2.1.2 Souvré Formation - SOU

Authors: Charles, 1924; Calembert, 1945; Pirlet, 1967; Barchy & Marion, 2000.

Description: Thinly bedded laminated dark grey to black silicites (“phtanites”), or silicified shales and limestones, strongly weathered and porous at outcrop. The contact with underlying massive limestones of the Visé Formation is marked by an angular unconformity. Upper boundary locally transformed as a paleosol of Cretaceous age; otherwise covered by Chokier Formation (Charles, 1924; Calembert, 1945).

Stratotype: Top beds of Richelle quarries F, L and M, south of Visé (Pirlet, 1967).

Area: Visé-Puth High, probably extending in the northern (Turnhout well) and eastern Campine basin; corresponding beds in the western part of the Namur Synclinorium (‘Auge hennuyère’, Blaton - Saint Ghislain area) are assigned to the Gottignies Formation.

Thickness: About 15 m in Visé – Campine basin.

Age: Viséan – Serpukhovian transition. Unspecified, between Warnantian (Brigantian) and Arnsbergian-dated beds.

Remark: Lateral equivalent to the Gottignies Formation. Defined as a mappable unit on the mapsheet Dalhem-Herve (Barchy & Marion, 2000).