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Jingchuan Formation
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Jingchuan Fm base reconstruction

Jingchuan Fm


Period: 
Cretaceous

Age Interval: 
Early Cretaceous, K1jc, (16)


Province: 
Gansu, Shaanxi

Type Locality and Naming

Ordos Basin. Zhang Geng and Tian Zaiyi et al erected the Jingchuan bed in 1952. The section for the designation is near the Jingchuan County of Gansu. The reference section is from Jingchuan of Gansu to Jujiawan of Binxian of Shaanxi (107°22′E; 35°20′N). An upper formation in Zhidan Gr.


Lithology and Thickness

The Jingchuan Formation is represented by purple red, gray green, gray yellow and pink mudstone, sandy mudstone, siltstone and fine sandstone, intercalated with gray and blue gray clayey limestone. The formation is 148 m thick.


Lithology Pattern: 
Sandy claystone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Its base, marked by blue gray sandy mudstone or marl, is distinguished from the underlying Luohandong Fm made up of yellow arkose, and lies conformably on the latter.

Upper contact

Its top, made up of purple sandstone and mudstone, lies unconformably under the overlying Paleogene Gansu Gr.

Regional extent

The present formation is distributed in the northwestern and southwestern parts of Shaanxi-Gansu-Ningxia basin, and is observed in the western part of Otog Qi, the western part of Hanggin Qi and Ejin Horo Qi of Inner Mongolia. It is blue gray, gray green, brown gray and brown red mudstone intercalated with gray green and yellow gray calcareous fine sandstone and marl. In Ganyang and Longxian of Shaanxi, it is represented by tangerine and light brown mudstone and sandy mudstone intercalated with marl and sandstone, generally ranging from 178 to 446 m in thickness. In Gansu, it is exposed in Huanxian, Chongxin and Jingchuan, which has become coarser and thickened from north to south, 96 m in the north and 555 m in the south. In Ningxia, it is mainly found down the borehole at Yanchi.


GeoJSON

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Fossils

In Otog Qi of Inner Mongolia, it yields Pisces Lycoptera woodwardi, L. kansuensis and Sinamia sp.; Ostracods Cypridea unicostata, C. yumenensis, C. koskulensis, C. justa, C. consulta, C. (Morinina) subrostrata, Rhinocypris cirrita; estheria Yanjiestheria sp.; sporopollen grains represented by the Cicatricosisporites-Densoisporites-Piceaepollenites assemblage. In Hanggin Qi, it yields bivalves Nakamuranaia chingshanensis, Sphaerium cf. selenginense, Fergaoconcha cf. subcentralis; estherias Ordosestheria wujiamiaoensis; and Reptilia Protoceratops sp. and Psittacosaurus youngi; in Ningxia estherias Xibeiestheria pora, X. yanchiensis and X. ovata and floras; and in Huanxian of Gansu Pisces, Chelonia and floras. It also yields insects, gastropods and Charophytes.


Age 

Shown as early-Middle Aptian by Dangpeng Xi, Xiaoqiao Wan, et al. (2019; Integrated Stratigraphy and TimeScale of China).

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Aptian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.5

    Beginning date (Ma): 
117.30

    Ending stage: 
Aptian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.8

    Ending date (Ma):  
114.84

Depositional setting

It is of lacustrine facies.


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Wan Xiaoqiao