LITHOSTRATIGRAPHY OF THE EMAKWEZINI FORMATION (KAROO SUPERGROUP), SOUTH AFRICA

The middle (?) to upper Permian Emakwezini Formation is part of the lower Beaufort Group (Karoo Supergroup) in the Lebombo Basin in the eastern part of South Africa. The unit is highly significant both palaeobotanically and economically due to its plant-rich carbonaceous mudstones and multiple semi-anthracite to anthracite seams that range in thickness from <1 m to up to 15 m, respectively. Owing to rare high quality outcrops as well as post-depositional faulting and intrusions, some of its lithostratigraphic attributes (e.g., thickness, regional distribution) are undefined; however its abundant and diagnostic Late Permian plant fossils are helpful in the regional mapping of the unit. The Formation is considered a stratigraphic equivalent of the Normandien Formation (and informal Estcourt Formation) of the eastern and north-eastern, and the Balfour Formation of the southern main Karoo Basin.