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Huangjian Formation
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Huangjian Fm base reconstruction

Huangjian Fm


Period: 
Cretaceous

Age Interval: 
Early Cretaceous, K1hj, (35)


Province: 
Zhejiang

Type Locality and Naming

Western Zhejiang. The Huangjian Formation was designated by Zou Xinhu and Che Qishi in 1962. The section for the designation is at Huangjianshan of the southwest Jiande County, Zhejiang. Lower-Middle formation in Jiangde Gr.


Lithology and Thickness

The Huangjian Formation is mainly represented by gray green, gray purple and gray white acidic lava, acidic pyroclastic rocks, occasionally with intermediate lava and with volcanic rock beds made up of sedimentary rocks. It contacts conformably with both the overlying and underlying strata. It is 943 m thick.


Lithology Pattern: 
Volcanics


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Its base marked by gray-gray brown massive rhyolite porphyry and rhyolitic tuff lava is distinguished from the underlying Laocun Fm consisting of purple red clayey siltstone with fine sandstone. The formation lies conformably on the underlying Laocun Fm and somewhere overlaps or lies unconformably on the older strata.

Upper contact

Its top is bounded by blue gray tuffaceous conglomerate with tuffaceous grit of the overlying Shouchang Fm.

Regional extent

The formation is distributed in the Shouchang-Linpu and Chunan-Linan areas of northwest Zhejiang. Its lithology and thickness are different from place to place. In the Shouchang-Linpu area, rhyolite porphyry is predominant while acid tuff, ignimbrite, sediment tuff and sedimentary rocks are of secondary importance in Shouchang and Pujiang. In Pujiang, Bajiaojian-Shoufengshan and Dayanshan of Jiande, the formation is represented by from below upward moderately basic-moderately acidic-acidic volcanic eruptive rhythms; in Zhuji, Xiaoshan and Linpu it is dominated by moderately acid-acid pyroclastic rocks with small amounts of intermediate and acidic lava, sandstone and siltstone; and in Hengcunfu and Xindeng of Tonghu, it is represented by monomorphic dacitic crystal ignimbrite, varying from 175 to 943 m in thickness from southwest to northeast, up to 1551 m in Dashan of Wangjia of Jiantang of Shaoxing. In the Chunan-Linan area, greatly thick-bedded volcanic accumulation is developed around Tianmushan, with a cumulative thickness of more than 4389.5 m.


GeoJSON

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Fossils

It yields insects Mesolygeus sp., and floras Ruffordia geopperti and Onychopsis elongata near Guangxiangsi of Shaoxing; Cladophlebis cf. parva and Desmiophyllum sp. in Dajiaoling of Pujiang; Coniopteris bureiensis and Podozamites sp. in Chenjiawu of Linan; sporopollen grains dominated by Classopollis sp. collected from the sedimentary partings near Yanghuitou of Kangshan of Huzhou.


Age 

The paleomagnetic determination indicates that the middle and lower members of the formation is a normal and reversed mixed polarity zone and the upper member is a normal polarity zone. The highest negative polarity sub-zone should be equal to the M0r negative sub-zone at the base of the Aptian stage of the Cretaceous of Europe. The whole rock from the lower member of the formation has given Rb-Sr isochronous age of 128±4 ma, and K/Ar date for monomineral of 127±4 Ma and 128±4 ma; the zircon U-Po consistent curve indicates 130±6 ma; the upper member has given Rb-Sr isochronous age of 123±3 ma; the Ar-Ar date and isochronous age for feldspar are 122 and 122±3 ma; and the consistent curve for zircon U-Pb is 124±6 Ma. In Mushaowu of the Jinyuan Town of Changshan County, Zhejiang, the K/Ar date for rhyolite sanidine is 124±4 Ma.Shown as late Barremian-early Aptian in Xi et al. (2019). But radiometric dates for the volcanics in the middle of this formation are mainly in 130 to 126 Ma range => late Hauterivian to early Barremian (Guangfu Xing, Jianqing Li, Zheng Duan, Mingxuan Cao, Minggang Yu, Pingli Chu, Rong Chen. Mesozoic–Cenozoic Volcanic Cycle and Volcanic Reservoirs in East China. Journal of Earth Science, 2021, 32(4): 742-765. doi: 10.1007/s12583-021-1476-1).

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Hauterivian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.5

    Beginning date (Ma): 
129.55

    Ending stage: 
Barremian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.4

    Ending date (Ma):  
124.46

Depositional setting


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Wan Xiaoqiao