The Dwyka Group is one of four geological groups that compose the Karoo Supergroup. It is the lowermost geological group and heralds the commencement of sedimentation of the Karoo Supergroup. Based on stratigraphic position, lithostratigraphic correlation and palynological analyses, these lowermost Karoo strata range between the Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) to Early Permian in age. Background At the commencement of the deposition of the Dwyka Group, it is thought that the development of the Karoo supergroup foreland system had begun approximately 30 million years prior. This foreland system was caused by crustal uplift that had previously begun to take course due to the subduction of the Palaeo-pacific plate beneath the Gondwanan plate. This resulted in the rise of the Gondwanide mountain range in what is known as the Gondwanide orogeny. The continuation of the orogenic pulses from the growing Gondwanides mountain chain and associated subduction created accommodation space for sedimentation in the Karoo Basin which ran along an east to west trending foreland trough. The formation of the Karoo Basin resulted in the preservation of the Dwyka Group rocks and all succeeding rocks that make up the greater Karoo Supergroup. Southern Africa at this time was part of the supercontinent, Gondwana, and was positioned over the antarctic circle at this time. The result was the development of the Permo-Carboniferous glacial environment where massive ice sheets entombed the early Karoo Basin in the surrounding highlands and permanent, floating glaciers in the lowlands. Geographic extent The geological formations of the Dwyka Group are restricted to the edges of the Karoo Basin and achieve their greatest thickness in its southern deposits at approximately 800m, progressively thinning out towards the north. In the south outcrops and exposures are known from Prince Albert, Matjiesfontein, Laingsburg, Sutherland, and as far south as Worcester. Western to northern exposures are known from Calvinia, Carnarvon, Kimberley, and then from Vryheid and Durban in the east. Dwyka Group deposits are also found outside of and north of the Karoo Basin. These deposits found north of the Karoo Basin are found as the lowermost geological formation of the Springbok Flats, Tshipise, northern Lebombo, Tuli, and Ellisras (Lephalale) Basins of north-northeastern South Africa. In its southern, western, and eastern deposits, the Dwyka Group conformably overlies rocks of the Cape Supergroup, which includes the Cape Fold Belt, and the Natal Supergroup. It also unconformably overlies the Namaqua-Natal Metamorphic Province in some localities in the