas remained unclear. In the study, predictive models of SOC content were developed based on field sampling and Landsat images for different land-use types (grassland, forest, farmland, and bare land) of the largest coal mining area in China (i.e., Shendong). The established models were employed to estimate SOC content across the Shendong mining area during 1990–2020, followed by an investigation into the impacts of climate change and human disturbance on SOC content by a Geo-detector. Results showed that the models produced satisfactory results (R\(^2\) > 0.69, p < 0.05), demonstrating that SOC content over a large coal mining area can be effectively assessed using remote sensing techniques. Results revealed that average SOC content in the study area rose from 5.67 gC·kg\(^{−1}\) in 1990 to 9.23 gC·kg\(^{−1}\) in 2010 and then declined to 5.31 gC·Kg\(^{−1}\) in 2020. This could be attributed to the interaction between the disturbance of soil caused by coal mining and the improvement of eco-environment by land reclamation. Spatially, the SOC content of farmland was the highest, followed by grassland, and that of bare land was the lowest. SOC accumulation was inhibited by coal mining activities, with the effect of high-intensity mining being lower than that of moderate- and low-intensity mining activities. Land use was found to be the strongest individual influencing factor for SOC content changes, while the interaction between vegetation coverage and precipitation exerted the most significant influence on the variability of SOC content. Furthermore, the influence of mining intensity combined with precipitation was 10 times higher than that of mining intensity alone.
As a cradle of ancient Chinese civilization, the Yellow River Basin has a very long human-environment interrelationship, where early anthropogenic activities re- sulted in large scale landscape modifications. Today, the impact of this relationship
has intensified further as the basin plays a vital role for China’s continued economic
development. It is one of the most densely-populated, fastest growing, and most dynamic
regions of China with abundant natural and environmental resources providing a livelihood for almost 190 million people. Triggered by fundamental economic reforms, the
basin has witnessed a spectacular economic boom during the last decades and can be
considered as an exemplary blueprint region for contemporary dynamic Global Change
processes occurring throughout the country, which is currently transitioning from an
agrarian-dominated economy into a modern urbanized society. However, this resourcesdemanding growth has led to profound land use changes with adverse effects on the Yellow
River social-ecological systems, where complex challenges arise threatening a long-term
sustainable development.
Consistent and continuous remote sensing-based monitoring of recent and past land
cover and land use change is a fundamental requirement to mitigate the adverse impacts
of Global Change processes. Nowadays, technical advancement and the multitude of
available satellite sensors, in combination with the opening of data archives, allow the
creation of new research perspectives in regional land cover applications over heterogeneous landscapes at large spatial scales. Despite the urgent need to better understand the
prevailing dynamics and underlying factors influencing the current processes, detailed
regional specific land cover data and change information are surprisingly absent for this
region.
In view of the noted research gaps and contemporary developments, three major objectives are defined in this thesis. First (i), the current and most pressing social-ecological
challenges are elaborated and policy and management instruments towards more sustainability are discussed. Second (ii), this thesis provides new and improved insights on
the current land cover state and dynamics of the entire Yellow River Basin. Finally (iii),
the most dominant processes related to mining, agriculture, forest, and urban dynamics
are determined on finer spatial and temporal scales.
The complex and manifold problems and challenges that result from long-term abuse
of the water and land resources in the basin have been underpinned by policy choices,
cultural attitude, and institutions that have evolved over centuries in China. The tremendous economic growth that has been mainly achieved by extracting water and exploiting
land resources in a rigorous, but unsustainable manner, might not only offset the economic benefits, but could also foster social unrest. Since the early emergence of the first Chinese dynasties, flooding was considered historically as a primary issue in river management and major achievements have been made to tame the wild nature of the Yellow
River. Whereas flooding is therefore largely now under control, new environmental and
social problems have evolved, including soil and water pollution, ecological degradation,
biodiversity decline, and food security, all being further aggravated by anthropogenic
climate change. To resolve the contemporary and complex challenges, many individual
environmental laws and regulations have been enacted by various Chinese ministries.
However, these policies often pursue different, often contradictory goals, are too general
to tackle specific problems and are usually implemented by a strong top-down approach.
Recently, more flexible economic and market-based incentives (pricing, tradable permits,
investments) have been successfully adopted, which are specifically tailored to the respective needs, shifting now away from the pure command and regulating instruments.
One way towards a more holistic and integrated river basin management could be the
establishment of a common platform (e.g. a Geographical Information System) for data
handling and sharing, possibly operated by the Yellow River Basin Conservancy Commission (YRCC), where available spatial data, statistical information and in-situ measures
are coalesced, on which sustainable decision-making could be based. So far, the collected
data is hardly accessible, fragmented, inconsistent, or outdated.
The first step to address the absence and lack of consistent and spatially up-to-date
information for the entire basin capturing the heterogeneous landscape conditions was
taken up in this thesis. Land cover characteristics and dynamics were derived from
the last decade for the years 2003 and 2013, based on optical medium-resolution hightemporal MODIS Normalized Differenced Vegetation Index (NDVI) time series at 250 m.
To minimize the inherent influence of atmospheric and geometric interferences found in
raw high temporal data, the applied adaptive Savitzky-Golay filter successfully smoothed
the time series and substantially reduced noise. Based on the smoothed time series
data, a large variety of intra-annual phenology metrics as well as spectral and multispectral annual statistics were derived, which served as input variables for random
forest (RF) classifiers. High quality reference data sets were derived from very high
resolution imagery for each year independently of which 70 % trained the RF models. The
accuracy assessments for all regionally specific defined thematic classes were based on the
remaining 30 % reference data split and yielded overall accuracies of 87 % and 84 % for
2003 and 2013, respectively. The first regional adapted Yellow River Land Cover Products
(YRB LC) depict the detail spatial extent and distribution of the current land cover status
and dynamics. The novel products overall differentiate overall 18 land cover and use
classes, including classes of natural vegetation (terrestrial and aquatic), cultivated classes,
mosaic classes, non-vegetated, and artificial classes, which are not presented in previous
land cover studies so far.
Building on this, an extended multi-faceted land cover analysis on the most prominent
land cover change types at finer spatial and temporal scales provides a better and more
detailed picture of the Yellow River Basin dynamics. Precise spatio-temporal products
about mining, agriculture, forest, and urban areas were examined from long-trem Landsat
satellite time series monitored at annual scales to capture the rapid rate of change in four
selected focus regions. All archived Landsat images between 2000 and 2015 were used to
derive spatially continuous spectral-temporal, multi-spectral, and textural metrics. For
each thematic region and year RF models were built, trained and tested based on a stablepixels reference data set. The automated adaptive signature (AASG) algorithm identifies those pixels that did not change between the investigated time periods to generate a
mono-temporal reference stable-pixels data set to keep manual sampling requirements
to a minimum level. Derived results gained high accuracies ranging from 88 % to 98 %.
Throughout the basin, afforestation on the Central Loess Plateau and urban sprawl are
identified as most prominent drivers of land cover change, whereas agricultural land
remained stable, only showing local small-scale dynamics. Mining operations started in
2004 on the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, which resulted in a substantial loss of pristine alpine
meadows and wetlands.
In this thesis, a novel and unique regional specific view of current and past land cover
characteristics in a complex and heterogeneous landscape was presented by using a
multi-source remote sensing approach. The delineated products hold great potential for
various model and management applications. They could serve as valuable components
for effective and sustainable land and water management to adapt and mitigate the
predicted consequences of Global Change processes.
Landslide susceptibility assessment in the Chiconquiaco Mountain Range area, Veracruz (Mexico)
(2022)
In Mexico, numerous landslides occur each year and Veracruz represents the state with the third highest number of events. Especially the Chiconquiaco Mountain Range, located in the central part of Veracruz, is highly affected by landslides and no detailed information on the spatial distribution of existing landslides or future occurrences is available. This leaves the local population exposed to an unknown threat and unable to react appropriately to this hazard or to consider the potential landslide occurrence in future planning processes.
Thus, the overall objective of the present study is to provide a comprehensive assessment of the landslide situation in the Chiconquiaco Mountain Range area. Here, the combination of a site-specific and a regional approach enables to investigate the causes, triggers, and process types as well as to model the landslide susceptibility for the entire study area.
For the site-specific approach, the focus lies on characterizing the Capulín landslide, which represents one of the largest mass movements in the area. In this context, the task is to develop a multi-methodological concept, which concentrates on cost-effective, flexible and non-invasive methods. This approach shows that the applied methods complement each other very well and their combination allows for a detailed characterization of the landslide.
The analyses revealed that the Capulín landslide is a complex mass movement type. It comprises rotational movement in the upper parts and translational movement in the lower areas, as well as flow processes at the flank and foot area and therefore, is classified as a compound slide-flow according to Cruden and Varnes (1996). Furthermore, the investigations show that the Capulín landslide represents a reactivation of a former process. This is an important new information, especially with regard to the other landslides identified in the study area. Both the road reconstructed after the landslide, which runs through the landslide mass, and the stream causing erosion processes at the foot of the landslide severely affect the stability of the landslide, making it highly susceptible to future reactivation processes. This is particularly important as the landslide is located only few hundred meters from the village El Capulín and an extension of the landslide area could cause severe damage.
The next step in the landslide assessment consists of integrating the data obtained in the site-specific approach into the regional analysis. Here, the focus lies on transferring the generated data to the entire study area. The developed methodological concept yields applicable results, which is supported by different validation approaches.
The susceptibility modeling as well as the landslide inventory reveal that the highest probability of landslides occurrence is related to the areas with moderate slopes covered by slope deposits. These slope deposits comprise material from old mass movements and erosion processes and are highly susceptible to landslides. The results give new insights into the landslide situation in the Chiconquiaco Mountain Range area, since previously landslide occurrence was related to steep slopes of basalt and andesite.
The susceptibility map is a contribution to a better assessment of the landslide situation in the study area and simultaneously proves that it is crucial to include specific characteristics of the respective area into the modeling process, otherwise it is possible that the local conditions will not be represented correctly.
The explosive expansion of the population of the Metropolitan Region of Curitiba raised a high increase in the demand for water resources and the uncontrolled settlement poses a large problem for the environment. The greatest menace to the water supply sources of this region is the urban occupation (invasion) into the areas that contain these resources. This occupation continues with its slow, silent, although progressive march, threatening precious and irreplaceable resources. From this background an area in the direct vicinity north-east of Curitiba has been studied. In this area a drinking water reservoir was constructed in the time that the study took place in the Iraí-basin. The Iraí-reservoir even though an area around the lake will be protected may be polluted by two tributaries which flow through more or less densely populated areas. In the study area on the same time wells have been constructed. To estimate what the impact may be from the possibly polluted reservoir on the aquifer a groundwater flow model has been constructed. On the same time to estimate the water balance and the spatial distribution of pollution vulnerability the hydrological model MODBIL has been used. Also other methods have been used to estimate the pollution vulnerability to make a comparison and because none of the methods takes every aspect into account. With the calibrated groundwater flow model for the situation before the construction of the Iraí-reservoir and after its construction, simple particle tracking transport models are constructed as scenarios how the water of the aquifer may be influenced.
The Mesosaurus Inland Sea covered, in the Late Paleozoic, vast areas (~5 Mio km2) of the SW-Gondwanan continental interior. Major depocentres are represented by the Karoo basins of SW-Africa and the Paraná Basin in South America. These areas were interconnected prior to the break-up of Gondwana and the subsequent opening of the South Atlantic Ocean. In Namibia and South Africa deposits of the Mesosaurus Inland Sea are preserved in the successions of the glacial Dwyka Group and the postglacial Ecca Group (Karoo Supergroup). These deposits comprise the major part of a 60-70 Ma depositional cycle and are the main focus of this study. The large-scale transgressive part of this cycle started in the Late Carboniferous with continental glacial deposits followed by marine glacial and postglacial inland sea deposits. During the Early Permian the Mesosaurus Inland Sea reached its greatest extent, which was accompanied by widespread deposition of Corg-rich sediments. The large scale regressive part is recorded by successions ranging from deep water offshore pelites and turbidite sandstones to shallow water shoreface and deltaic sandstones, deposited in a brackish environment. Shallow water inland sea sediments are in turn overlain by fluvio-lacustrine deposits, which are assigned to the Beaufort Group and form the upper part of the cycle. This successive change in the depositional environment from marine to brackish to freshwater is also reflected in the fossil record. During Dwyka times a marine association of the Gondwana faunal province was able to colonize parts of the Mesosaurus Inland Sea. Later, during lower Ecca times, the connection to the Panthalassan Ocean became insufficient to retain normal marine conditions, leading to strong faunal endemism in an isolated and brackish inland sea environ¬ment. The most well-known and widespread representatives of this endemic fauna are mesosaurid vertebrates and megadesmid bivalves. Numerous altered tuffs occur as interlayers within argillaceous sediments of the Dwyka and Ecca Group of southern Namibia. The vast majority of these altered tuffs are represented by soft and crumbly to hard and indurated, clay-mineral-rich, bentonitic layers. Another, much rarer type is represented by very hard, chert-like tuff layers, which are predominantly albitic in composition. Furthermore, tuff layers within the Gai-As Formation of the Huab area are rich in potassium feldspar and have a porcelain-like appearance. The diagenetically modified matrix is mainly crypto- to microcrystalline. Polished tuff specimen show, in some tuffs, plane lamination or bedding with two or more subunits forming a tuff layer. Some display a weakly developed lamination. Only in very rare cases were structures reminiscent of sedimentary micro-cross lamination observed. The sedimentary textures and structures of the tuffs indicate that they have been deposited mainly as distal ash-fall layers by suspension settling in water. Some may have also been deposited or modified under the influence of weak bottom currents. The primary, pyroclastic macro-components of the tuffs are mainly represented by crystals of quartz, plagio¬clase, and biotite. In some thin sections pseudo¬morphs after pyroxene or hornblende were observed. Euhedral zircon and apatite crystals were observed in almost every tuff. Vitric or formerly vitric macro-components are very rare. The matrix of the majority of the investigated tuffs is predominantly composed of clay minerals. However, the matrix of the tuffs originally consisted most probably of fine vitric ash particles. Soon after deposition the volcanic ash was diagenetically altered to smectitic clay minerals. At a later stage smectite was progressively replaced by illite under prograde conditions. Nowadays the matrix of the bentonitic tuffs is strongly illite-dominated and only in the softer tuff layers a minor smectite content can be detected. Both the primary macrocrystic components as well as the geochemistry of the altered tuffs indicate that their source magmas were mainly of intermediate composition. The abundance of splintery quartz and feldspar crystal fragments within the tuffs hints at a highly explosive plinian or phreatoplinian eruption style of the source volcanoes, which were most probably located within a subduction-related volcanic arc region along the southern margin of Gondwana. New single zircon U-Pb SHRIMP datings of tuff layers provide a much more reliable age control of the investigated sedimentary succession. U-Pb SHRIMP ages for tuff layers from the glaciogenic Dwyka Group in southwestern Africa range from 302.0 ± 3.0 to 297.1 ± 1.8 Ma. The basal part of the early post-glacial Prince Albert Formation is dated at around 290 Ma. SHRIMP ages for tuff layers from the upper part of the Prince Albert Formation, the Whitehill Formation, and the middle part of the Collingham Formation indicate that the Mesosaurus Sea reached its greatest extent at around 280 Ma.
Human health is known to be affected by the physical environment. Various environmental influences have been identified to benefit or challenge people's physical condition. Their heterogeneous distribution in space results in unequal burdens depending on the place of living. In addition, since societal groups tend to also show patterns of segregation, this leads to unequal exposures depending on social status. In this context, environmental justice research examines how certain social groups are more affected by such exposures. Yet, analyses of this per se spatial phenomenon are oftentimes criticized for using “essentially aspatial” data or methods which neglect local spatial patterns by aggregating environmental conditions over large areas. Recent technological and methodological developments in satellite remote sensing have proven to provide highly detailed information on environmental conditions. This narrative review therefore discusses known influences of the urban environment on human health and presents spatial data and applications for analyzing these influences. Furthermore, it is discussed how geographic data are used in general and in the interdisciplinary research field of environmental justice in particular. These considerations include the modifiable areal unit problem and ecological fallacy. In this review we argue that modern earth observation data can represent an important data source for research on environmental justice and health. Especially due to their high level of spatial detail and the provided large-area coverage, they allow for spatially continuous description of environmental characteristics. As a future perspective, ongoing earth observation missions, as well as processing architectures, ensure data availability and applicability of ’big earth data’ for future environmental justice analyses.
In north-western Namibia the fills of the Karoo-Etendeka depositories can be subdivided into (1) a Carboniferous-Permian, (2) a Triassic-Jurassic and (3) a Cretaceous megasequence, each recording extensional periods related to successive rifting phases in the evolving South Atlantic. The tectonic environment of the depositories in north-western Namibia changes successively from the coast towards the continental interior, which is reflected by the facies distribution and the position of time-stratigraphic gaps. Close to the present-day coastline synsedimentary listric faults, trending parallel to the South Atlantic rift (N-S), caused the formation of wedge shaped sediment bodies. Here, the Karoo Supergroup is only represented by the Permian succession in the Huab area. A hiatus within the Permian can be recognised by the correlation with the main Karoo Basin in South Africa and the Brazilian Paraná Basin. This stratal gap correlates with a pre-Beaufort Group unconformity in the main Karoo Basin that might be related to an orogenic pulse in the Cape Fold Belt. The Permian succession itself is unconformably overlain by the Lower Cretaceous Etendeka Group. This hiatus extending from the Upper Permian to the Lower Cretaceous has probably been induced by a combination of rift shoulder uplift and additional crustal doming associated with Etendeka flood volcanism. The enhanced tectonism during the Early Cretaceous controlled accommodation space for the alluvial-fluvial and aeolian deposits of the lower Etendeka Group. Disconformities within those deposits and the overlying lava succession attribute to distinct phases of tectonic and volcanic activity heralding the South Atlantic breakup. Towards the south-east, the Karoo succession becomes successively more complete. In the vicinity of Mt. Brandberg Early Triassic strata (Middle Omingonde Formation) follow disconformably above the Upper Permian/Lowermost Triassic Doros Formation. The sedimentation there was essentially controlled by the SW-NE trending Damaraland Uplift. South of the Damaraland Uplift the SW-NE trending Waterberg-Omaruru Fault zone is interpreted as a sinistral oblique-slip fault that compartmentalised the South Atlantic rift. This fault controlled accommodation space of the entire Triassic Omingonde Formation and the Early Jurassic Etjo Formation in its associated pull-apart and transtension structures. A locally well developed angular unconformity defines a hiatus between the two formations. Correlation with the main Karoo Basin in South Africa confirms that this gap is of a regional extent and not only a local, fault induced feature. Furthermore, it might also correlate with an orogenic pulse of the Cape Fold Belt. In general, the Mesozoic megasequences record the long-lived history of the southern Atlantic rift evolution. Rifting has been controlled by orogenic pulses derived from the Samfrau active margin throughout the Mesozoic. The associated intracratonic E-W extension caused the formation of grabens and conjugated oblique-slip zones. The generation of voluminous flood basalts marks the climax of intracratonic extension that was accompanied by enhanced uplift of the rift shoulders.