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Shuiquanling Formation

Shuiquanling Fm

Period: 
Ordovician

Age Interval: 
Floian-Dapingian, (29)


Province: 
Gansu, Ningxia

Type Locality and Naming

The type section is in Shuiquan Hill back of Village Shuiquanwan in Machuan, Pingliang County, Gansu. The Shuiquanling Fm was named by Gansu Party of Regional Geological Survey in 1972, and was published by Gansu Compiling Group for Regional Stratigraphic Scale (1980).

Synonym: (水泉岭组）


Lithology and Thickness

The formation is represented by thick-bedded to massive limestone and leopard limestone, with calcirudite intercalations in the lower part and dolomite intercalations in the middle part, representing a sedimentation in littoral to shallow-marine carbonate tidal flat setting. In the type area, the Shuiquanling Fm is 313 m thick.


Lithology Pattern: 
Limestone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

It rests conformably on the dolomitic limestone of the Machuan Fm

Upper contact

It is conformably overlain by the nodular limestone at the base of the Sandaogou Fm. the Shuiquanling Fm in the Qinglong Hill is overlain by the Sandaogou Fm yielding conodonts Eoplacognathus suecicus and Pygodus anitae, its upper boundary is slightly lower than that in the type area (An et al., 1990).

Regional extent

The Shuiquanling Fm is restricted to Shuiquan Hill-Sandaogou (313 m thick) in Pingliang County, Gansu and Qinglong Hill (197-266 m thick), Ningxia. In the latter, the Shuiquanling Fm is composed of gray, dark gray medium-bedded limestone, nodular limestone, argillaceous limestone, with chert nodules and bands.


GeoJSON

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Fossils

This stratigraphic unit yields conodonts Scolopodus eburnus, Panderodus sp., cephalopods Wutinoceras sp., Endoceras sp., trilobites and gastropods. The fauna is characterized by conodonts Loxodus dissectus, Rhipidognathus laiwensis.


Age 

Floian-Dapingian. The Shuiquanling Fm had previously been referred to the all-Early Ordovician strata. In 1975, Lin Baoyu et al. restricted it to the lower part of the previously defined Shuiquanling Fm, which is characterized by thick-bedded to massive limestone or leopard limestone, a suggestion followed by Zhang Wentang (1982). An et al. (1990) suggested that the redefined Shuiquanling Fm is Middle-Late Arenig in age, and can be correlated with the graptolite Didymograptus deflexus zone to Didymograptus bifidus zone.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Floian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.5

    Beginning date (Ma): 
474.17

    Ending stage: 
Dapingian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.6

    Ending date (Ma):  
470.16

Depositional setting

Sedimentation in littoral to shallow-marine carbonate tidal flat setting


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Jianpo Wang and Xiaofeng Wang