Waterkloof Formation

Waterkloof Fm

Period:

Carboniferous, Permian

Age Interval:

Late Carboniferous-Early Permian (Moscovian-Asselian)

Province:
SouthAfrica-Namibia-Botswana

Type Locality and Naming

Ellisras Basin / Waterberg Coalfield (Limpopo Province, South Africa). Named after the farm Waterkloof in the Lephalale (formerly Ellisras) district of the Limpopo Province. It was formally established as a distinct lithostratigraphic unit to represent the basal, glaciogenic Karoo deposits within this isolated, fault-bounded basin. Included in Dwyka Gr.

Synonym:

Lithology and Thickness

A relatively thin but highly variable glaciogenic succession. It consists primarily of massive, poorly sorted diamictite (tillite) comprising a dark muddy matrix supporting angular to rounded clasts of various older basement rocks

Lithology Pattern:

Glacial till

Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Rests with a profound regional unconformity directly upon the deeply scoured, undulating paleotopography of the ancient Precambrian basement (which includes the quartzites of the Waterberg Gr and the metamorphic rocks of the Limpopo Mobile Belt).

Upper contact

Conformably and transitionally overlain by the dark, deep-water, post-glacial shales of the Wellington Fm (the local Lower Ecca equivalent).

Regional extent

Geographically restricted to the subsurface of the Ellisras Basin (Waterberg Coalfield) in northwestern South Africa. Because the basin is heavily mantled by younger Cenozoic Kalahari sands, the Waterkloof Fm is known almost exclusively from coal exploration boreholes. Dwyka Gr equivalent in the Ellisras Basin. It is the direct regional chronostratigraphic equivalent of the Dwyka Gr in the Main Karoo Basin, the Tshidzi Fm in the Springbok Flats Basin, and the Dukwi Fm in Botswana.

GeoJSON

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Fossils

Age

Late Carboniferous-Early Permian (Moscovian-Asselian)

Age Span:

Beginning stage:

Moscovian

Fraction up in beginning stage:

0.5

Beginning date (Ma):

311.09

Ending stage:

Asselian

Fraction up in the ending stage:

0.1

Ending date (Ma):

298.35

Depositional setting

Glacial, subglacial, glaciolacustrine, and glaciofluvial environments.

Depositional pattern:

Additional Information

Compiler:

From the O. Catuneanu et al. / Journal of African Earth Sciences 43 (2005) 211–253; MacRae, C.S. (1988): Palynostratigraphic correlation between the Lower Karoo Sequence of the Waterberg and Pafuri coal-bearing basins and the Hammanskraal plant macrofossil locality; Johnson, M.R., et al. (2006): Sedimentary rocks of the Karoo Supergroup. In: The Geology of South Africa; Faure, K., et al. (1996): The Grootegeluk Formation in the Waterberg Coalfield, South Africa...