Palynological evidence for a latest Carboniferous-Early Permian glaciation in Northern Ethiopia

Palynomorphs extracted from glacigenic sediments in Northern Ethiopia are latest Carboniferous-Early Permian in age. These sediments were hitherto thought to be either of Upper Ordovician or of Late Carboniferous-Early Permian age. The predominantly glaciolacustrine and glaciofluviatile sediments were deposited in glacial troughs and valleys that were eroded into Precambrian basement rocks and into Early Palaeozoic deposits, possibly equivalents of Upper Ordovician sediments in Eritrea. In the latest Carboniferous-Early Permian, glaciated uplands to the north of Ethiopia must have existed in Eritrea and/or in southern or central Saudi Arabia.