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Red Marl unit Formation

Red Marl unit Fm

Period: 
Triassic, Jurassic

Age Interval: 
Late Triassic-Early Jurassic (Norian-Sinemurian)


Province: 
Zambia-D.R. Congo

Type Locality and Naming

Luangwa Basin (Zambia). Named for its distinct reddish color and marl-rich composition within the Upper Karoo succession of the Luangwa Valley and the Mid-Zambezi Basin of Zambia and Zimbabwe. Upper unit in Stormberg Gr in Luangwa Basin (Zambia).

Synonym:


Lithology and Thickness

A fine-grained clastic sequence characterized predominantly by soft, red-to-maroon mudstones, calcareous siltstones, and marls with interbedded, fine-to-medium feldspathic sandstones and localized calcareous concretions/nodules.


Lithology Pattern: 
Shallow-marine marl


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformably to paraconformably overlies the Middle Triassic Ntawere Fm (or the Escarpment grit Fm where intervening units pinch out).

Upper contact

Conformably to transitionally overlain by the coarse clastics of the Upper Grit unit Fm.

Regional extent

Recognized in the Karoo-aged rift basins of south-central Africa, particularly the Upper and Lower Luangwa Valley and the Mid-Zambezi Basin. Correlates broadly with the lower to middle Stormberg Gr (specifically equivalents of the Molteno Fm to lower Elliot Fm) of the Main Karoo Basin in South Africa.


GeoJSON

null

Fossils


Age 

Late Triassic-Early Jurassic (Norian-Sinemurian)

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Norian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.6

    Beginning date (Ma): 
214.36

    Ending stage: 
Sinemurian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
192.90

Depositional setting

Low-energy alluvial floodplain, overbank, and ephemeral playa-lake environments


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; Dixey, F. (1937): The geology of part of the upper Luangwa valley, North-Eastern Rhodesia. Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society; Drysdall, A.R., & Kitching, J.W. (1963): A re-examination of the Karroo succession and fossil localities of part of the upper Luangwa valley.