HAUTERIVIAN AND BARREMIAN IN THE FAR EAST

Valanginian marine sediments are widespread in the eastern margin of Asia from China northward over the Sikhote-Alin region, as far west as the Amur river, and as far north as the Amgun river. This was an interior type sea with abundant islands and a boreal fauna. It is surmised that Kamchatka, Sakhalin, Hokkaido, and the other Japanese islands were not invaded by the sea. A paralic coal basin is known on southwestern Honshu. Post-Valanginian folding and erosion preceded a Barremian-Albian marine transgression over the same general area. In these younger Cretaceous rocks southern faunas appear and the boreal fauna is present north of 45° latitude. Aucella and Aucellina species are important elements of the faunas. This review of faunas and correlations, including western North America, suggests that Hauterivian folding was a major event in North Pacific tectonic history. -- C. G. Tillman.