Stratigraphy of the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary Successions of the Southern Margin of the Junggar Basin,Northwestern China

The Triassic-Jurassic （Tr-J） boundary marks a major extinction event, which （～200 Ma）resulted in global extinctions of fauna and flora both in the marine and terrestrial realms. There prevail great challenges in determining the exact location of the terrestrial Tr-J boundary, because of endemism of taxa and the scarcity of fossils in terrestrial settings leading to difficulties in linking marine and terrestrial sedimentary successions. Investigation based on palynology and bivalves has been carried out over a 1113 m thick section, which is subdivided into 132 beds, along the Haojiagou valley on the southern margin of the Junggar Basin of the northern Xinjiang, northwestern China. The terrestrial Lower Jurassic is conformably resting on the Upper Triassic strata. The Upper Triassic covers the Huangshanjie Formation overlaid by the Haojiagou Formation, while the Lower Jurassic comprises the Badaowan Formation followed by the Sangonghe Formation. Fifty six pollen and spore taxa and one algal taxon were identified from the sediments. Based on the key-species and abundance of spores and pollen, three zones were erected： the Late Triassic （Rhaetian） Aratrisporites-Alisporites Assemblage, the Early Jurassic （Hettangian） Perinopollenites-Pinuspollenites Assemblage, and the Sinemurian Perinopollenites-Cycadopites Assemblage. The Tr-J boundary is placed between bed 44and 45 coincident with the boundary between the Haojiagou and Badaowan formations. Beds with Ferganoconcha （？）, Unio-Ferganoconcha and Waagenoperna-Yananoconcha bivalve assemblages are recognized. The Ferganoconcha （？） bed is limited to the upper Haojiagou Formation,Unio- Ferganoconcha and Waagenoperna- Yananoconcha assemblages are present in the middle and upper members of the Badaowan Formation. The sedimentary succession is interpreted as terrestrial with two mainly lake deposit intervals within Haojiagou and Badaowan formations, yielding fresh water algae and bivalves. However, the presence of brackish water algae Tasmanites and the marine-littoral facies bivalve Waagenoperna from the Badaowan Formation indicate that the Junggar Basin was influenced by sea water caused by transgressions from the northern Tethys, during the Sinemurian.

Wildfire events at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary of the Tabas Basin,Central Iran

This paper presents organic geochemical evidence pointing to the occurrence of wildfire events at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary in Central Iran.The studied outcrop section(the Kamarmacheh Kuh section)is comprised of the Upper Triassic Nayband Formation which passes conformably into the Lower Jurassic Ab-e-Haji Formation with no sharp boundary.Organic petrographical studies reveal a higher concentration of semi-fusinite macerals and microscopic charcoal at the boundary between studied formations.This observation can be an evidence for widespread wildfire events at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary of the studied area.Following these fires,vast areas of land were exposed for erosion and large volumes of clastic sediments were provided due to increased run-off.This agrees well with previous sedimentological and stratigraphical studies suggesting a major change in the depositional conditions from marine to non-marine at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary of the Tabas Basin.These findings can have important implications about paleo-depositional settings of the studied formations and the nature of the associated organic matter.

The Sedimentary Evolution During Late Triassic-Jurassic Period and the Hydrocarbon Exploration Direction in the Eastern Part of the Qiangtang Basin, Tibet

Based on the field outcrops surveyed,combined with recent published the regional tectonic evolution and geochronology data,we analyzed the lithologies and rock associations of strata,identified the sedimentary facies types,and discussed the distribution sedimentary facies and the hydrocarbon accumulation in the eastern Qiangtang basin during the Late Triassic–Jurassic.Marked by regional unconformities,there are two tectono-stratigraphic units(from the Carnian to the Norian and from the Rhaetian to the Kimmeridgian,respectively)in the eastern part of Qiangtang basin.We systematically described the distribution range,thickness variation and lithological characteristics of different formations in the tectonostratigraphic units.The Late Triassic-Jurassic is dominated by marine facies and marine-continental transitional facies.The marine-continental transitional facies include deltaic and tidallagoon facies.Marine facies including gentle carbonate slope,evaporative platform,restricted platform,littoral,neritic,bathyal and abysmal facies.The Carnian stage is dominated by littoral–neritic–bathyal–abysmal facies in the north Qiangtang depression otherwise the littoral–neritic facies in the south Qiangtang depression.The early Norian stage is dominated by carbonate gentle slope-mixed continental shelf facies.The late Norian,Bajocian,Callovian and Kimmeridgian stage are dominated by tidal flat-delta facies in the north Qiangtang depression and littoral-neritic facies in the south Qiangtang depression.The Bathonian and Oxfordian stage are dominated by evaporative platform-restricted platform-mixed continental shelf facies.The sedimentary facies formed zones from north to south and extended in an E–W direction.The Eastern Lower Uplift(ELU)played an important role in the division zones of sedimentary facies from north to south.During the Bathonian and Oxfordian,the ELU developed below the sea level and controlled the distribution of restricted platform,evaporative platform and platform margin.We analyzed 20 source rock samples from the upper Triassic-Jurassic.The total organic carbon(TOC)value from Qoimaco,Buqu and Adula Formations.of late TriassicJurassic in the eastern Qiangtang basin are ranges from 0.17~0.33%(average 0.28%),0.05~0.25%(average 0.15%)and 10.32~28.78%(average 19.33%),respectively.Obviously,the Adula Fm.developed good source rocks.The values of Tmax and S1+S2 in the Adula formation are 459-461℃(average 460℃)and 6.75-28.55 mg/g(average 18.18 mg/g),indicating that the Adula source rock has reached high-over-maturity stage.The bathyal,gentle slop and platform facie belts of the Upper Triassic can configurate the good hydrocarbon prospects in the northeastern area of the Qiangtang basin.

Source Enrichment Control on the Scale of Magmatic-Hydrothermal W-Sn Mineralization:Insights from Triassic and Jurassic Magma Reservoirs in the Continental Crust,Xitian,South China

There are two factors,source composition and magmatic differentiation,potentially controlling W-Sn mineralization.Which one is more important is widely debated and may need to be determined for each individual deposit.The Xitian granite batholith located in South China is a natural laboratory for investigating the above problem.It consists essentially of two separate components,formed in the Triassic at ca.226 Ma and Jurassic at ca.152 Ma,respectively.The Triassic and Jurassic rocks are both composed of porphyritic and fine-grained phases.The latter resulted from highlydifferentiated porphyritic ones but they have similar textural characteristics and mineral assemblages,indicating that they reached a similar degree of crystal fractionation.Although both fine-grained phases are highly differentiated with elevated rare metal contents,economic W–Sn mineralization is rare in the Triassic granitoids and this can be attributed to less fertile source materials than their Jurassic counterparts,with a slightly more enriched isotopic signature and whole-rockεNd(226 Ma)of−10.4 to−9.2(2σ=0.2)compared withεNd(152 Ma)of−9.2 to−8.2(2σ=0.2)for the Jurassic rocks.The initial W-Sn enrichment was derived from the metasedimentary rocks and strongly enhanced by reworking of the continental crust,culminating in the Jurassic.

End-Triassic nonmarine biotic events

The Late Triassic was a prolonged interval of elevated extinction rates and low origination rates that manifested themselves in a series of extinctions during Carnian, Norian and Rhaetian time. Most of these extinctions took place in the marine realm, particularly affecting radiolarians, conodonts, bivalves, ammonoids and reef-building organisms. On land, the case for a Late Triassic mass extinction is much more tenuous and has largely focused on tetrapod vertebrates（amphibians and reptiles）, though some workers advocate a sudden endTriassic（TJB） extinction of land plants. Nevertheless, an extensive literature does not identify a major extinction of land plants at the TJB, and a comprehensive review of palynological records concluded that TJB vegetation changes were non-uniform（different changes in different places）, not synchronous and not indicative of a mass extinction of land plants. Claims of a substantial perturbation of plant ecology and diversity at the TJB in East Greenland are indicative of a local change in the paleoflora largely driven by lithofacies changes resulting in changing taphonomic filters. Plant extinctions at the TJB were palaeogeographically localized events, not global in extent. With new and more detailed stratigraphic data, the perceived TJB tetrapod extinction is mostly an artifact of coarse temporal resolution, the compiled correlation effect. The amphibian, archosaur and synapsid extinctions of the Late Triassic are not concentrated at the TJB, but instead occur stepwise, beginning in the Norian and extending into the Hettangian. There was a disruption of the terrestrial ecosystem across the TJB, but it was more modest than generally claimed. The ecological severity of the end-Triassic nonmarine biotic events are relatively low on the global scale. Biotic turnover at the end of the Triassic was likely driven by the CAMP（Central Atlantic Magmatic Province） eruptions, which caused significant environmental perturbations（cooling, warming, acidification） through outgassing, but the effects on the nonmarine biota appear to have been localized, transient and not catastrophic. Long-term changes in the terrestrial biota across the TJB are complex,diachronous and likely climate driven evolutionary changes in the context of fluctuating background extinction rates, not a single, sudden or mass extinction.