Detrital zircon geochronology establishes a maximum age for the formation of 1690-1670 million years (Mya), in the Statherian period of the Precambrian.

These show that its lower beds were buried deeply enough to be metamorphosed to the sillimanite facies, at temperatures of over 500 °C (930 °F).

Their remarkable maturity (they were formed from nearly pure quartz grains) may be a result of deep weathering processes acting on the original sediment beds under unusual Proterozoic conditions.

[7] The formation is interpreted as the first stage of a marine transgression on a southward-dipping siliciclastic shelf.

[1][6] Tabular cross-bedding permits the orientation of the highly distorted beds to be determined.