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Hewangjia Formation

Hewangjia Fm

Period: 
Neogene

Age Interval: 
Early Pliocene (Zanclean), N2, (6d)


Province: 
Gansu

Type Locality and Naming

Linzia Basin. The type section, Wangjiashan section, is located at the Hewangjia Village, Jinggou Township, Dongxiang County; and the reference section is located at Maogou of the Dongyuan Township in Dongxiang County. It was named by Li et al. (1995). The Hewangjia Fm corresponds to the upper part of the Member 4 of the original Linxia Fm named by the First Regional Geologic Survey Team of the Gansu Geological Bureau in 1965.


Lithology and Thickness

The Lower Member of the Hewangjia Fm at the Wangjiashan section consists of a ~12 m thick gray strongly carbonate-cemented conglomerates (gravels subangular and 1-5 cm diameter) containing numerous mammalian fossils. The Upper Member consists of a ~49 m thick yellowish brown calcareous mudstones encompassing big carbonate nodules and intercalated by many beds of marlite.


Lithology Pattern: 
Coarse-grained sandstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

It is conformable contact with the underlying Liushu Fm in the Maogou section and slightly unconformable in the Wangjiashan section.

Upper contact

The contact with the overlying conglomerate is unconformable.

Regional extent

The Hewangjia Fm is widely distributed in the Linxia Basin. The thickness of the Hewangjia Fm varies greatly, which has been completely denudated in many places, and the underlying conglomerate also varies. For example, there is no conglomerate, only a gravel layer with a thickness of less than 1m, at the bottom of the Hewangjia Fm in Shilidun and Longdan, while the thickness of red clay is 50 m and 20 m respectively.


GeoJSON

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Fossils

Lagomorpha: Alilepus sp.; Rodentia: Hystrix gansuensis Carnivora: Sinictis sp., Parataxidea sinensis, Promephitis sp., Hyaenictitherium wongii, Adcrocuta eximia, Chasmaporthetes kani, Felis sp.; Proboscidea: Gomphotheriidae gen. et sp. indet. Perissodactyla: Hipparion licenti, Hipparion hippidiodus, Hipparion platyodus, Hipparion pater, Hesperotherium sp., Ancylotherium sp., Shansirhinus ringstroemi. Artiodactyla: Cervavitus novorossiae, Palaeotragus microdon, Samotherium? sp., Gazella blacki, Sinotragus sp., Capricornis sp.


Age 

The paleomagnetic ages of the Hewangjia Fm in the Maogou and Heilinding sections are 6.0-4.34 Ma and 6.5-4.1 Ma by Fang et al. (2016). Deng et al. (2013) corelated the Shilidun Fauna in Hewangjia Fm to the Gaozhuangian Age (5.3-3.6 Ma), which is within C3n.4n, with an age of 5.0 Ma.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Zanclean

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
5.34

    Ending stage: 
Zanclean

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
3.60

Depositional setting

It reflects a process of evolution from a petal river to a shallow lake and represents a strong uplift of the Tibetan Plateau.


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