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Ziyun Formation

Ziyun Fm


Period: 
Triassic

Age Interval: 
Late Early Triassic (TJ90a, TJ90b)


Province: 
Guizhou

Type Locality and Naming

Guizhou Geological Bureau 108 team named in 1966. The named section is located in Xinyuan to Bandang in the suburb of Ziyun County, Guizhou.

Synonym:


Lithology and Thickness

It is mainly composed of gray medium thick breccia clastic limestone and micritic limestone, calcareous and siliceous claystone with unequal thickness interbedded. It can be divided into two lithologic units: Lower unit is mainly composed of thick gray and purplish red layers, massive brecciate calcareous limestone, medium and thin micritic limestone, grey-green and purplish red shale and siliceous shale, often with gradation characteristics and catchment structure, sliding flexure structure. Upper unit is mainly gray and dark gray thin lamellar argillaceous banded micrite (and silty) limestone, with siliceous shale and calcareous shale. Thickness 20 to 210 m.


Lithology Pattern: 
Clayey limestone


Relationships and Distribution

Lower contact

At the bottom, the thick, massive breccia-rich calcareous limestone is conformable with the underlying thin micrite limestone of the Chayeshao Fm (Guizhou) or with the Luolou Gr (Guangxi).

Upper contact

Ziyun Fm is in conformably overlain by the Xinyuan Fm. Gan Xiuming (1983) first proposed that a stable layer of yellowish-green montmorillonite vitric tuff (commonly known as "mung bean rock" or "Green Bean" volcanic ash horizon) was used as the lower boundary of Xinyuan Fm.

Regional extent


GeoJSON

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Fossils

Ammonoids: Owenites-Meekoceras zone and Tirolites-Procarnites zone. Bivalves: Claraia aurita


Age 

Tong et al. (2019, Triassic integrated stratigraphy and timescale in China, Science China: Earth Sciences, v. 62, no. 1) assign it as spanning Olenekian.

Age Span: 

    Beginning stage: 
Olenekian

    Fraction up in beginning stage: 
0.0

    Beginning date (Ma): 
249.88

    Ending stage: 
Olenekian

    Fraction up in the ending stage: 
1.0

    Ending date (Ma):  
246.70

Depositional setting

The Yuanziyun Formation represents the Early Triassic Olenekian sedimentary facies of the broad sea basin in the Ziyun area of Guizhou. According to Guizhou Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources (1987), the Ziyun Formation represents the slope facies calcareous gravity flow deposits of this age in southern Guizhou.


Depositional pattern:  


Additional Information


Compiler:  

Zhang Shunxin, Zhou Ze and Tong Jinnan.