Roberts, Eric M., O'Connor, Patrick M., Gottfried, Michael D., Stevens, Nancy, Kapalima, Saidi, and Ngasala, Sifael (2004) Revised stratigraphy and age of the Red Sandstone Group in the Rukwa Rift Basin, Tanzania. Cretaceous Research, 25 (5). pp. 749-759.

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Abstract

The Red Sandstone Group comprises a succession of red sandstones and mudstones exposed in the Rukwa and Malawi rift basins of southwestern Tanzania and northern Malawi. Stratigraphic, sedimentologic, and paleontologic investigations of the Red Sandstone Group in the Songwe Basin (a sub-basin of the Rukwa Rift Basin) help clarify the age and depositional history of these strata, which have previously been assigned ages ranging from Middle Jurassic to late Miocene. These seemingly incompatible Mesozoic and Tertiary age assignments for the Red Sandstone Group are, in part, explained by our discovery of two distinct units (Units I and II) that are of different ages but composed of lithologically similar red sandstones and mudstones in the Songwe Basin. Based on distinct, temporally limited vertebrate fossil remains, a Cretaceous age is proposed for Unit I and a Paleogene age for Unit II. The identification of different-aged units in the Songwe Basin suggests a complex structural and stratigraphic history for the Red Sandstone Group in the context of East African Rift evolution.

Item ID:	40295
Item Type:	Article (Research - C1)
ISSN:	1095-998X
Keywords:	cretaceous; Africa; Gondwana; Tanzania; Red Sandstone Group
Funders:	National Geographic Society Committee for Research and Exploration (NGSCRE), Michigan State University (MSU), Jurassic Foundation (JF), Paleobiological Fund (PF)
Date Deposited:	16 Mar 2016 03:43
FoR Codes:	04 EARTH SCIENCES > 0403 Geology > 040310 Sedimentology @ 100%
SEO Codes:	97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970104 Expanding Knowledge in the Earth Sciences @ 100%
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