The microfacies and sedimentary responses to the mass extinction during the Permian-Triassic transition at Yangou Section, Jiangxi Province, South China

• Published in: Science China. Earth sciences 2014-09, Vol.57 (9), p.2195-2207
• Main Authors: Tian, Li, Tong, JinNan, Sun, DongYing, Xiong, YanLin, Wang, ChengGang, Song, HaiJun, Song, HuYue, Huang, YunFei
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Carbon isotopes; Carbonate rocks; Earth and Environmental Science; Earth Sciences; Endangered & extinct species; Environmental changes; Environmental conditions; Fossils; Limestone; Mass extinctions; Permian; Research Paper; Sediments; Triassic; 三叠纪早期; 中国南方; 二叠纪末; 微相分析; 江西省; 沉积反应; 灭绝; 碳酸盐岩
• ISSN: 1674-7313; 1869-1897
• DOI: 10.1007/s11430-014-4869-5

A Permian-Triassic （P-Tr） boundary section of continuous carbonate facies, which well recorded the biotic and environmental processes through the great P-Tr transition in the shallow non-microbialite carbonate facies, has been studied in Yangou, Le- ping County, Jiangxi Province. The P-Tr sequence is well correlated with the Meishan section according to the conodont bio- stratigraphy and the excursion of carbon isotopes. A series of high-resolution thin-sections from the P-Tr boundary carbonate rocks at the Yangou section are studied to explore the interrelation between environmental change and biological evolution during the transitional time. Six microfacies have been identified based upon the observation of the thin-sections under a mi- croscope on the grains and matrix and their interrelation. Combined with the data of fossils and carbon isotopes, Microfacies 4 （MF-4）, coated-grain-bearing foraminifer oolitic sparitic limestone, and Microfacies 6 （MF-6）, dark shelly micritic limestone, should be the different responses to the two episodes of mass extinction and environmental events that can be correlated throughout South China and even over the world. The oolitic limestone of MF-4 is the first finding from the latest Permian strata in South China and it might be a proxy of an unusual environmental condition of high pCO2, low sulfate concentration and of microbial blooming in the aftermath of the latest Permian mass extinction. The micritic limestone of MF-6 containing rich micro-gastropods and ostracods probably represents the blooming event of disaster taxa in the earliest Triassic environ- ment. The microfacies analysis at the Yangou section can well reveal the episodic process of the biological evolution and en- vironmental change in the shallow non-microbialite carbonate facies throughout the great P-Tr transition, thus the Yangou sec- tion becomes an important complement to the Meishan section.