K-bentonite beds and high-resolution integrated stratigraphy of the uppermost Ordovician Wufeng and the lowest Silurian Longmaxi formations in South China

More than 20 K-bentonite beds were discovered from the Wufeng Formation and the lowest Longmaxi Formation in two sections, both adjacent to the Ordovician-Silurian (O-S) boundary and located in Tongzi, Guizhou Province and Yichang, Hubei Province, some 500 km apart from each other in South China. Th...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Science China. Earth sciences 2003-11, Vol.46 (11), p.1121-1133
Main Authors: Su, Wenbo, He, Longqing, Wang, Yongbiao, Gong, Shuyun, Zhou, Huyun
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Bentonite
High resolution
Ordovician
Palaeo studies
Platforms (geology)
Resolution
Silurian
Stratigraphy
Volcanic ash
Volcanic deposits
Volcanic eruptions
Volcanoes
Work platforms
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Summary:More than 20 K-bentonite beds were discovered from the Wufeng Formation and the lowest Longmaxi Formation in two sections, both adjacent to the Ordovician-Silurian (O-S) boundary and located in Tongzi, Guizhou Province and Yichang, Hubei Province, some 500 km apart from each other in South China. This indicates that many volcanic eruptions occurred near the southeast margin of the Yangtze Platform between the latest Ordovician and the earliest Silurian. Mainly through biostratigraphic and sequence stratigraphic studies, it was found that almost all these far-apart K-bentonite beds may be correlated with each other. This is the first time that a succession of volcanic ash deposits with high potential of correlation was discovered within a strata interval on the main platforms of China. Therefore, these K-bentonite beds may afford excellent event-marker beds helpful to high-resolution research in integrated stratigraphy as well as other lines of research on the O-S boundary in South China.
ISSN:1006-9313
1674-7313
1862-2801
1869-1897
DOI:10.1360/01yd0225