Home Multi-Country Search About Admin Login
Cenozoic
Cretaceous
Jurassic
Triassic
Permian
Carboniferous
Devonian
Silurian
Ordovician
Cambrian
Neoproterozoic
Mesoproterozoic

Search by
Select Region(s) to search
Hold Ctrl (Windows/Linux) or Command (Mac) to select multiple
Yanxi Formation

Yanxi Fm


Period: 
Ordovician

Age Interval: 
Darriwilian, (50)


Province: 
Hunan

Type Locality and Naming

The type section is at Yanxi in Xinhua County, Hunan. The Yanxi Fm was named by Wang Chaoxiang and Bian Xiaozeng (1949). Following the naming of the Yanxi Fm, Jin Yuqin et al. (1964) remeasured the type section, and reported four graptolite zones.

Synonym: (烟溪组)


Lithology and Thickness

The Yanxi Fm is composed of thick-bedded black carbonaceous and siliceous slate. At the type area, it is 63 m thick.


Lithology Pattern: 
Claystone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

The Yanxi Fm can be distinguished from the yellowish green slaty shale at the top of the underlying Qiaotingzi Fm based on its characteristic lithology of black carbonaceous and siliceous shale, and its lower boundary is at the base of the U. austrodentatus zone.

Upper contact

The upper boundary is marked by the yellow-greyish white shale at the base of the overlying Modaoxi Fm

Regional extent

The Yanxi Fm is present exposed in central Hunan. In Shuangfeng County, it is 50 m thick, and northward to Taojiang County, it decreases to 6 m in thickness.


GeoJSON

null

Fossils

This formation includes four graptolite zones, in ascending order, N. fasciculatus zone, P. elegans zone, H. teretiusculus zone and N. gracilis zone.


Age 

Darriwilian.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Darriwilian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.45

    Beginning date (Ma): 
464.36

    Ending stage: 
Darriwilian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
458.18

Depositional setting


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Jianpo Wang and Xiaofeng Wang