Dwyka Group

The Dwyka Group is the group of sedimentary geological formations laid down in the Karoo Basin of Southern Africa in the Late Carboniferous and possibly extending into the Asselian of the early Permian. It consists mainly of tillites, laid down along the sandy shorelines of swamplands. The Dwyka is the oldest and lowermost unit of the Karoo Supergroup that is recognized throughout sub-Saharan Africa.

In the Carboniferous, southern Africa was part of Gondwana. During the Late Carboniferous the lithosphere underlying what is now the Karoo Basin migrated over the South Polar Region. This resulted in southern Gondwana being covered by a major ice sheet. As the ice sheet and subsequent glaciers melted, the sediments of the Dwyka Group were deposited in the newly formed basin. These glacial deposits include diamictite, varved shale and mudstone with dropstones, fluvioglacial gravel and conglomerates. The total thickness of the group ranges from 600 m to 750 m.

The Dwyka Formation is considered to be Permo-Carboniferous in age, but due to ambiguities in the fossil record, more precise dating is not available. Maximum age inferred from fossils found in underlying strata is Late Devonian or Early Carboniferous, and minimum age inferred from fossils in the upper glacial deposits is Early Permian.

In the Eastern Cape Province the Karoo Basin fill commenced with the deposition of the Dwyka Group, followed by the Ecca Group, the Beaufort Group, the Molteno, Elliot, and Clarens Formations and the igneous Drakensberg Group. The basin followed the typical evolution of foreland basins, with the Ecca Group representing the ‘flysch’ component and the Beaufort Group, the overlying Molteno and Elliot Formations representing the ‘molasse’-fluvial type sediments.

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