Nkalatlou Formation

Nkalatlou Fm

Period:

Jurassic

Age Interval:

Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian-Bathonian)

Province:
SouthAfrica-Namibia-Botswana

Type Locality and Naming

Southwestern part of the Kalahari Karoo Basin, Botswana. Upper formation in Stormberg Gr in Kalahari Basin (SW)

Synonym:

Lithology and Thickness

Approximately 60 meters thick. Dominated by largely aeolian, massive fine-grained sandstones (loess-type deposits).

Lithology Pattern:

Sandstone

Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformably to unconformably overlies the red beds of the Dondong Fm (the regional equivalent to the Elliot Fm).

Upper contact

Where preserved, it is capped by the massive Early Jurassic flood basalts of the Karoo Igneous Province (Drakensberg Gr equivalents) or the modern erosional surface, frequently overlain by recent Cenozoic Kalahari sands.

Regional extent

Restricted to the southwestern Kalahari Basin in Botswana, extending marginally into eastern Namibia. Upper Stormberg Gr equivalent. It is the direct regional chronostratigraphic equivalent of the Clarens Fm in the Main Karoo Basin (South Africa), the Ntane Fm in the central Kalahari Basin (Botswana), and the Etjo Fm in Namibia.

GeoJSON

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Fossils

Age

Early Jurassic (Pliensbachian-Bathonian)

Age Span:

Beginning stage:

Pliensbachian

Fraction up in beginning stage:

0.0

Beginning date (Ma):

192.90

Ending stage:

Bathonian

Fraction up in the ending stage:

1.0

Ending date (Ma):

165.29

Depositional setting

Aeolian

Depositional pattern:

Additional Information

Compiler:

From the O. Catuneanu et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences 43 (2005) 211–253; Johnson, M.R., et al. (1996): Stratigraphy of the Karoo Supergroup in southern Africa: an overview; Mtimkulu, N. (2009): A provisional basinal study of the Waterberg-Karoo, South Africa.