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Mhukuru Formation

Mhukuru Fm

Period: 
Permian

Age Interval: 
Early-Middle Permian (Kungurian-Roadian)


Province: 
Tanzania

Type Locality and Naming

Ruhuhu Basin (Tanzania). Named after the Mhukuru River and the Mhukuru Coalfield in southwestern Tanzania [cite: 2.2.1]. Originally described and classified in regional stratigraphy as the "Upper Coal Measures" or "K4" unit (e.g., Harkin, 1953), it was formally established as the Mhukuru Formation within the Songea Group succession. Upper formation in Ecca Gr in Ruhuhu Basin (Tanzania)

Synonym: K4 Beds / Upper Coal Measures of southern Tanzania


Lithology and Thickness

Composed of a cyclic terrestrial succession consisting of fine- to medium-grained sandstones, carbonaceous siltstones, dark grey to black mudstones/shales, and economically significant workable coal seams.


Lithology Pattern: 
Siltstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformably to transitionally overlies the red-bed clastics and sandstones of the Mbuyura Fm (K3 / Scarp Sandstone / "Red Beds"), or directly oversteps crystalline basement in marginal grabens.

Upper contact

Conformably overlain by the calcareous mudstones, siltstones, and dolomites of the Ruhuhu Fm (K5).

Regional extent

Located in southern Tanzania, particularly well-developed in the Mhukuru Basin (south-southwest of Songea) and extending across related rift structures in the Ruvuma region


GeoJSON

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Fossils


Age 

Early-Middle Permian (Kungurian-Roadian)

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Kungurian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
283.30

    Ending stage: 
Roadian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
269.21

Depositional setting

Paludal (peat swamp), fluvio-deltaic, and shallow lacustrine environments within intracratonic rift basins / endorheic drainage depressions.


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

From the O. Catuneanu et al. The Karoo basins of south-central Africa, Journal of African Earth Sciences 43 (2005) 211–253; Harkin, D. A. (1953): The geology of the Mhukuru Coalfield, Ruvuma District. Geological Survey of Tanganyika Memoir; Wopfner, H. (2002): Tectonic and climatic events controlling the deposition of the Karoo Supergroup in Tanzania. Journal of African Earth Sciences.