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Minghuazhen Formation

Minghuazhen Fm

Period: 
Neogene

Age Interval: 
Late Miocene to Late Pliocene (Tortonian to Piacenzian), N1-2 , (15b)


Province: 
Hebei, Shandong, Liaoning

Type Locality and Naming

Bohai Bay region. According to BGMRS(Shandong)P (1996), the type section is located at the “Hua No.1 bore” at Minghua town, Nangong County, Hebei Province (Jia et al., 1961), but its original stratigraphic information is unclear. BGMRS(Shandong)P (1996) assigned a lectostratotype for this formation, which is located at the “Xin No. 3” bore at the Liuhu town (E118°34′, N37°22′), Dongying City, Shandong Province. It was named by Jia et al. (1961).


Lithology and Thickness

It mainly consists of earthy yellow and brownish-red mudstones, and sandy mudstones interbedded with greyish-white sandstones, containing iron and manganese nodules and occasional lenses of basalts. Lower member has small granularity and is in deep colors; whereas the Upper member has large granularity and is in light colors. It contains fossil ostracods, gastropods, charophytes, and sporopollens. Its thickness is in range of 600~1,000 m.


Lithology Pattern: 
Sandy claystone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

In the type section, the Minghuazhen Fm conformably contacts with the underlying Miocene Guantao Fm.

Upper contact

In the type section, the Minghuazhen Fm is unconformably overlain by the Quaternary Pingyuan Fm.

Regional extent

This formation is widely distributed to the Bohai Bay region, mainly in the Tertiary basins in Shandong, Hebei, and Liaoning provinces, and Tianjin City, same as the distribution of the Guantao Fm.


GeoJSON

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Fossils

Ostracods: Candoniella albicans, Ilyocypris kaifensis, Limnocythere sp..


Age 

According to the astrostratigraphic study by Yao et al. (2007) and Xu et al. (2008), the upper boundary of the upper member of the Minghuazhen Fm is about 2.6 Ma, same as the boundary of Pleistocene and Pliocene, whereas the lower boundary of its upper member is about 5.1 Ma, close to the boundary of Pliocene and Miocene; the lower boundary of the lower member of the Minghuazhen Fm is about 10.8 Ma.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Zanclean

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
5.34

    Ending stage: 
Gelasian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
1.80

Depositional setting

It is interpreted as a lake environment.


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