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Nanshuba Formation

Nanshuba Fm


Period: 
Triassic

Age Interval: 
Late Triassic, (TJ48)


Province: 
Yunnan

Type Locality and Naming

The named section is located in Nanshuba, Mengbang District, Zhenkang County, Yunnan Province.

Synonym: Nansoba Fm (spelling)


Lithology and Thickness

It is dominated by clastic rocks interlaced with carbonate rocks. Lower part is grayish yellow shale with a little sandstone. Middle part is light gray medium thick dense relatively pure limestone and dolomitic limestone. Upper part is yellow shale with purple shale. The bottom boundary is marked by the first occurrence of gray-yellow shale, 600 to 1400 m thick


Lithology Pattern: 
Pelagic marl


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformable contact with the underlying Dashuitang Fm

Upper contact

The contact relationship is unknown. At present, there is no continuous section between the overlying Wandianba Fm and the Nanshuba Fm, and their Upper Triassic fossil features are very similar. Therefore, the Chengdu Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources of the Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and the Sichuan Regional Geological Survey (1992) believe that the two formations are upper/lower or phase transition relationships, which need to be studied further.

Regional extent


GeoJSON

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Fossils

Bivalve producing Burmesia lirata-Costatoria napengensis assemblage; Anatomites sp., Tropites cf. payeri etc.; Conodonts such as Epigondolella postera, E. bidentata, E. abneptis spatulatus, E. multidentata; foraminifera, coral, etc. [But some of these may be from the underlying Dashuitang Fm, because some former authors combined the two formations.]


Age 

The former Nanshuba Formation represents the stratum dominated by clastic rocks of the Late Triassic Carney in Zhenkang area, Yunnan. In 1992, Chengdu Institute of Geology and Mineral Resources of Chinese Academy of Geological Sciences and Sichuan Diaoquan revised its age to Late Triassic Norian. Tong et al. (2019, Triassic integrated stratigraphy and timescale in China, Science China: Earth Sciences, v. 62, no. 1) assign it as spanning the late Carnian (dashed basal age) through early Norian. [However, their column may have merged the underlying Dashuitang Fm with this Nanshuba Fm.] Conodont biostratigraphy of Baoshan sections by Haishui Li's group indicate the base of Nanshuba Fm is in mid-Sevatian (upper M. bidentata conodont Zone); therefore ca. 85% up in Norian (used here).

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Norian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.85

    Beginning date (Ma): 
208.97

    Ending stage: 
Norian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
205.74

Depositional setting

"Wu et al. (2020) recognized eight types of microfacies in the Dashuitang and Nanshuba formations including endoclastic breccia limestone. They concluded that the Dashuitang Formation was deposited on a deep slope, and the overlying Nanshuba Formation was a deep-water shelf." (From " Carbon-isotope excursions in the Norian Stage (Upper Triassic) of the Baoshan terrane, South China " submission by Xin Jin et al., 2022.)


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Zhang Shunxin, Sun Xin and Tong Jinnan.