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Zhangjiakou Formation
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Zhangjiakou Fm base reconstruction

Zhangjiakou Fm

Period: 
Cretaceous

Age Interval: 
Early Cretaceous, (25a, 25b) K1zj


Province: 
Hebei

Type Locality and Naming

N. Hebei. It was named by R. Pumpelly as the Zhangjiakou Porphyry in 1866. The naming locality is situated in the vicinity of the Zhangjiakou City of Hebei Province, with its reference section being located in the area extending from the Jiangniwan region to the Yuanbao Mts in the vicinity of Zhangjiakou City.


Lithology and Thickness

Basal part is composed of purple, and dark-violet tuffaceous gritstones and pebble-bearing gritstones; Lower part, of grey-violet and grey-white rhyolitic tuffs; its Middle part, of grey-violet and grey-white quartz-trachytes and trachyandesites, intercalated with rhyolitic tuffs; and the Upper part, of grey and grey-violet rhyolitic breccias and rhyolites; with a total thickness of 1805.2 m.

[Figure: Volcanic rock from type section of Zhangjiakou Formation in Luanping, Hebei Province]

[Figure: Zhangjiakou Formation of Zhangjiagou section in Luanping, Hebei Province]


Lithology Pattern: 
Volcanics


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

It overlies unconformably the Archean gneisses. In the Luanping Basin it is also in a disconformable contact with the underlying Tuchengzi Fm (or locally equivalent of Houcheng Fm). At Shangxi-north (Cret 25b column), the next older unit is indicated as the Tiachihe Fm of Middle Jurassic.

Upper contact

It is in a disconformable contact with the overlying Dabeigou Fm or the Nantianmen Fm.

Regional extent

The formation is distributed extensively in the northern Hebei region, and is developed essentially in the areas of Zhangjiakou City, Guyuan, Chicheng, Fengning, Chengde, Luanping, Weichang, Chongli and Xiabancheng. There are few differences between various regions in the lithology of the particular formation, but with a great variation in its thickness, as being of 3867 m in the area of the Qipan Mts of Weichang region; of 2688 m in the Dushikou area of Chicheng County; of 2821 m in the Sichakou area of Fengning County; and of only 622 m in Luanping County.


GeoJSON

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Fossils

In the Dushikou area of Chicheng County it yields small amount of plant fossils as represented by Schizolepis morlleri, and insect fossils as Coptoclava sp.


Age 

The zircon U-Pb age of the Zhangjiakou Formation shows diachronistic characteristics, where the age is 136–135 Ma in the Luanping Basin (Niu et al., 2003; Zhang et al., 2005), but 132–129 Ma in the Lingyuan Basin (Zhang et al., 2005).

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Valanginian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.3

    Beginning date (Ma): 
136.17

    Ending stage: 
Valanginian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
0.8

    Ending date (Ma):  
133.62

Depositional setting


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Wan Xiaoqiao