Driekoppen Formation

Driekoppen Fm

Period:

Triassic

Age Interval:

Early Triassic (Olenekian-Ladinian)

Province:
SouthAfrica-Namibia-Botswana

Type Locality and Naming

Main Karoo Basin (Eastern/Northern Forebulge). Named after the Driekoppen area in the northeastern Free State Province of South Africa. It was formally recognized as a distinct stratigraphic unit in the uppermost Tarkastad Subgroup by G.H. Groenewald in 1984. Uppermost formation in Beaufort Gr in Main Karoo Basin (Eastern/Northern Forebulge)

Synonym:

Lithology and Thickness

Predominantly a fine-grained, argillaceous succession. It is almost entirely composed of mudstone.

Lithology Pattern:

Claystone

Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformably overlies the coarse-grained, sandstone-dominated Verkykerskop Fm (which is the northeastern equivalent of the Katberg Fm).

Upper contact

Unconformably overlain by the coarse braided-river sandstones of the Molteno Fm (Stormberg Gr)

Regional extent

Tarkastad Subgroup (upper portion). It is the extreme northeastern, laterally equivalent stratigraphic unit to the lower Burgersdorp Fm found further south in the Karoo Basin.

GeoJSON

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Fossils

Age

Early Triassic (Olenekian-Ladinian)

Age Span:

Beginning stage:

Olenekian

Fraction up in beginning stage:

0.0

Beginning date (Ma):

249.88

Ending stage:

Ladinian

Fraction up in the ending stage:

1.0

Ending date (Ma):

237.00

Depositional setting

Predominantly lacustrine (lake) and palustrine (marsh/swamp) environments with limited floodplain development.

Depositional pattern:

Additional Information

Compiler:

From the O. Catuneanu et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences 43 (2005) 211–253; Groenewald, G.H., et al. (2001): Vertebrate Burrow Complexes from the Early Triassic Cynognathus Zone (Driekoppen Formation, Beaufort Group) of the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Palaios; Hancox, P.J., et al. (1995): New fossil tetrapod material from the Driekoppen Formation...