Global sea-level has changed in a cyclic manner through geologic history, but the regularities of these changes are yet to be fully understood. Despite certain （and sometimes significant） differences, the available ...Global sea-level has changed in a cyclic manner through geologic history, but the regularities of these changes are yet to be fully understood. Despite certain （and sometimes significant） differences, the available Mesozoic eustatic curves permit the outlining of long-term eustatic cycles, which are provi- sionally defined as cycles recognizable at the stage level and higher. Interpretation of the Triassic eustatic curves indicates two orders of long-term cycles and a lst-order sea-level rise throughout the entire period. The Jurassic eustatic curves imply cyclicity of one or two orders, and a 1st-order eustatic rise during the entire period is also evident. Most challenges are interpretations for the Cretaceous; two to four orders of long-term eustatic cycles can be established for this period. Generally, the hierarchy of the long-term eustatic cycles might have changed through the Mesozoic. If so, and if one considers differences of cycles of the same order between the periods of this era, it is difficult to apply ＂standard＂ hierarchical classifications to the documented cycles. The hypothetical uncertainty of the hierarchy of the Mesozoic long-term eustatic cycles is an imoortant challenge for modern researchers.展开更多
Four hierarchical cyclothems, superbundlesets, bundlesets, bundles and laminae, have been identified from the Devonian Frasnian-Famennian carbonate strata in Guangxi, South China. Their hierarchical structures, ratio ...Four hierarchical cyclothems, superbundlesets, bundlesets, bundles and laminae, have been identified from the Devonian Frasnian-Famennian carbonate strata in Guangxi, South China. Their hierarchical structures, ratio relationships and sequence in conodont zones are continuous and stable and can be traced across different facies zones and sedimentary basins. Our data show that hierarchically organized superbundlesets, bundlesets, bundles and laminae correspond to the long eccentricity, eccentricity, obliquity or precession and sub-Milankovitch cycles respectively. Their periods were 400,000, 100,000, 33,333, 16,667 and 8,000–17,000 a, respectively. The ratios of long eccentricity to eccentricity, eccentricity to obliquity, and eccentricity to precession in the Devonian are 1:4, 1:3 and 1:6 respectively. Using these hierarchical Milankovitch cyclothems, chronostratigraphical division and correlation can be realized at a resolution of 100 ka or 10 ka at the Frasnian-Famennian transition. The time intervals of the Upper rhenana Zone, linguiformis Zone, and the Lower, Middle and Upper triangularis Zone are 0.6, 0.8, 0.3, 0.3 and 0.3 Ma, respectively. Sea-level changes of the Frasnian-Famennian transition were not coherent and synchronous at the resolution of 100 ka or 10 ka in the basin-slope carbonate sequences of Guangxi, South China.展开更多
The amplitude of pre-Quaternary sea level drop, H, can be calculated by usingthe formula H = D + To, where To is the original thickness from the top of the tidal deposits onthe reef core to the bottom of the tidal dep...The amplitude of pre-Quaternary sea level drop, H, can be calculated by usingthe formula H = D + To, where To is the original thickness from the top of the tidal deposits onthe reef core to the bottom of the tidal deposits on the reef front, or to the bottom of the ancientmeteoric vadose zone, or to the edge of the mixed-water dolostone zone. The identity and similaritybetween the sea-level drop amplitudes calculated from different reefs far away from each otherindicates that such sea-level changes are eustatic rather than relative changes. Evidence of anend-Permian sea-level drop has been found on the Changxingian (i.e. the end of the Palaeofusulinazone) reefs at Ziyun in South China, including algal laminated deposits, sabkha-related dolostone,desiccation cracks, dissolution collapse breccia. According to calculation based on the meteoricdissolution zone of the reef-core sequence at Ziyun, Guizhou province, the amplitude of thesea-level drop at the end-Permian is about 89.3 m. Calculation via the dolomitized upper part of theChangxingian reef in Lichuan, Hubei Province, yields an 88.9 m amplitude of the sea-level drop atthe end-Permian. Comparison shows that the sea-level drop recorded in the two distantly locatedreefs may be of eustatic type. So the amplitude of the sea level drop of the Tethys Sea at theend-Permian might be at least 89.3 m.展开更多
Depositional sequences may be distinguished into six ranks of units as giga-, mega-, meso-, ortho-, sub- and micro-sequence, and are interpreted to be formed during the eustatic cycles with time-intervals of 500-6000 ...Depositional sequences may be distinguished into six ranks of units as giga-, mega-, meso-, ortho-, sub- and micro-sequence, and are interpreted to be formed during the eustatic cycles with time-intervals of 500-6000 Ma, 60-120 Ma, 30-40 Ma, 2-5 Ma, 0.1-0.4 Ma and 0.02-0.04 Ma respectively. All of them are thought to be essentially related to cosmological cycles, except the megasequence which may be caused by the long-term geothermal cycles on cratons. We deem that the depositional sequences, though often influenced variably by local tectonics and other factors, are primarily global and periodic in nature. We also hold that as one of the planets within the Galaxy, the earth must have been affected in various ways by other asteroids, and that the depositional sequences are merely the responses of the hydrosphere to the cosmological cycles in sedimentation.展开更多
Methods for calculating ancient eustatic change amplitudes according to reef fabric- facies are proposed, with a new method for determining sediment-loading subsidence. Compared with methods based on non-reefal deposi...Methods for calculating ancient eustatic change amplitudes according to reef fabric- facies are proposed, with a new method for determining sediment-loading subsidence. Compared with methods based on non-reefal deposits, these methods are more accurate in restoration of original sediment thickness, determination of sediment-loading subsidence, as well as restoration of ancient water depth. According to the reef in Guangxi, China, the amplitude of sea-level rise during Middle Permian (Neoschwagerina-Yabeina zone) is 249.5 m. According to the coeval reef of the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico and Texas, the coeval sea-level rise is 247 m. With these effective methods available, it is feasible to establish more accurate eustatic curve of Phanerozoic.展开更多
Rising sea-levels in tectonically active epicontinental basins often lead to varied depositional settings and palaeogeography, mostly influenced by the net accommodation resulting from mutual interference of the exten...Rising sea-levels in tectonically active epicontinental basins often lead to varied depositional settings and palaeogeography, mostly influenced by the net accommodation resulting from mutual interference of the extent and nature of landward encroachment by the sea and the net sedimentation. The Cenomanian Nimar Sandstone Formation, Bagh Group, Narmada rift basin, uniquely portrays the effect of sea-level rise within an intra-cratonic setting and attributes to the corresponding palaeogeographic changes in west-central India. An integrated sedimentological–sequence-stratigraphic study of the broadly fining-upward Nimar Sandstone Formation(thickness~ 20–30 m) depicts the actual nature of changeover from a fluvial to a marine-dominated transitional depositional setting. Detailed sedimentological study reveals total seventeen facies, grouped in five facies associations, viz., the channel-fill facies association(FA-1), the overbank facies association(FA-2), the fluvial-dominated fluvio-tidal facies association(FA-3), the tide-dominated fluvio-tidal facies association(FA-4), and the shoreface facies association(FA-5). Overall facies architecture indicates a west-to-eastward marine encroachment, resulting in stacking of three distinct palaeo-depositional conditions:(i) an initial fluvial system with channel and overbank, changing into a tideinfluenced fluvial bay-head delta in the inner estuary, followed by(ii) marine encroachment leading to a tidedominated central estuary with inter-to sub-tidal settings, and finally,(iii) with further intense marine encroachments, a wave-reworked open shore condition in the outer estuary zone. The overall fining-up succession with a systematic change from fluvial to marine-dominated depositional systems points to a landward shift of the shoreline, signifying a major transgressive event correlated to the Cenomanian global sea-level rise. Characteristic stratal stacking patterns point to four coarsening-and fining-up hemicycles, embedded within the major transgressive succession. These high-frequency cycles attest to the varied interplay of sedimentation, tectonics and sea-level changes, and the resultant net accommodations. A palaeogeographic model is proposed based on the high-frequency transgressive–regressive hemicycles, which envisages the evolution of the depositional environments in relation to the Cenomanian eustatic rise in the intra-cratonic riftogenic fluvio-marine transitional basinal setup.展开更多
The end-Paleozoic biotic crisis is characterized by two-phase mass extinctions;the first strike,resulting in a large decline of sessile benthos in shallow marine environments,occurred at the end-Guadalupian time.In or...The end-Paleozoic biotic crisis is characterized by two-phase mass extinctions;the first strike,resulting in a large decline of sessile benthos in shallow marine environments,occurred at the end-Guadalupian time.In order to explore the mechanism of organisms' demise,detailed analyses of depositional facies,fossil record,and carbonate carbon isotopic variations were carried out on a Maokou-Wujiaping boundary succession in northwestern Sichuan,SW China.Our data reveal a negative carbon isotopic excursion across the boundary;the gradual excursion with relatively low amplitude(2.15‰) favors a long-term influx of isotopically light 12 C sourced by the Emeishan basalt trap,rather than by rapid releasing of gas hydrate.The temporal coincidence of the beginning of accelerated negative carbon isotopic excursion with onsets of sea-level fall and massive biotic demise suggests a cause-effect link between them.Intensive volcanic activity of the Emeishan trap and sea-level fall could have resulted in detrimental environmental stresses and habitat loss for organisms,particularly for those benthic dwellers,leading to their subsequent massive extinction.展开更多
文摘Global sea-level has changed in a cyclic manner through geologic history, but the regularities of these changes are yet to be fully understood. Despite certain （and sometimes significant） differences, the available Mesozoic eustatic curves permit the outlining of long-term eustatic cycles, which are provi- sionally defined as cycles recognizable at the stage level and higher. Interpretation of the Triassic eustatic curves indicates two orders of long-term cycles and a lst-order sea-level rise throughout the entire period. The Jurassic eustatic curves imply cyclicity of one or two orders, and a 1st-order eustatic rise during the entire period is also evident. Most challenges are interpretations for the Cretaceous; two to four orders of long-term eustatic cycles can be established for this period. Generally, the hierarchy of the long-term eustatic cycles might have changed through the Mesozoic. If so, and if one considers differences of cycles of the same order between the periods of this era, it is difficult to apply ＂standard＂ hierarchical classifications to the documented cycles. The hypothetical uncertainty of the hierarchy of the Mesozoic long-term eustatic cycles is an imoortant challenge for modern researchers.
基金The study was jointly supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grants 49472086 and 40072041)the Ministry of Science and Technology(the SSER project).
文摘Four hierarchical cyclothems, superbundlesets, bundlesets, bundles and laminae, have been identified from the Devonian Frasnian-Famennian carbonate strata in Guangxi, South China. Their hierarchical structures, ratio relationships and sequence in conodont zones are continuous and stable and can be traced across different facies zones and sedimentary basins. Our data show that hierarchically organized superbundlesets, bundlesets, bundles and laminae correspond to the long eccentricity, eccentricity, obliquity or precession and sub-Milankovitch cycles respectively. Their periods were 400,000, 100,000, 33,333, 16,667 and 8,000–17,000 a, respectively. The ratios of long eccentricity to eccentricity, eccentricity to obliquity, and eccentricity to precession in the Devonian are 1:4, 1:3 and 1:6 respectively. Using these hierarchical Milankovitch cyclothems, chronostratigraphical division and correlation can be realized at a resolution of 100 ka or 10 ka at the Frasnian-Famennian transition. The time intervals of the Upper rhenana Zone, linguiformis Zone, and the Lower, Middle and Upper triangularis Zone are 0.6, 0.8, 0.3, 0.3 and 0.3 Ma, respectively. Sea-level changes of the Frasnian-Famennian transition were not coherent and synchronous at the resolution of 100 ka or 10 ka in the basin-slope carbonate sequences of Guangxi, South China.
基金financially supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China(No.40172007)the key project from the Chinese Academy of Sciences(No.K2951-B1-409)the Key Lab of Resources,CAS.
文摘The amplitude of pre-Quaternary sea level drop, H, can be calculated by usingthe formula H = D + To, where To is the original thickness from the top of the tidal deposits onthe reef core to the bottom of the tidal deposits on the reef front, or to the bottom of the ancientmeteoric vadose zone, or to the edge of the mixed-water dolostone zone. The identity and similaritybetween the sea-level drop amplitudes calculated from different reefs far away from each otherindicates that such sea-level changes are eustatic rather than relative changes. Evidence of anend-Permian sea-level drop has been found on the Changxingian (i.e. the end of the Palaeofusulinazone) reefs at Ziyun in South China, including algal laminated deposits, sabkha-related dolostone,desiccation cracks, dissolution collapse breccia. According to calculation based on the meteoricdissolution zone of the reef-core sequence at Ziyun, Guizhou province, the amplitude of thesea-level drop at the end-Permian is about 89.3 m. Calculation via the dolomitized upper part of theChangxingian reef in Lichuan, Hubei Province, yields an 88.9 m amplitude of the sea-level drop atthe end-Permian. Comparison shows that the sea-level drop recorded in the two distantly locatedreefs may be of eustatic type. So the amplitude of the sea level drop of the Tethys Sea at theend-Permian might be at least 89.3 m.
基金This paper is an outcome of the research programof sequence stratigraphy (SSLC) supported by the Stateac~sinn of ScienCe and
文摘Depositional sequences may be distinguished into six ranks of units as giga-, mega-, meso-, ortho-, sub- and micro-sequence, and are interpreted to be formed during the eustatic cycles with time-intervals of 500-6000 Ma, 60-120 Ma, 30-40 Ma, 2-5 Ma, 0.1-0.4 Ma and 0.02-0.04 Ma respectively. All of them are thought to be essentially related to cosmological cycles, except the megasequence which may be caused by the long-term geothermal cycles on cratons. We deem that the depositional sequences, though often influenced variably by local tectonics and other factors, are primarily global and periodic in nature. We also hold that as one of the planets within the Galaxy, the earth must have been affected in various ways by other asteroids, and that the depositional sequences are merely the responses of the hydrosphere to the cosmological cycles in sedimentation.
基金This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 40172007) the Chinese Academy of Sciences (Grant No. K2951 -B 1 -409).
文摘Methods for calculating ancient eustatic change amplitudes according to reef fabric- facies are proposed, with a new method for determining sediment-loading subsidence. Compared with methods based on non-reefal deposits, these methods are more accurate in restoration of original sediment thickness, determination of sediment-loading subsidence, as well as restoration of ancient water depth. According to the reef in Guangxi, China, the amplitude of sea-level rise during Middle Permian (Neoschwagerina-Yabeina zone) is 249.5 m. According to the coeval reef of the Guadalupe Mountains, New Mexico and Texas, the coeval sea-level rise is 247 m. With these effective methods available, it is feasible to establish more accurate eustatic curve of Phanerozoic.
基金Authors are thankful to the Ministry of Earth Sciences,Government of India,for financial support in the form of Extra-Mural Research Project(Ref.No.Mo ES/P.O.(Geo)/142/2017)。
文摘Rising sea-levels in tectonically active epicontinental basins often lead to varied depositional settings and palaeogeography, mostly influenced by the net accommodation resulting from mutual interference of the extent and nature of landward encroachment by the sea and the net sedimentation. The Cenomanian Nimar Sandstone Formation, Bagh Group, Narmada rift basin, uniquely portrays the effect of sea-level rise within an intra-cratonic setting and attributes to the corresponding palaeogeographic changes in west-central India. An integrated sedimentological–sequence-stratigraphic study of the broadly fining-upward Nimar Sandstone Formation(thickness~ 20–30 m) depicts the actual nature of changeover from a fluvial to a marine-dominated transitional depositional setting. Detailed sedimentological study reveals total seventeen facies, grouped in five facies associations, viz., the channel-fill facies association(FA-1), the overbank facies association(FA-2), the fluvial-dominated fluvio-tidal facies association(FA-3), the tide-dominated fluvio-tidal facies association(FA-4), and the shoreface facies association(FA-5). Overall facies architecture indicates a west-to-eastward marine encroachment, resulting in stacking of three distinct palaeo-depositional conditions:(i) an initial fluvial system with channel and overbank, changing into a tideinfluenced fluvial bay-head delta in the inner estuary, followed by(ii) marine encroachment leading to a tidedominated central estuary with inter-to sub-tidal settings, and finally,(iii) with further intense marine encroachments, a wave-reworked open shore condition in the outer estuary zone. The overall fining-up succession with a systematic change from fluvial to marine-dominated depositional systems points to a landward shift of the shoreline, signifying a major transgressive event correlated to the Cenomanian global sea-level rise. Characteristic stratal stacking patterns point to four coarsening-and fining-up hemicycles, embedded within the major transgressive succession. These high-frequency cycles attest to the varied interplay of sedimentation, tectonics and sea-level changes, and the resultant net accommodations. A palaeogeographic model is proposed based on the high-frequency transgressive–regressive hemicycles, which envisages the evolution of the depositional environments in relation to the Cenomanian eustatic rise in the intra-cratonic riftogenic fluvio-marine transitional basinal setup.
基金supported by National Natural Science Foundation of China(Grant No. 40839907)
文摘The end-Paleozoic biotic crisis is characterized by two-phase mass extinctions;the first strike,resulting in a large decline of sessile benthos in shallow marine environments,occurred at the end-Guadalupian time.In order to explore the mechanism of organisms' demise,detailed analyses of depositional facies,fossil record,and carbonate carbon isotopic variations were carried out on a Maokou-Wujiaping boundary succession in northwestern Sichuan,SW China.Our data reveal a negative carbon isotopic excursion across the boundary;the gradual excursion with relatively low amplitude(2.15‰) favors a long-term influx of isotopically light 12 C sourced by the Emeishan basalt trap,rather than by rapid releasing of gas hydrate.The temporal coincidence of the beginning of accelerated negative carbon isotopic excursion with onsets of sea-level fall and massive biotic demise suggests a cause-effect link between them.Intensive volcanic activity of the Emeishan trap and sea-level fall could have resulted in detrimental environmental stresses and habitat loss for organisms,particularly for those benthic dwellers,leading to their subsequent massive extinction.
