The chronology of the Cenozoic, so called ‘Namib Group’ of the Namib Desert is rather poor in terms of direct radiometric dating. Most of the chronological information is based on the ostrich shell biochronostratigraphy. The widespread occurrence of calcretes and silcretes in the Namib Desert makes it possible to date important phases of landscape stability and to retrieve critical paleoclimatic and -environmental information on desertification and its paleoclimatic variability. The application of the U-Pb laser ablation dating technique to Plio/Pleistocene sil- and calcretes provides critical insights into groundwater calcrete formation and climate variability in the Central Namib. Microscale silcrete formation due to pressure solution by expanding calcrete cementation provides the opportunity to date multiple phases (multiple generation of silcrete as growing layers or shells) of silcrete formation and to trace their paleoclimatic and -environmental fingerprints. Groundwater sil- and calcrete formation occurred during the Pliocene. TCN exposure ages from flat canyon rim surfaces indicate the cessation of groundwater calcrete formation due to incision during the Late Pliocene/Early Pleistocene and mark a large-scale landscape rejuvenation due to climate shifts towards the Pleistocene. This study demonstrates the application of U-Pb laser ablation to groundwater sil- and calcretes in desert environments and opens up the possibility of dating numerous sedimentary sequences containing sil- and calcretes in arid environments. In particular, the use of silcretes (as described above) reduces potential effects of detrital components and bulk-signal measurements by using massive calcretes. Our study redefines and improves the generally accepted Late Cenozoic chronostratigraphy of the Namib Desert (Miller, 2008).