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Guantao Formation

Guantao Fm

Period: 
Neogene

Age Interval: 
Early to Middle Miocene (Aquaitanian to Serravallian), N1 , (15b)


Province: 
Hebei, Shandong, Liaoning

Type Locality and Naming

Bohai Bay region. BGMRS(Shandong)P (1996) assigned a lectostratotype for this formation, which is located at the “Xin No. 3” bore at the Liuhu town (E118°34′, N37°22′), Dongying City, Shandong Province. According to BGMRH(Hebei)P (1989), this formation was formally named by Jia et al. (1961).

Synonym: Gao et al. (2014b) treated the Yangsanmu Fm and the Jiazhangsi Fm as synonyms of the Guantao Fm.


Lithology and Thickness

It is characterized by a series of greyish-white gravelly sandstones and fine sandstones interbedded with greyish-green and brownish-red mudstones. It is divided into two members: Lower member is formed by thick lamellar or massive gravels with mudstones, and its bottom is characterized by gravels or gravelly sandstones containing quartzes and flints. Upper member consists of sandstones with gravels interbedded with sandstones and mudstones. It contains fossil fishes, ostracods, and sporopollens. Its thickness is in range of 100~500 m.


Lithology Pattern: 
Coarse-grained sandstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

In the type section, the Guantao Fm unconformably contacts with the underlying Upper Eocene Dongying Fm. In other area, this formation is in unconformable contact with the underlying Shahejie Fm.

Upper contact

In the type section, the Guantao Fm conformably is overlain by the Pliocene Minghuazhen Fm.

Regional extent

This formation is widely distributed to the Bohai Bay region, mainly in the Tertiary basins in Shandong, Hebei, and Liaoning provinces, and Tianjin City.


GeoJSON

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Fossils

Ostracods: Candoniella albicans, Ilyocypris gibba, Limnocythere cinetura. Fishes: ? Mylopharyngodon sp., Leuciscus, Xenocypris. Sporopollens: Ceratopteris, Juglanspollenites.


Age 

According to the astrostratigraphic study by Xu et al. (2008), the lower boundary of the lower member of the Minghuazhen Fm is about 10.8 Ma. Thus, the upper boundary of the Guantao Fm should be same as or slightly older than this age.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Aquitanian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
23.04

    Ending stage: 
Messinian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
5.34

Depositional setting

It is interpreted as a delta environment (Xu, 1981; Zeng et al., 2017).


Depositional pattern:  

Additional Information


Compiler:  

Tao Deng, Sukuan Hou, J.Z. Qigao, Q. Li, Q.Q. Shi, B.Y. Sun, S.Q. Wang, F.X. Wu