Normandien Formation

Normandien Fm

Period:

Permian

Age Interval:

Middle-Late Permian (Capitanian- Changhsingian)

Province:
SouthAfrica-Namibia-Botswana

Type Locality and Naming

Main Karoo Basin (Eastern/Northern Forebulge). Named after the Normandien Pass in the Drakensberg escarpment near Newcastle (KwaZulu-Natal). It was formally designated by G.H. Groenewald in 1989 to encompass the entire Adelaide Subgroup sequence as it is uniquely expressed in the northeastern part of the Karoo Basin. Lower formation in Beaufort Gr in Main Karoo Basin (Eastern/Northern Forebulge)

Synonym:

Lithology and Thickness

A thick, predominantly argillaceous (muddy) and fining-upward succession. It consists of alternating beds of fine- to medium-grained sandstones, siltstones, and mudstones.

Lithology Pattern:

Siltstone

Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformably and transitionally overlies the dark, deep-water argillaceous shales of the Volksrust Fm.

Upper contact

Conformably, but abruptly, overlain by the massive, coarse-grained braided-river sandstones of the Verkykerskop Fm (Tarkastad Subgroup)

Regional extent

Geographically restricted to the northeastern sector of the Main Karoo Basin, outcropping extensively in the eastern Free State and northwestern KwaZulu-Natal provinces. Adelaide Subgroup (northeastern Karoo Basin equivalent). It chronostratigraphically and depositionally correlates with the thick Balfour Fm in the southern Karoo Basin and the Estcourt Formation slightly further south in KwaZulu-Natal.

GeoJSON

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Fossils

Age

Middle-Late Permian (Capitanian- Changhsingian)

Age Span:

Beginning stage:

Capitanian

Fraction up in beginning stage:

0.0

Beginning date (Ma):

264.34

Ending stage:

Changhsingian

Fraction up in the ending stage:

1.0

Ending date (Ma):

251.90

Depositional setting

Fluvial-deltaic transitioning into broad, terrestrial meandering river environments.

Depositional pattern:

Additional Information

Compiler:

From the O. Catuneanu et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences 43 (2005) 211–253

; Groenewald, G.H. (1989): Stratigrafie en sedimentologie van die Groep Beaufort in die Noordoos-Vrystaat; Rubidge, B.S. (ed) (1995): Biostratigraphy of the Beaufort Group (Karoo Supergroup); Ward, P.D., et al. (2005): Abrupt and gradual extinction among Late Permian land vertebrates in the Karoo Basin, South Africa. Science.