Liulaobei Fm

North-central Anhui. The Liulaobei Fm was named by Xie Jiarong (C. Y. Hsieh) in 1947. The naming locality is situated in Liulaobei in the north of the Shouxian City and the typical section is in Diangeda to Baieshan of Shouxian City, Anhui Province. In the available literatures, some refer to a Guanjiaying Formation and a Liulaobei Formation (narrow sense). Because of the Guanjiaying Formation is incompletely exposed in its naming area without a complete stratotype section, the author suggests to use the definition of the Liulaobei Formation proposed by Zhu Zhaoling et al. (1964).

Synonym: （刘老碑组）

The Liulaobei Fm is dominated by shale and thin-bedded marl, and can be subdivided into two lithological members. Lower member is composed of red purple intercalated with greenish yellow thin- to medium-bedded pelitic limestone and red purple intercalated with greenish gray calcareous shale, with a basal part of purple red, gray white medium-to fine-grained quartzose sandstone. Upper member consists of greenish yellow shale intercalated with thin-bedded fine-grained quartzose sandstone (occasionally bearing glauconite), calcareous siltstone and silty marl, with limestone obviously increasing upward. The thickness generally varies from 685 to 837 m, locally more than 1000 m. With a persistent lithology, it belongs to the deposit of shelf facies.

[Figure: Stratigraphic column of the Liulaobei Formation in Fengyang, Anhui Province]