west-northwest of South Africa. Its north and northeastern Karoo Basin deposits and all deposits found north of the Karoo Basin unconformably overlie the Transvaal Supergroup, Ventersdorp Group, or Archean and Proterozoic basement rocks. In all South African localities, the Dwyka Group underlies rocks of the Ecca Group. The geographical range of the Dwyka Group is large with its deposits also being found in other localities in southern Africa. Dwyka-aged deposits that are considered to correlate in age to those found in South Africa have been located in the southern Karasburg and Kalahari Basins of southern Namibia – in and around the Fish River Canyon – in the Huab Basin of northern-western Namibia, the Waterberg and Owambo Basins of northern Namibia, the Dukwi Formation of the Kalahari Basin of Botswana, and the Save Basin of southeastern Zimbabwe. Stratigraphic units The Dwyka Group deposits have been categorized by those found as part of the Karoo Basin and smaller formations found in different basins north of the Karoo Basin. In the Karoo Basin, the Dwyka Group is known by two distinctive lithological facies. These two facies are represented in its northern and southern deposits respectively and are recognized as the two geological formations below: Elandsvlei Formation is the southern facies and it is considered to represent the earliest foredeep deposits of the Karoo foreland system. This portion is restricted to the southern areas of South Africa and is characterized by uniform, high, massive, and clast-poor diamictites and rarer mudrock deposits. The diamictites are highly compacted and overlie stratified diamictites and mudrocks. The southern facies is interpreted as suspension or melt-out deposits that were deposited in low energy subglacial or subaqueous rain-out from either semi-grounded or floating ice sheets. All sedimentation occurred below the water surface in a deep marine environment. More evidence to support this is that turbidites are often found in Elandsvlei Formation deposits. Mbizane Formation is the northern facies and is considered to represent forebulge deposits of the Karoo foreland system. This portion of the formation is restricted to the northern and northeastern sections of the Karoo Basin. It is composed of thinly bedded mudstones and claystones, stratified conglomerates, pebbly sandstones, and diamictites. The diamictites in this formation differ here in being very clast-rich with very few massive diamictites found. The clasts were sourced from eroded material from the much older basement rocks and comprise numerous different rock types. These include