DISCOVERY OF THE LATEST MARINE NON-CARBONATE SEDIMENT WESTERN TINGRI, SOUTHERN TIBET

The marine non\|carbonate sediment is exposed at the southwestern flank of the Zhepure Syncline where it lies about 4 km east to the typical cross\|section, Gongzha cross\|section (Hao and Wan, 1985; Willems et al., 1993, 1996) and ca.75km north to the Qomolangma. There are few people who can approach the place of the cross\|section, even so are endemic Tibetan. The cross\|section is named of the Qumiba cross\|section in this abstract. The new discovery, conformed on the massive Zhepure Formation limestone, here is named of Qumiba Formation. It is composed of two series of terrigenous sediments: Enba Member—lower gray shales intercalating with sandstones, and Zhaguo Member—upper reddish shales interbedding with sandstones. Abundant nannofossils with chronological meanings are first found out.Enba Member Common calcareous nannofossils in the Lutetian such as Chiastozygus barbatus, Chiasmolithus sp., Discoaster barbadiensis, Helicosphaera compacta, Reticulofenstra bisecta, Sphenolithus radians are processed in sample S12W1\|S17W1, in which the Helicosphaera compacta and Sphenolithus radians are part of the indicators of the nannofossil zone NP15. So it is proposed that Units S12\|17, 110 m in thickness, could have been deposited during Middle\|Late Lutetian.