What the marine geology of Table Bay, South Africa can inform about the western Saldania Belt, geological evolution and sedimentary dynamics of the region

Around the city of Cape Town, South Africa, the basal Neoproterozoic rocks are poorly exposed. There is however, historical evidence for good exposure of these rocks on the seafloor of Table Bay, although not mapped at sufficient resolution nor areal extent for significant conclusions. The Council for Geoscience therefore decided to commence their offshore mapping programme with this bay, mapping it at 1 m resolution using multibeam and sidescan sonar. The hope was that these data would help to unify the detailed sub-aerial investigations with offshore geological data.