Eendragtpan Fm
Type Locality and Naming
Ellisras Basin / Waterberg Coalfield (Limpopo Province, South Africa). Named after the farm Eendragtpan in the Lephalale (formerly Ellisras) district of the Limpopo Province. It was established as a formal lithostratigraphic unit to describe the non-carbonaceous, brightly colored mudstone sequence sitting above the main coal measures in this structurally isolated basin. Included in Beaufort Gr
Synonym:
Lithology and Thickness
A predominantly fine-grained, clayey succession, typically reaching up to 100 meters in thickness. It is characterized by massive, variegated (mottled) mudstones and siltstones displaying vivid colors of red, maroon, purple, bluish-grey, and pale green. It also contains subordinate, thin, lenticular beds of fine-grained, pale-grey sandstone. Crucially, it is completely devoid of coal or highly carbonaceous material.
Relationships and Distribution
Lower contact
Rests conformably, but often with a very sharp and abrupt lithological transition, upon the highly carbonaceous shales and thick coal seams of the Grootegeluk Fm (the local Upper Ecca equivalent).
Upper contact
Unconformably overlain by the coarse-grained, high-energy braided-river sandstones of the Greenwich Fm (the local Molteno Fm equivalent).
Regional extent
Restricted entirely to the subsurface of the Ellisras Basin (Waterberg Coalfield) in northwestern South Africa. It is known almost exclusively from extensive coal exploration drilling, as it is mantled by younger Cenozoic Kalahari sands. Beaufort Gr equivalent in the Ellisras Basin.
GeoJSON
Fossils
Age
Depositional setting
Terrestrial meandering river and broad floodplain environments.
Additional Information