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Yanziping Formation

Yanziping Fm


Period: 
Silurian

Age Interval: 
Upper Ludlow of Silurian (S3), (44)


Province: 
Sichuan

Type Locality and Naming

The name was proposed by Jin Chuntai et al (1989). The type section is located at the roadside from Longdanxi to Maliuqiao in eastern part of the Erlangshan Mts. area in west Sichuan Province.

Synonym: (岩子坪组)


Lithology and Thickness

It is characterized by purplish red mudstone and dark gray dolomite. Lowermost part, 91 m thick, consists of purple, purplish red mudstone intercalated with yellow green mudstone and siltstone; no fossils are observed. The middle-Lower part, 30 m in thickness, is composed of dark gray thick-bedded micritic dolomite, occasionally with purple and green mudstone beds intercalated. The middle-Upper part, 118 m thick, consists of gray green thin-bedded massive mudstone and dolomitic mudstone and bears bivalve and brachiopod fossils. Uppermost part, 41 m thick, is represented by dark gray thick-bedded sandy bioclastic crystalline dolomite and dark purple, gray green thick-bedded ferriferous sandy crystalline dolomite yet with no fossil record.


Lithology Pattern: 
Shallow-marine marl


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

The boundary of the formation with the underlying Baohuoyan Fm is a parallel unconformity. (Wenlock through middle Ludlow is absent).

Upper contact

The boundary of the formation with the overlying Sashuiyan Fm has not been ascertained.

Regional extent

The formation is exposed only in the Erlangshan Mts. area in west Sichuan Province.


GeoJSON

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Fossils

It bears bivalve Modiolopsis?, Modiomorpha? sp., Cosmogoniophora sp. and brachiopod Lingula in the middle-upper part of the formation.


Age 

Since there is no fossil evidence to confirm the age of the formation, the controversy on the age of the formation cannot be settled at present. It seems reasonable to correlate this formation with the Xiaoxi Fm. of the Yangtze Region, consequently, we tentatively assigned this formation to the age of Upper Ludlow.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Ludfordian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.5

    Beginning date (Ma): 
423.87

    Ending stage: 
Ludfordian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.85

    Ending date (Ma):  
423.08

Depositional setting

The lithofacies and the biofacies of the formation indicate a near-shore extremely shallow-water, (probably) lagoon facies.


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Wang Chuanshang and Wang Xiaofeng