Muling Fm
Type Locality and Naming
E. Heilongjiang – Sanjiang. Wang Huansheng erected the Muling Coal series in 1929. The type locality for the designation is in the Jixi City of Heilongjiang. The reference section in the No.16 section measured at the Pinggang coal mine of Lishu about 30 km south of the Jixi City, Heilongjiang. Upper formation in Jixi Gr.
Lithology and Thickness
The Muling Formation is represented by a set of continental coal-bearing strata. Lower and Middle parts are built up by gray white fine sandstone and siltstone interbedded with gray black mudstone, intercalated with thin-bedded tuff and coal beds. Upper part is dominated by grayish green and dark gray siltstone and fine sandstone with multiple layers of grayish green tuff, gray black mudstone and coal seams. The formation is 877.33 m thick.
Relationships and Distribution
Lower contact
Its base marked by grayish white medium-grained sandstone and grit lies conformably on the underlying Chengzihe Fm.
Upper contact
It top marked by gray siltstone and fine sandstone lies disconformably under the overlying Dongshan Fm.
Regional extent
The formation is an important coal-bearing horizon in the region. The present formation occurs in the Jixi, Boli, Shuangyashan-Jixian, Hegang, and Laoheishan-Doning basins. In the Hegang basin, the rock assemblage of the formation is clearly different from that of other basins which is dominated by grayish white and grayish yellow medium and coarse-grained and medium- fine-grained sandstone, sandy conglomerate and conglomerate, with siltstone, mudstone and coal seams of which the conglomerate varies greatly in thickness and extends un-persistently, up to 600 m thick in the Junde area and only 10 m or more at Shitoumiaozi of the northern Hegang basin. It is in disconformable contact with the underlying Chengzihe Fm. In the Laoheishan-Dongning basin, the formation is called the Dongning Fm, which was discarded during the stratigraphic sorting in 1994 and used the Muling Fm instead. The Muling Formation was then divided into two parts of which the lower part is dominated by conglomerate and medium-grained sandstone and grit, intercalated with sandstone, siltstone and coal streaks. Laterally the conglomerate is un-persistent and often changes in facies into sandy conglomerate or grit; while the upper part gray white and light gray grit, medium and fine-grained sandstone, shale, carbonaceous shale and coal seams. The basal conglomerate overlaps the Pre-Mesozoic basement while the upper limit is unknown. The formation is 80-280 m in thickness.
GeoJSON
Fossils
It bears floras Coniopteris heerianai, C. burrejensis, and Elatocladus manchurica; in the Lishu town, it yields Coniopteris hymenophylloides, Acanthopteris gothani, Ruffordia goepperti, and sporopollen grains Appendcisporites insignis, Cicatricosisporites minutaestriatus, etc.
Age
Depositional setting
It is of lake bog basin deposition.
Additional Information