Sedimentary and biotic evidence of a warm-water enclave in the cooler oceans of the latest Ordovician glacial phase, Yangtze Platform, South China block

Abstract   During the Hirnantian period, the Yangtze Platform was situated in the western part of the South China block (SCB) before its later rotation, in the middle–low paleolatitudes of the southern hemisphere in the northeast side of peri-Gondwana. It is part of the Kosov faunal province as indicated by the Hirnantia fauna. Sedimentary evidence shows the domination of cool ventilated marine water from its offshore ramp and shelf. Hirnantian shallow-water carbonate facies (Kuanyinchiao Bed) overlie earlier Ashgill graptolitic black shales (Wufeng Formation) as a result of marine regression. In the Yangtze Platform, however, we have found local areas of intertidal to nearshore facies that lack the typical highly diverse Hirnantia fauna. Some warm-water features (radial oolites, peloids, diverse solitary rugose corals and other benthic shelly fauna) occur commonly in some limited shallow areas, forming grainstones and packstones. Although interglacial episodes within the Hirnantian glaciation could be responsible for these features, their limited occurrence within the interior of the platform leads us to interpret the deposits as indicating that cold-water currents from the southeastern high latitudes were partly excluded from the nearshore area of the Yangtze Platform. The landmass of the eastern SCB in the Hirnantian epoch prevented access to some areas of the cold marine water masses that flowed from higher latitudes of Gondwana; the result was a persistence of warm-water shallow marine facies in some areas.     

湖南桃源郝坪奥陶系五峰组顶部斑脱岩LA-ICP-MS锆石U-Pb年龄

为了认识奥陶纪-志留纪之交的火山活动及事件年龄,对湖南桃源郝坪剖面的斑脱岩进行了LA-ICP-MS锆石U-Pb定年。结果表明,五峰组顶部斑脱岩LA-ICP-MS锆石U-Pb年龄为442.2±8.1Ma,该年龄反映了扬子地区奥陶纪-志留纪之交火山活动的时代,与国际地层委员会公布的奥陶系-志留系界线年龄(443.7±1.5Ma)相一致,同属晚奥陶世。奥陶纪-志留纪之交的火山活动对于探讨晚奥陶世生物绝灭、沉积环境变化与年代地层对比具有重要的意义。