Madzaringwe Fm
Type Locality and Naming
Soutpansberg, Tshipise, Pafuri, and Tuli Basins (Limpopo Province, South Africa). Named after the Madzaringwe feature in the northern Limpopo Province, near the Kruger National Park. Lower formation in Ecca Gr in Tshipise Basin
Synonym:
Lithology and Thickness
A classic siliciclastic and highly carbonaceous fluvio-deltaic succession. It typically ranges from 50 to 200 meters in thickness, varying greatly depending on the underlying basement paleotopography.
Relationships and Distribution
Lower contact
Conformably overlies the thin, patchy glaciogenic diamictites of the Tshidzi Fm (the local Dwyka Gr equivalent). In the many areas where the Tshidzi is absent due to paleotopography, the Madzaringwe Fm rests with a profound unconformity directly upon the deeply eroded Precambrian basement rocks (Soutpansberg Gr or Limpopo Belt gneisses).
Upper contact
Conformably and transitionally overlain by the darker, finer-grained, and largely coal-barren shales of the Mikambeni Fm.
Regional extent
Restricted to the fault-bounded, east-west trending Karoo remnant basins of northern South Africa (the Soutpansberg, Tshipise, Pafuri, and Tuli basins), extending into the northern Kruger National Park. It hosts the primary economic coal reserves for the region (such as the Pafuri Coalfield). Lower to Middle Ecca Gr equivalent. It chronostratigraphically and economically correlates with the Vryheid Fm in the Main Karoo Basin, the Swartrant Fm in the Ellisras Basin, and the Hammanskraal Fm in the Springbok Flats Basin.
GeoJSON
Fossils
Age
Depositional setting
High-energy fluvio-deltaic, coastal plain, and extensive paludal (peat swamp) environments.
Additional Information