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Yuanjiagou Formation

Yuanjiagou Fm


Period: 
Carboniferous

Age Interval: 
C11 (44), late Tournaisian (early Early Carboniferous)


Province: 
Shaanxi

Type Locality and Naming

The type section is located at Yuanjiagou of the Xicha River, about 20 km northeast of Xunyang, Shaanxi; and the reference section at Sanlixia (about 30 km northwest of Xunyang County Seat) of Xunyang. It was named by Shaanxi Party of Regional Geological Survey in 1966, and formally cited in the Regional Stratigraphic Scale of Southwestern ChinaShaanxi Volume in 1983.


Lithology and Thickness

Limestone. Dominated by neritic carbonate rock deposits, consisting of gray and dark-gray thick-bedded massive clayey limestones intercalated with sandy and calcareous limestones; 174.8 m thick.


Lithology Pattern: 
Clayey limestone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

Conformable (? – Strat chart shows a gap) contact with the underlying Devonian Nanyangshan Fm (not in Devonian Lexicon) (or Tieshan Fm?)

Upper contact

Conformable contact with the overlying Sixiakou Fm (and Fanjaiping Fm)

Regional extent

Distributed in the areas of Zhen’an and Xunyang of Shaanxi as well as Yunxi of Hubei, consisting almost completely of limestone around Miliangchuan of Zhen’an, ~200 m thick. Going southward and eastward, it is intercalated with calcareous sandstone and increasing in shale, reaching 975 m in thickness


GeoJSON

null

Fossils

Corals Caninia cornunconiae var. gigantea, etc.,


Age 

late Tournaisian (early Early Carboniferous)

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Tournaisian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.2

    Beginning date (Ma): 
356.79

    Ending stage: 
Visean

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.1

    Ending date (Ma):  
345.09

Depositional setting

It is interpreted as a neritic carbonate


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Zhang Yan