Ultimately, current usage of the term is in reference to the globally significant Sturt Formation (originally Sturtian Tillite)[5] within the Adelaide Superbasin of Australia.
[citation needed] According to Eyles and Young, "Glaciogenic rocks figure prominently in the Neoproterozoic stratigraphy of southeastern Australia and the northern Canadian Cordillera.
The Sturtian succession includes two major diamictite-mudstone sequences which represent glacial advance and retreat cycles.
[14] In 2024 researchers at the University of Adelaide and University of Sydney, using a combination of known geological formations from the Cryogenian Period and plate tectonic modelling, using EarthByte computer models, proposed the low temperature was the result of low levels of CO2 degassing along mid-ocean ridges, the result of the break-up of the supercontinent Rodinia.
[15] The duration of the ice sheet advance at the start of the Sturtian glaciation lasted for less than a million years.