A SHRIMP U-Pb zircon age of 1437±21 Ma was obtained for a recently discovered K-bentonite bed in the Tieling Formation,situated northeast of Beijing at the boundary between Liaoning and Hebei provinces,on the northern margin of the North China Craton(NCC).The SHRIMP U-Pb age places Tieling Formation near the end of the Calymmian Period of the early Mesoproterozoic Era.In addition,a SHRIMP U-Pb zircon date of 1372±18 Ma was acquired for K-bentonite beds in the overlying,dark-shale-dominated Xiamaling Formation from the same location northeast of Beijing.This date assigns a similar Mid-Mesoproterozoic(Ectasian Period) age for the Xiamaling Formation,as have previously determined dates from other sections northwest of Beijing.These dates indicate that the Tieling and Xiamaling formations,as well as the related succession in the eastern part of the Yanshan Mountains,represented by the well-known Meso-to Neoproterozoic standard section in Jixian,can be correlated well with sections northwest of Beijing in the western part of the Yanshan Mountains.In other words,the boundary between the Calymmian and Ectasian periods in the northern parts of the NCC is marked by the unconformity between the Tieling and Xiamaling formations in the northern NCC.This boundary was previously ascribed to the "Qinyu Orogeny" and thought to be of Grenville age.In this regard,the conventional "Qinyu Orogeny" should now be regarded as a short-lived regional uplift during Early Mesoproterozoic time,rather than a result from the Grenvillian assembly of the NCC to the Rodinia Supercontinent(～1.0 Ga).
SU WenBoLI HuaiKunHUFF W DETTENSOHN F RZHANG ShiHongZHOU HongYingWAN YuSheng
New total organic carbon (TOC) data from the two Ordovician-Silurian transitional graptolite-bearing black shale intervals, the Wufeng (五峰) Formation and the Longmaxi (龙马溪) Formation in Central Guizhou (贵州) and West Hubei (湖北), respectively, as well as previously reported TOC data from the same intervals in other places on the Yangtze platform of South China, have been used to produce an initial estimate of the primary paleoproductivity via a conventional inverse method (i.e., Rpp-inverse). The values of the Rpp-inverse are estimated to be 32 (43-21) gC/(m2·a) (Wufeng Formation) and 21 (27-16) gC/(m2·a) (Longmaxi Formation). Also, simultaneously, the habitat types (i.e., HT; cf., BA: benthic assemblage) and their temporal and spatial changes have been documented from the same succession, and an initial estimate of the primary paleoproductivity has been produced using a forward method (i.e., Rpp-forward). Being bounded mainly by the peritidal to inner-shelf environment shelly-facies or mixed-facies successions with BA1 to BA3 faunas both at the top and the base, which indicates the habitat types from HT II1 to HT III2, the biohabitat type of the two graptolite-bearing black shale intervals can be limited to HT III to HT IV, corresponding to the inner shelf to the outer shelf, with depths from roughly 60 m to 200-300 m. Based on the current data from the South China Sea and the southern part of the East China Sea, values of Rpp-forward should be about 100 to 400 gC/(m2·a). The difference in the results via the two methods suggests that paleoproductivity estimates from the geological strata need to be made cautiously, with particular attention paid to the paleogeographic setting, oxic-anoxic conditions, as also the preservation factor of organic carbon.
