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Liantuo Formation
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Liantuo Fm base reconstruction

Liantuo Fm

Period: 
Neoproterozoic

Age Interval: 
Earliest Nanhuan (latest Tonian), Nh (47-49, 58)


Province: 
Hubei, Hunan, Sichuan

Type Locality and Naming

West Hubei. The Liantuo Fm was named by Liu Hongyun and Sha Qing'an in 1963. The typical section is situated in Liantuo Town of Yichang City, Hubei Province.

[Figure: Type section of the Liantuo Fm

Synonym: （莲沱组）


Lithology and Thickness

The Liantuo Fm is a suite of highly tuffaceous coarse-grained clastic rock. Basal part bears a 1.5 m bed of light red and greenish gray sandy conglomerate, bounded at the top by a layer of greenish gray and dark purple tuffaceous lithic sandstone. Lower part is composed of red purple, greenish gray coarse- to medium-grained arkosic sandstone and arkose. Upper part is dominated by red purple and white gray crystal-vitric tuff, tuffaceous sandstone and lithic sandstone with cross-bedded. The thickness ranges from 50 to 260 m.


Lithology Pattern: 
Volcanic ash


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

It rests unconformably on the underlying Huangling Granite Fm or Kongling Gr. Regionally (west Hubei), it also overlies the Macaoyuan Fm. Hunan column 58 shows it overlying the Benxi Gr.

Upper contact

It is disconformably overlain by the Nantuo Fm (but, schematic stratigraphic column shows it is overlain by the Gucheng Fm tillite of lower Cryogenian)

Regional extent

The Liantuo Formation is distributed in Sichuan and Hubei Province; plus NW Hunan (column 58).


GeoJSON

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Fossils

It yields microplants Leiopsophosphaera sp., Trematosphaeridium holtedahlii, T. minutum, Taeniatum sp., Laminarites sp. etc.


Age 

The age on zircons is 748±12 Ma (ion microprobe by W. Compston, Zhao Ziqiang et al., 1985). Early Nanhuan (latest Tonian) on schematic stratigraphic column; and below earliest Cryogenian glacial Gucheng Fm.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Tonian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.8

    Beginning date (Ma): 
776.00

    Ending stage: 
Tonian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
720.00

Depositional setting

The Liantuo Fm is considered to be a terrestrial deposit dominated by fluvial facies that was deposited with variable thickness on the old erosion surface after the Jinning movement.


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information

According to the data reported by Zhang Huimin et al. (1982), the paleolatitude position of the Liantuo Formation is 25°.


Compiler:  

Extracts from The Neoproterozoic Erathem (chapter in Stratigraphic Lexicon of China, draft of 2022) by Gao Linzhi, Ding Xiaozhong, Zhang Chuanheng, Zhang Heng.