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Ntawere Formation

Ntawere Fm

Period: 
Triassic

Age Interval: 
Late Triassic (Norian)


Province: 
Zambia-D.R. Congo

Type Locality and Naming

Luangwa Basin (Zambia). Named for the Ntawere area in the upper Luangwa Valley of northeastern Zambia. It is a well-established lithostratigraphic unit within the Upper Karoo sequence of the Luangwa rift basin. Lower unit in Stormberg Gr in Luangwa Basin (Zambia).

Synonym:


Lithology and Thickness

Composed of a mixed fluvial sequence of cyclical clastics, predominantly alternating between thick, dark red to maroon mudstones and finer-grained calcareous siltstones, interbedded with medium-to-coarse-grained, cross-bedded feldspathic sandstones.


Lithology Pattern: 
Fine-grained sandstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformably to transitionally overlies the coarse-grained Escarpment grit Fm.

Upper contact

Conformably overlain by the finer-grained, mudstone-dominated Red Marl unit Fm.

Regional extent

Primarily recognized within the Luangwa Basin of Zambia. Correlates with the Manda Beds Fm of the Ruhuhu Basin in Tanzania and the Cynognathus Assemblage Zone (upper Beaufort Gr) of the Main Karoo Basin in South Africa.


GeoJSON

null

Fossils


Age 

Late Triassic (Norian)

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Norian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.4

    Beginning date (Ma): 
218.68

    Ending stage: 
Norian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.6

    Ending date (Ma):  
214.36

Depositional setting


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; Drysdall, A.R., & Kitching, J.W. (1963): A re-examination of the Karroo succession and fossil localities of part of the upper Luangwa valley; Peecook, B.R., et al. (2018): The diverse, archosaur-rich middle Triassic (Anisian) Ntawere Formation tetrapod fauna, Luangwa Basin, Zambia. Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.