Dwyka Group

• Late Carboniferous to early Permian.

• Consists of glacial deposits.
• Rests unconformably on Archaean basement
in the north, and paraconformably on the
Cape Supergroup to the south.
• In the north, the bedrock contains glacial
striations caused by moving ice.
• In the south, the environment was
depositional
Dwyka Glaciation
 Palaeoenvironment
• The north was a mountainous highland region
which was undergoing glaciation. Therefore
there was little deposition and the features
are mainly erosional – mainly belongs to
Mbizane Formation.
• The south was a sub-glacial, sub-aqueous
outwash and marine facies. Here there was
deposition in a marine basin – mainly belongs
to Elandsvlei Formation.
Glacier
 Dwyka Stratigraphy
• The lowest sediments are diamictites. These
are melt-out deposits which formed in glacial,
fluvioglacial and subaqueous conditions, such
as eskers, esker deltas, outwash fans.
• They are overlain by stratified diamictites
with bedding planes and some evidence of re-
working.
 Dwyka Stratigraphy
• These are overlain by carbonate-rich
diamictites. The carbonate was probably
chemically precipitated.
• These are overlain by a conglomerate facies,
sandstone facies and various mudrock facies
representing a distal iceberg zone.
• The mudrock facies represents settling in calm
water – contains spores, plant remains and
trace fossils such as Cruziana (trilobite tracks).
 Geological setting
• Material was eroded from the highland area
to the north and deposited in the south by
floating ice which rained out debris to the sea
floor below.
• As the climate warmed and the ice melted,
valley-fill deposits were left by retreating
glaciers in the north.