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Posongchong Formation

Posongchong Fm


Period: 
Devonian

Age Interval: 
D1 (58,76, rev 63, 18), earliest Emsian (late-Early Devonian)


Province: 
Yunnan, Guangxi

Type Locality and Naming

The type section is located nearby Posongchong of Xizhang, about 20 km northeast of Guangnan County (105o08’E, 24o08’ N), Yunnan. It was named by Liao Weihua et al in 1978.


Lithology and Thickness

Fine-grained sandstone. It is a set of grayish-brown medium- to thick-bedded fine-grained sandstone, siltstone and silty mudstone. It is 415 m thick.

Figure Outcrop showing the sandstone and siltstone of Posongchong Formation in the type locality.


Lithology Pattern: 
Siltstone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

It has an angular unconformable contact with underlying Bolaitian Fm dolomite of Cambrian. The basal contact is sharp with a weathered iron-manganese crust or basal conglomerate at the base of Posongchong Fm.

Upper contact

It is conformably overlain by the black carbonate mudstone of Pojiao Fm.

Regional extent

It is distributed in Guangnan, Wenshan, Mengzi, Maguan, Xichou, Qiubei, Funing, southeast of Yunnan. Revised strat columns (Hongfei Hou, Apr2021) extended this name to NW Guangxi (Nandan, revised column 63). It often overlaps on the Cambrian or Ordovician, and its thickness changes considerably.


GeoJSON

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Fossils

Plants and spores are very common, including Zosterophyllum australianum, Protopteridium sp., Sucheocladus sp., and fish fossils are reported in Gumu of Wenshan Shi. Six fish fossils are found from the Posongchong Fm. in Wenshan, including Kwangnanaspis subtriangularis, Gantarostratoaspis gengi, Gumuaspis rostrata, Macrothyraspis longicornis, Wenxianaspis zhichangensis and Sanqiaspis rostrata. The last one has been reported from Chaotong of northeast Yunnan and the Pingyipu Group of Beichuan, Sichuan.


Age 

Previous lexicon entry had indicated as Lochkovian to Pragian (?) (Early Devonian); but chart of Hongfei Hou shows as only as earliest Emsian, with Lochkovian-Pragian as part of the hiatus above the Cambrian.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Emsian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
410.51

    Ending stage: 
Emsian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.15

    Ending date (Ma):  
408.08

Depositional setting

It is interpreted as a beach facies.


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

(Xian Siyuan)