SENIOR LECTURER RELATED WEBSITES
  Department of Geological Sciences Marine Geology and Geophysics
  Geological Sciences Extension Building
  University of Cape Town  
  Rondebosch, 7701, RSA  
  Room 609  
     
  ph: #27 (0)21 650 2919  
  fax: #27 (0)21 650 3783  
  email: john.rogers@uct.ac.za  
     
  Biography Research Publications Teaching Students Personal  
 
   
 
Degrees
  • BSc (Hons) University of Cape Town, 1966
  • MSc University of Cape Town, 1971
  • PhD University of Cape Town, 1977
 
Employment
  • Research Officer, University of Cape Town, 1967- 1975
  • Senior Geologist (Geological Survey of South Africa), 1976-1981
  • Senior Research Officer, University of Cape Town, 1982-present
 
Professional Associations
  • Fellow Geological Society of South Africa
  • Committee Member Geological Society of South Africa
  • Founding Member Western Cape Branch of GSSA
  • Council Member South African Society for Quaternary Research (SASQUA)
 
Public Lectures
  • Darwin's Contribution to Geology in celebration of Darwin's 200th birthday, 3 June 2009, Cape Town.
 
Marine Experience
 
 
My research activities are focussed on the Cenozoic sediments on the continental margin and the coastal plain. Gem-quality diamonds are found in economic quantities, both in "raised beaches" along the coastal plains of Namaqualand and Namibia and in "drowned beaches" off our west coast. The sedimentological context of these diamonds is therefore of critical importance in locating new deposits. Increasingly, however, a concern is being expressed on the environmental aspects of mining the diamonds, both onshore and offshore, and I am involved in the planning and execution of longterm time-series measurements of environmental parameters in the vulnerable benthic boundary layer in collaboration with a multidisciplinary team of fellow oceanographers.

On the continental slope and rise I have been investigating the negative effects of slumping and turbidity currents on the accumulation of ferromanganese nodules, that require very low sedimentation rates, below the carbonate lysocline. Petrographic and geochemical studies of ferromanganese nodules from the Cape Basin, the Mozambique Basin and the Mozambique Ridge have shown that ice-rafted sand and granules are major diluents in many of the nodules being studied. As a result, attention is also being paid to the petrography and provenance of ice-rafted cobbles and boulders trawled accidentally during annual hake-assessment cruises of the Sea Fisheries Research Institute. Banded gneisses, probably from Antarctica, attract the most attention.

In 2004, I supervised two small research projects on the Late Proterozoic bedrock geology of Robben Island and on the Quaternary aeolianites and beaches, both sandy and shingle beaches.

I have also supervised several small research projects on the coastal geology of the Southwestern Cape, from Gordon's Bay to Stanford. These have dealt with Late Tertiary talus deposits between Gordon's Bay and Rooi Els, Latest Holocene (11 April, 2005) debris flows between Betty's Bay and Stanford and bedrock geology between Gordon's Bay and Betty's Bay.

More recently, I have studied Late Cenozoic pelletal phosphorite from the outer shelf, between Luderitz and Walvis Bay, using grab samples of the upper 10cm. This year I am studying cores of the same outer-shelf sediments, which will determine both the thickness and age of these deposits, currently considered to be the third largest in the world after the onland deposits of Florida and Morocco. Having been stable for decades, the price of rock phosphate has skyrocketed recently and diamond-prospecting companies are diversifying into marine pelletal phosphorite sand.

Dr. Kerstin Drost of the Africa Earth Observation network (AEON) at UCT and I are currently dating detrital zircons from the top of the Graafwater Formation and the base of the Peninsula Formation, both in the Ordovician section of the Table Mountain Group. This follows a more circumscribed research project in the Cape Peninsula in 2005, reported by me during an international workshop in Brazil (Gramado) in 2007, following the discovery, in the Cape Peninsula, of both a syncline and an anticline in the Graafwater Formation below unfolded strata of the Peninsula Formation. In addition, a low-angle, angular unconformity, first described by Professor Izak Rust in his PhD on the Table Mountain Group, was sampled at Heerenlogement, NW of Clanwilliam, as well as exposures at Cape Maclear, just west of Cape Point, Ou Kaapse Weg and near Platteklip Gorge, all in the Cape Peninsula.

 
 
 
Rau, A., Rogers, J. and Chen, M.T. (2006) Late Quaternary palaeoceanographic record in giant piston cores off South Africa, possibly including evidence of neotectonism. Quaternary International 148 65-77.

Rogers, J. and Rau, A.J. (2006) Surficial sediments of the wave-dominated Orange River Delta and the adjacent continental margin off south-western Africa African Journal of Marine Science 28 511-524.

Rogers, J. (2006) Sedimentology of Late Cenozoic sediments of the Varswater Formation in the Varswater Quarry at Langebaanweg, Western Cape Province, South Africa. African Natural History, 2 (November) 192-193.

Rogers, J. (2006) Sedimentology of Late Cenozoic sediments, including the Pliocene Duynefontyn Member of the Varswater Formation, Koeberg Nuclear Power Station, Melkbosstrand, Cape Town. African Natural History, 2 (November): 194-196.

Rau, A.J., Rogers, J., Lutjeharms, J.R.E., Giraudeau, J., Chen, M.T., Waelbroeck, C. and Lee-Thorp, J.A. 2002. A 450 kyr record of surface water conditions on the Agulhas Bank Slope, south of Africa. Marine Geology, 180: 183-201.

 
Rogers, J. and Li, X.C. 2002. Environmental impact of diamond mining on continental shelf sediments off southern Namibia. Quaternary International, 92: 101-112.
 
Meadows, M.E., Rogers, J., Lee-Thorp, J.A., Bateman, M.D. and Dingle, R.V. 2002. Holocene chronology of a continental shelf mudbelt off southwestern Africa. The Holocene, 12: 59-67.
 
Shaw, A.I., Holmes, P.J. and Rogers, J. 2001. Late Quaternary environmental change in the headward vicinity of Dias Beach, Cape Point, South Africa. South African Journal of Geology,104: 101-114.
 
Gray, C.E.D., Meadows, M.E., Lee-Thorp, J.A. and Rogers, J. 2000. Characterising the Namaqualand mudbelt of southern Africa: Chronology, palynology and palaeoenvironents. South African Geographical Journal, 82: 137-142.
 
Rogers, J. 2000. Geotourism in the Western Cape: Of plinths and plaques. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 31: 63-64.
 
Rogers, J., Rau, A.J. and Chen, M.T. 2000. Evidence of latitudinal fluctuations in the South Atlantic during the late Quaternary from ice-rafting detritus off the west coast of South Africa. Journal of African Earth Sciences, 31: 62-63.
 
Rogers, J. 1999. Preliminary findings of the images-II Programme (International MArine Global ChangE Study) using giant piston cores from the continental slope and rise off southern Africa. South African Journal of Geology, 102: 384-390.
 
Chen, M-.T., Bertrand, P., Balut, Y., Schneider, R., Rogers, J. and Taiwan images participants. 1998. images II Cruise (NAUSICAA) explores Quaternary climatic variability and linkage of Benguela and Agulhas Current Systems in the Southern Indian-Atlantic Ocean: Participation by consortium of University of Taiwan institutions (coordinated by National Taiwan University). Journal of the Geological Society of China, 41: 73-79.
 
BAILEY, G.W. and Rogers, J. 1997. Chemical oceanography and marine geoscience off southern Africa: Past discoveries in the post-Gilchrist era and future prospects. Transactions Royal Society of South Africa, 52: 51-79.
 
Mabote, M.E., Rogers, J. and Meadows, M.E. 1997. Sedimentology of terrigenous mud from the Orange River Delta and the inner shelf off Namaqualand, South Africa. South African Geographical Journal, 79: 108-114.
 
Meadows, M.E., Dingle, R.V., Rogers, J. and Mills, E.G. 1997. Radiocarbon chronology of Namaqualand sediments: Problems and prospects. South African Journal of Science, 93: 321-327.
 
Le Clus, F., Hennig, H.F-.K.O. and Rogers, J. 1996. Bathymetry and sediment type effects on catch rates of Austroglossus pectoralis (Soleidae) on the inner central Agulhas Bank. South African Journal of Marine Science, 17: 79-92.
 
Rogers, J. 1995. A comparative study of manganese nodules off southern Africa. South African Journal of Geology, 98: 208-216.
 
Giraudeau, J. and Rogers, J. 1994. Phytoplankton biomass and sea-surface temperature estimates from sea-bed distribution of nannofossils and planktonic foraminifera in the Benguela upwelling system. Micropalaeontology, 40: 275-285.
 
Hartnady, C.J.H., Ben-Avraham, Z. and Rogers, J. 1992. Deep-ocean basins and submarine rises off the continental margin of southeastern Africa: new geological research developments. South African Journal of Science, 88: 534-539.
 
Emery, K.O., Bremner, J.M. and Rogers, J. 1992. Hypsometry of divergent and translation continental margins of southern Africa. Marine Geology, 106: 89-105.
 
Day, R.W., Franzsen, A.J. and Rogers, J. 1992. Coast-parallel palaeochannels off southern Namibia. Marine Geology, 105: 299-304.
 
Rogers, J. and BREMNER, J.M. 1991. The Benguela Ecosystem. Part VII - Marine-geological aspects. Oceanography and Marine Biology Annual Review, 29: 1-85.
 
Rogers, J. 1990. Manganese nodules - capsules of Cenozoic history. Palaeoecology of Africa, 21: 17-26.
 
Rogers, J. 1990. Evidence of change in Quaternary marine sediments off southern Africa. Palaeoecology of Africa, 21: 3-16.
 
Bremner, J.M., Rogers, J. and Willis, J.P. 1990. Sedimentological aspects of the 1988 Orange River floods. Transactions of the Royal Society of South Africa, 47: 247-294.
 
Herbert, R.S., Shackleton, L.Y., Thackeray, J.F. and Rogers, J. 1989. Diatomaceous oozes off Walvis Bay: collaborative research on climatic change. South African Journal of Science, 85: 295-296.
 
Williams, G.C. and Rogers, J. 1989. Photographic evidence of bathyal octocorals from the Cape Basin. South African Journal of Science, 85: 191-192.
 
Woodborne, M.A.W., Rogers, J. and Jarman, N. 1989. On the role of kelp in the transportation of cobbles and boulders along the southwestern coast of South Africa. Geo-Marine Letters, 9(2): 109-118.
 
Grindley, J.R., Rogers, J., Pether, J. and Woodborne, M.W. 1989. Holocene evolution of Rietvlei near Cape Town deduced from the palaeoecology of some mid-Holocene estuarine mollusca. Palaeoecology of Africa, 19: 347-353.
 
Siesser, W.G., Rogers, J. and Winter, A. 1988. Biostratigraphic, sedimentologic and isotopic analysis of core 6838 from the Agulhas Ridge Moat: Implications for the Oligocene position of Subantarctic Surface Water. Marine Geology, 80: 119-129.
 
Rogers, J. 1987. Seismic, bathymetric and photographic evidence of widespread erosion and a manganese-nodule pavement along the continental rise of the Southeast Cape Basin. Marine Geology, 78: 57-76.
 
Dingle, R.V., Birch, G.F., Bremner, J.M., De Decker, R.H., Du Plessis, A., Engelbrecht, J.C., Fincham, M.J., Fitton, T., Flemming, B.W., Goodlad, S.W., Gentle, R.I., Martin, A.K., Mills, E.G., Moir, G.J., Parker, R.J., Robson, S.H., Rogers, J., Salmon, D.A., Siesser, W.G., Simpson, E.S.W., Summerhayes, C.P., Westall, F., Winter, A. and Woodborne, M.W. 1987. Deep-sea sedimentary environments around southern Africa (SE-Atlantic & SW-Indian Oceans). Annals South African Museum, 98: 1-27.
 
Rogers, J. 1987. The evolution of the continental terrace between St Helena Bay and Lambert's Bay. In: Parkington, J. and Hall, M. (eds). Papers in the Prehistory of the Western Cape, South Africa. British Archaeological Reports (International Series), 332: 35-45.
 
Rogers, J. 1986. Cenozoic geology of the Southern-Cape coastal plain, particularly the area between the Kafferkuils and Gouritz Rivers. Palaeoecology of Africa, 17: 3-11.
 
Rogers, J. 1985. Geomorphology, offshore bathymetry and Quaternary lithostratigraphy around the Bot River Estuary. Transactions Royal Society South Africa, 45: 211-237.
 
Rogers, J. 1982. Lithostratigraphy of Cenozoic sediments between Cape Town and Elands Bay. Palaeoecology of Africa, 15: 121-137.
 
Coetzee, J.A. and Rogers, J. 1982. Palynological and lithological evidence for the Miocene palaeoenvironment in the Saldanha region (South Africa). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 39: 71-85.
 
Rogers, J. 1979. Dispersal of sediment from the Orange River along the Namib Desert coast. South African Journal Science, 75: 567 (abstract).
 
Tankard, A.J. and Rogers, J. 1978. Late Cenozoic palaeoenvironments on the west coast of southern Africa. Journal Biogeography, 5: 319-337.
 
Siesser, W.G. and Rogers, J. 1976. Authigenic pyrite and gypsum in South West African continental-slope sediments. Sedimentology, 23: 567-577.
 
Davey, R.J. and Rogers, J. 1975. Palynomorph distribution in recent offshore sediments along two traverses off South West Africa. Marine Geology, 18: 213-225
 
Summerhayes, C.P., Birch, G.F., Rogers, J. and Dingle, R.V. 1973. Phosphate in sediments off southwestern Africa. Nature, 243: 509-511.
 
Dingle, R.V. and Rogers, J. 1972a. Pleistocene palaeogeography of the Agulhas Bank. Transactions Royal Society South Africa, 40: 155-165.
 
Dingle, R.V. and Rogers, J. 1972b. Effects of sea-level changes on the Pleistocene palaeoecology of the Agulhas Bank. In: Van Zinderen Bakker,E M (ed.). Palaeoecology of Africa, 4: 55-58.
 
Siesser, W.G. and Rogers, J. 1971. An investigation of the suitability of four methods used in routine carbonate analysis of marine sediments. Deep-Sea Research, 18: 135-139.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Current PhD Students
 
 

M. Lavelle. Cenozoic Palaoceanography of the Benguela System, S.E. Atlantic: Sedimentology, Palaeontology and Stratigraphy. (Submitted, examiners' reports received, replies to examiners' questions awaited. Co-supervised with Dr J. Compton and Professor M.J. De Wit)

C. Herbert. Holocene Sedimentation on the Continental Margin of South Africa. Registered for an MSc in 2003, upgraded to a PhD in 2005. Cosupervised with Associate Professor John Compton.
 
 
Past PhD Students
 
R. Wigley. The Cenozoic Depositional History of the West Coast off Cape Columbine, South Africa. (Registered in 1997, parttime until fulltime from 2000). (Cosupervised with Dr John Compton).
A.J. Rau. Fluctuations in the Circulation Patterns of the Southern Benguela Upwelling System During the Late Quaternary, with Particular Reference to the Subtropical Convergence. (Registered in 1997. Graduated in December, 2002. Co-supervised with Dr Julia Lee-Thorp (Archaeology)).
 
N.J. Guy. The Law of the Sea Convention in Functional Perspective: The Relevance of Technical and Non-Legal Concepts. (Graduated in December, 2000. Co-supervised with Professors D. Devine (Marine Law) and C. Merry (Geomatics)).
 
 
Past MSc Students

M. Mabote. (Graduated in December, 1997). Sedimentological and Geochemical Evidence for Late Quaternary Environmental Changes in Southern Africa: A Case Study of the Mudbelt Deposits off Namaqualand. (Co-supervised with Professor M. Meadows).
 
J. Conway-Physick. (Graduated in December, 1995). Holocene Ostracods on the Agulhas Bank off South Africa, 77pp. (Co-supervised with Professor R.V. Dingle).
 
L. Lenhoff. (Graduated in June, 1995). The Marine Geology of Walker Bay, off Hermanus, SW Cape, South Africa.58pp.
 
J. Pether. (Graduated with distinction in December, 1994). Depositional Environments and Geological History of Namaqualand Coastal Deposits, West Coast of South Africa, 313pp. (Co-supervised with Professor R.V. Dingle).
 
J.A. Malan. (Graduated with distinction in December, 1990). Lithostratigraphy and Depositional History of the Bredasdorp Group along the South Coast of the Cape Province, South Africa, 197pp.
 
N.R. Guy. (Graduated in December, 1990) (M. Phil.). The Lateral and Vertical Limits of a Hypothetical Republic of SA Continental Margin According With International Law, 73pp. (Co-supervised with Professors D. Devine and C. Merry).
 
P.J. Buck. (Graduated in December, 1988). Palaeoclimatology and Sedimentology of Cores from the Continental Slope and Rise on the Goban Spur, NE Atlantic. (Co-supervised with Professor R.V. Dingle).
 
A. Terhorst. (Graduated in December, 1987). The Seafloor Environment off Simon's Town in False Bay, Revealed by Side-Scan Sonar, Bottom Sampling, Diver Observations and Underwater Photography, 58pp.
 
M.W. Woodborne. (Graduated with distinction in June, 1987). Geology and Holocene Evolution of Diamondiferous Inner-Shelf Sediments Between White Point and Stompneus Bay, North of Kleinzee, Namaqualand, 96pp.
 
R.H. De Decker. (Graduated with distinction in June, 1986). The Geological Setting of Diamondiferous Deposits on the Inner Shelf Between the Orange River and Wreck Point, Namaqualand, 258pp. (Cosupervised with Professor R.V. Dingle).